Well, HELLO OCTOBER!! We are so glad you are here. Ready or not, we are kicking off October with a BANG, in the form of this Ultimate Beef Stew recipe. Friends, this is an EPIC recipe, because:
1) This is your one-stop shop for ALL the ways to make beef stew – stovetop, slow cooker, Instant Pot/pressure cooker. You name it, we got it! Â 2) It is a tried and true, a-decade-in-the-making recipe that involves a secret ingredient that will transform this dish.
The Secret to The Ultimate Beef Stew
The secret ingredient is wine. A solid, fairly dry, light to medium-bodied red wine. Just one cup of it will bring your stew a deep, gorgeous flavor hard to achieve any other way, and with wine, you will not need to add beef broth to the dish.
When cooking with wine, the rule is to not use wine that you would not drink. Don’t spend a lot of money on expensive wine, but don’t use super cheap, or even worse, old wine. Unfortunately, the cooking of wine does not take away its badly quality!
Stove Top vs Instant Pot vs Slow Cooker
I first published this recipe a year ago and wrote it only for the stove top version. Since then, I noticed the demand for slow cooker and Instant Pot Beef Stew, and decided to incorporate recipes for those methods as well.
All three methods call for the same ingredients, the only difference is the amount of water needed.
Because evaporation happens more in stove-top cooking, we will need more water for that than the slow cooker or instant pot methods. Otherwise, all methods will have that gorgeous deep flavor and amazing textures that I love about my Ultimate Beef Stew recipe.
My favorite meat to use is beef chuck. You can also find ready-cut “beef stew” meat from the grocery store.
The beauty of stew is that the long cook time or pressured cooking will break down the fiber and make the beef super tender and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. All that without having to pay for an expensive cut of meat.
No matter which cooking method you use, I highly recommend searing the beef first!
It takes a little bit more time, but it gives the stew a much better flavor, and the searing of the meat keeps the juices in when it cooks, preventing it from getting dry.
The cool thing about having different methods is that each method serves different purposes, and different seasons.
If I have all the time and I am not in a rush, the stove-top version is my favorite way to make stew. I especially like to make it in my dutch oven. But who am I kidding? I just love my dutch oven to pieces. I will cooking everything in it if I can.
A dutch oven brings about even-cooking and has the ability to maintain heat so well, the texture of the meat and flavor of the broth is unbelievable. If you do not have a dutch oven, any large pot will make a fantastic beef stew as well.
An Instant Pot or slow cooker makes making Beef Stew look like a walk in the park. If you have a busy schedule and do not have time to stand by a stove or wait for a few hours for the stew to cook, those are your best options.
You will be able to make the beef in a shorter time (Instant Pot), or to make it and leave it unattended while it cooks (slow cooker). They are life-savers!
The good news is they all taste very similar and equally yummy. They have the same deep, gorgeous flavors with all the herbs, spices, vegetables and wine incorporated into the broth. And that beef will fall off with a touch of your fork. Oh, you better believe it!
As the weather gets colder, a warm bowl of Beef Stew is how I eat my way through the Fall and winter. Serve it with warm, fresh, crusty bread, and take this yum thing to the next level.
Friends, kick off your October, Fall, winter, and all that cold weather brings with this Ultimate Beef Stew recipe. A comfort food that will never grow old, and makes the stomach and heart happy!
After all, it is not called the Ultimate Beef Stew for nothing. 😉
Other soup and stew recipes
- Ravioli Tomato Beef Soup
- Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup
- Healthy Turkey Chili
- Simple Tomato Soup
- Best Chicken Stew (by Hip Foodie Mom)
Other Beef Recipes
- Restaurant Style Steak
- Classic Lasagna with Béchamel Sauce
- Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
- Steak Fried Rice
- Marinated Flank Steak with Avocado Corn Topping
Love this recipe? Comment below and give us a 5-star rating! Also, take a picture of your creation and tag me on Instagram, because I WANNA SEE!!
Ultimate Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 lbs beef chuck ~ 1 1/2-inch cubed
- 2 stalks carrots
- 3 medium red/yellow potatoes ~1 1/2-inch cubed
- 1/2 large onion sliced
- 1 large stalk celery sliced
- water
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 1 cup red wine (pinot noir, cabernet, merlot)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- salt
- pepper
- 28 ounce canned whole tomatoes
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
Stove Top Beef Stew
- Prepare/cut beef chuck, carrots, potatoes, onions and celery. Set aside
- Heat dutch oven with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Once oil is heated, bring beef to dutch oven to sear. Turn beef to make sure all sides are seared well. Do this in batches so that beef do not overlap each other when searing
- Bring all seared beef back to the dutch oven. Add 3-4 cups of water, garlic, red wine, bay leaf, thyme, smoked paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and bring to boil
- After coming to a boil, bring dutch oven to medium low heat and simmer for 90 minutes. Check at the 45 minute mark on dryness. If liquid level looks very low, add 1/2 cup of water at a time.
- Add 1 can of whole tomatoes (do not drain) and sugar. Break tomatoes into halves and stir.
- Add potatoes, onions, carrots and celery. Bring dutch oven to boil and then take it to medium low heat and simmer for another 50-60 minutes, or until beef is tender (easily break apart with a fork).
- Optional: Bring 1/2 cup of just the liquid from the stew out and mix it with 2 tsp of cornflour. Stir to dissolve cornflour and then pour it back to the pot. Bring to boil and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve and enjoy!
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
- Prepare/cut beef chuck, carrots, potatoes, onions and celery. Set aside.
- Heat up skillet with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil. Once oil is heated, bring beef to skillet to sear. Turn beef to make sure all sides are seared well. Do this in batches so that beef do not overlap each other when searing.
- Bring beef to crock pot. Also add 2 cups of water, garlic, red wine, bay leaf, thyme, smoked paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, canned whole tomatoes (do not drain), sugar, carrots, potatoes, onions and celery. Break tomatoes and stir to combine.
- Cook on high setting for 4-6 hours or low setting for 9-10 hours, or until beef is tender (easily break apart with a fork).
- Optional: During the last hour, bring 1/2 cup of just the liquid from the stew out and mix it with 2 tsp of cornflour. Stir to dissolve cornflour and then pour it back to the pot.
- Add more salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!
Instant Pot Beef Stew (See Note 1)
- Prepare/cut beef chuck, carrots, potatoes, onions and celery. Set aside.
- Using the “sauté” setting, add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to Instant Pot. Once oil is heated, bring beef to Instant Pot to sear. Turn beef to make sure all sides are seared well. Do this in batches so that beef do not overlap each other when searing.
- Bring all the beef chucks to the Instant Pot. Also add 2 cups of water, garlic, red wine, bay leaf, thyme, smoked paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, canned whole tomatoes (do not drain), sugar, carrots, potatoes, onions and celery. Break tomatoes and stir to combine.
- Close lid and steam valve on Instant Pot. Set manual setting to High Pressure, for 35 minutes (See Note 1). Begin pressure cooking. Release pressure either manually or wait for it to release pressure naturally.
- Optional: Bring 1/2 cup of just the liquid from the stew and mix it with 2 tsp of cornflour. Stir to dissolve cornflour and then pour it back to the pot. Set to “sauté” setting. Once it boils, cook for 2-3 minutes. Switch pot off.
- Add more salt and pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!
It’s been a cool and rainy weekend so I think fall is on it’s way. A big pot of delicious beef stew is one of my favorite things to have in the fall. This recipe is both easy to make and taste wonderful. It has become a go to dish for my husband and me as well as a dish to take to a soup supper. It is very popular every time I take it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!!
I’m so glad you all are enjoying it! Right now is definitely the perfect season for it. Thank you for your feedback!
I found my beef stew recipe! I loved how this turned out. The tomatoes gave it a great flavor, different from beef stew I’ve made in the past. I made it in the dutch oven, and it came together deliciously. I loved the smells coming from my kitchen all afternoon. This will be a new fall favorite in my house. Thanks!
Thank you for the kind feedback! I made this without tomatoes for many years, and it wasn’t until I added the tomatoes (and the wine) that it turned into the PERFECT Beef Stew for me. So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Yummy and straightforward! I had to make dinner for fifteen people, which meant three batches of this (and a fourth, for when I came home and made more for myself). For a crowd that big, this recipe is perfect – chop stuff up, dump them in, then sit back and smell the deliciousness. I enjoyed the batch I made for myself (and the leftovers for days!) and heard great reviews from the fifteen others too! It’s going into my regular meal-making repertoire. Thanks for this!
PS, I didn’t have cornflour so I added chopped up Russet potatoes to thicken the stew instead. Worked great!
Thank you for the kind review! I’m so glad you and your people like the recipe! 🙂
Love your post! Do you ever start w/ frozen g. beef? If so, how much time do you add to the cooking? I have a whole freezer full of g. beef.
Thank you! I would not recommend starting with frozen beef because frozen beef will not sear well. I would recommend defrosting the beef in the microwave to thaw it out quickly.
I made this the other day and it was wonderful! My family loved it! Since then, my husband has learned he is allergic to tomatoes. I wondered if you might have any suggestions for a good substitute? I’m thinking of maybe adding some beef or veggie broth for the liquid, and maybe some black beans for substance? Just wondering if I should add some extra seasonings too, and/or if there are some other things you might recommend. Thank you!?
Harold Burton
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I would just omit the tomatoes and add a bit more beef broth to make up for the liquid. If you want, add more herbs or another herb like rosemary. Another option to make the broth more flavorful is to add a little bit of beef bouillon to it to make up for the flavors from the tomatoes. Let me know how it goes!
The beef stew is so warming, tasty and filling. I cooked it in my slow cooker on high for 5 hours and it was perfect. So full of flavour and the perfect dinner on a cold Sunday evening.
That’s wonderful, Sophie! I so appreciate your thoughtful feedback!