This Beef Stew Recipe is perfect for the colder weather! Tender beef is simmered in beef broth with potatoes, onions, celery, peas, and carrots until melt in your mouth tender. It’s comfort food heaven!
I serve beef stew with 30 minute dinner rolls or Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits to sop up any gravy in the bottom of the bowl!
Beef stew is a classic dinner staple in so many households around the world. There are soup and stew adaptations of beef stew like my favorite Easy Hamburger Soup and cultural variations like Hungarian Goulash, but this classic beef stew recipe is a favorite for me!
How To Make Beef Stew
Searing the beef pieces before you add the stock makes such a difference in the flavor you get from the soup. It’s really the only chance you have to get that delicious caramelization on the meat!
As the veggies and broth simmer, you will really start to notice the flavors in the stew intensify. Peas cook quickly so I add them in the last few minutes!
This stew recipe is also the perfect way to use up any vegetables you might need to use up. If you’ve got leftover roasted potatoes, glazed carrots or fried mushrooms, just chop ‘em up up and throw them in!
How To Thicken Beef Stew
Beef stew will thicken a bit naturally thanks to the starches in the potatoes and the dredging of the beef, but I always like to thicken it a little bit more.
Stew can be thickened by giving the vegetables a quick mash or you can use either flour or cornstarch. My preferred method for thickening beef stew (and the method used in this beef stew recipe) is to use a cornstarch slurry.
How to Make a Slurry
A slurry is super easy to make! Combine equal parts cornstarch and water and stir. I told you it was easy!!
Pour this mixture a little bit at a time into bubbling soup or stew to thicken until you reach desired consistency. Once your stew is thickened, allow it to boil at least 1-2 minutes to ensure you cook out any starchy flavor.
If left to sit before adding to the soup or stew, a slurry will settle within a couple of minutes so be sure to give it a stir before adding it. I sometimes mix the cornstarch with low sodium (or no sodium) broth instead of water.
Can You Freeze Beef Stew?
Yes, you can absolutely freeze beef stew! I like to freeze it in freezer bags in single servings portions so I can take one portion out for lunches (or four out for dinner)! Defrost overnight in the refrigerator or you can defrost in the microwave (time will vary based on portion size) stirring occasionally.
What To Serve With Beef Stew
Beef stew is super perfect on it’s own; it is a complete meal!
We usually serve it with a bread, biscuit or even Garlic Crescent Rolls to sop up any broth! I also love serving it with mashed potatoes in the bottom of the bowl! Even just some crushed crackers or saltines are all you really need.
More Belly Warming Soups You’ll Love
- Easy Hamburger Soup– Reader favorite!
- Beef Barley Soup
- Hungarian Goulash
- Minestrone Soup – Classic Italian!
- Pasta Fagioli Soup Recipe
- Stuffed Pepper Soup – Easy and delicious!
- Beef Bourguignon Recipe
Beef Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds stewing beef trimmed and cubed
- 3 tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 6 cups beef broth
- ½ cup red wine optional
- 1 pound potatoes peeled and cubed
- 4 carrots cut into 1 inch pieces
- 4 stalks celery cut into 1 inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 sprig fresh
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch or as needed
- 2 tablespoons water or as needed
- ¾ cup peas
Instructions
- Combine flour, garlic powder and salt & pepper. Toss beef in flour mixture.
- Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or pot. Cook the beef and onions until browned.
- Add beef broth and red wine while scraping up any brown bits in the pan.
- Stir in all remaining ingredients except for peas, cornstarch and water. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer 1 hour or until beef is tender (up to 90 minutes).
- Mix equal parts cornstarch and water to create a slurry. Slowly add the slurry to the boiling stew to reach desired consistency (you may not need all of the slurry, if you'd like a thicker stew, you can add extra).
- Stir in peas and simmer 5-10 minutes before serving . Season with salt & pepper to taste.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Dinner, Entree, Main Course, Soup
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This was a big hit. I didn’t add tomato paste, but added some V8. The potatoes Russett) disapered. Next time I’ll throw them in halve way with the carrots. Didn’ have red wine, but I bought some of the next attempt. My guy LOVED it. We ate it with crusty bread. There was more gravy than meat, carrots or potatoes, but it was good. I did add some kitchen bouquet to brown it up a big. I loved the idea of this recipe w/ a few teaks. I grabbed some of the hot broth out of the pot and made. flour slurry. It was very good. So weird thing here….my mother ate her stew with ketchup. It’s actually quite good that way. Thanks for the recipe
Absolutely fantastic!!
Did a few things different, but kept mostly the same. Instead of olive oil, I used bacon fat. Didn’t bother with the cornstarch, and added green beans. Used this to make beef pot pies!
Thanks for posting this recipe!
Absolutely delicious! Here are the few changes I made:
Flour slurry instead of cornstarch, and did 3 tbsp instead of 2
Omitted the celery
Added mushrooms
I also didn’t use red wine, and I didn’t add any extra beef broth to make up the difference. Still had plenty of liquid. I will be making this again!
WOW! THIS RECIPE IS AMAZING.
I made a couple of tweaks, after browning the meat and onions in my Ninja foodie XL, I removed the meat and onions, added wine to deglaze the pot, then pressure cooked the meat mix on high for 10 minutes… quick release and then added the rest of the ingredients it called for, (except. the tomato paste, i omitted that)
I did add a tsp of oregano and a couple of bay leaves.
I like my stew thicker so I did use the cornstarch/water at the end with the peas. 3rd time making it tonight, a family hit!
Fast, easy and delicious! I will definitely make this again!
can u add a brown gravy mix. I only had 1 broth added some water
I haven’t tried this with brown gravy so I can’t say for sure.
I made it and OMGOSH!! Amazing!
I left out onions and red wine!
Also marinated the meat for 16 hours in fresh grated garlic (6 cloves) and pink salt and pepper!! So so good
Good
This was good, the flavor was great and the meat was tender. I gave 4 stars because even though I added quite a bit of slurry I thought it was more like soup than stew. I’m going to make this again someday and maybe only add 4-5 cups of broth. Thank you for the recipe.
My family loved loved loved this recipe!!! The only thing I changed, I added Worcestershire sauce because I didn’t have as much beef broth and had to improvise..
Loved this recipe! Thank you!
Delicious!!!!!!
super delicious! by far the best stew recipe I’ve ever tried. just a note that it took 45 minutes to prep, not 20.