BEST Beef Stew Recipe (3 Ways!) - A Spicy Perspective (2024)

The Best Beef Stew Recipe: Hearty delicious stew to enjoy during the colder months. Make in the crockpot, instant pot, or on the stovetop!

Why We Love Beef Stew

On a cool crisp evening, nothing beats a hearty bowl of beef stew. It has the ability to satiate our bodies and comfort our minds.

Most people would say they’ve had a really good beef stew with mushrooms and wine, at some point in their lives.

Yet have you tried The Best Beef Stew Recipe?

Growing up, beef stew was a weekly staple in our family. My mom made it hundreds of times throughout my childhood.

You can’t make something so often without perfecting it. You just can’t.

Over the years, I’ve tasted many beef stew recipes outside of my home, but nobody’s stew comes close to my mom’s. She is a beef stew expert.

Am I partial? Probably.

Yet mom’s Easy Beef Stew Recipe is something to experience. It’s perfectly chunky, yet with tender pieces of beef and a silky base. It offers bold beefy flavor, yet with tons of herby essence, and a touch of sweetness from the carrots.

Mom’s Beef Mushroom Stew is everything a great stew should be. You should try it!

Ingredients For The Best Beef Stew Recipe

In a beef stew this delicious, using high-quality ingredients is important. But you can go for a cheaper cut of beef since it will be cooked low and slow until tender perfection!

• Thick-Cut Bacon – Instead of oil or butter to sauté the veggies, add fat with luxurious porky essence!
• Beef Chuck Roast – Chuck roast offers just the right amount of fat marbling, so the beef cooks down slowly into tender morsels.
• Onion – The background of all great dishes!
• Celery – Another essential for slow-cooked perfection.
• Garlic – A must.
• Carrots – Provides sweetness and balance.
• Mushrooms – Paired with beef, mushrooms create a rich earthy flavor.
• Stewed Tomatoes – For balance and color. Make sure to break the tomatoes up with a wooden spoon, or crush them in your hands before adding them to the pot.
• Italian Seasoning – Dried herbs are perfect for slow cooker beef stew and soups. The long simmer time brings out their flavors.
• Beef Broth – You can also use beef bouillon or mushroom broth.
• Red Wine – Adding a splash of red wine gives the stew that little extra something. It’s not necessary, but does make a difference in overall flavor. Use either cooking wine or regular wine.
• Russet Potatoes – For chunky goodness and thickening. You can also use yukon gold potatoes if you have those on hand.
• Parsley – Add a sprinkling of fresh parsley at the end to brighten up the deep flavor.

How To Make Beef Stew On The Stove

You can make our Best Beef Stew Recipe on the stovetop, in the crock pot, or in the instant pot. I’ll show you how below.

1. Chop all ingredients.Except for the potatoes… Save those for later.
2. Brown the bacon.Bacon makes everything better, right? It even adds an extra layer of flavor to stew. Let it brown before adding the vegetables.
3. Sauté the vegetables. Add the onions, celery, and garlic to the stock pot or dutch oven. This softens the vegetables and allows them to release their flavor into the stew.
4. Brown the beef. Push the vegetables to the side and add the raw beef. Cooking the beef a little upfront, locks in the juices so the beef retains its essence while simmering. Make sure each piece of beef has a nice sear!
5. Add more veggies, herbs, and broth. Add the carrots, mushrooms, canned tomatoes with juices, Italian seasoning, beef broth, red wine, salt and pepper. Now it’s time to simmer the soup. Keep the pot covered, so the beef can tenderize.
6. Now the potatoes. If you add the potatoes to the stew right away, they tend to cook down to mush by the time the beef is soft and tender. I like to give the beef a head-start and add the potatoes about 30 minutes into the cooking time That way, they are soft and still thicken the stew base, without fully disappearing.
7. Cover and simmer. Simmer another hour or so, until the beef chunks are ultra tender. There’s nothing worse than tough beef in a stew.

Crock Pot Beef Stew

Make set-and-forget Slow Cooker Beef Stew in the morning. Then come home to a perfect dinner later in the day!

1. Use a multi-cooker to sauté the vegetables and brown the meat right in the crock. Then add the remaining ingredients and set to slow cook.
2. If you don’t have a multi-cooker, start the recipe in a large skillet on the stovetop, then transfer the meat and veggies to a slow cooker and add the remaining ingredients.
3. Yes, it’s important to soften the vegetables and brown the meat before you slow cook. The beef stew won’t taste quite the same if you skip this step!
4. Slow cook on low for at least 8 hours, or on high for at least 4 hours.

See Also

Spicy Beef Stew - Pinch Of NomSpicy Beef Stew Recipe Without Wine (Instant Pot)spicy slow cooked beef stewSpicy beef stew with liquorice

Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe

Absolutely, you can make this recipe in an instant pot! However, you cannot make this easy beef stew recipe exactly as-is, because the recipe is too large.

1. To make the Best Beef Stew Recipe in a pressure cooker, reduce the entire recipe by half. (Use our Servings Slider in the recipe below to adjust the ingredient measurements.)
2. Sauté the bacon, onions, celery, and garlic in the Instant Pot for 5 minutes.
3. Then add all ingredients and set on Pressure Cook High for 20 minutes.
4. Perform a Quick Release. Then once the button drops, it’s safe to open the lid.

See The Recipe Card Below For How To Make The Best Beef Stew Recipe. Enjoy!

Tips and Tricks

• Bacon lovers, you can add in a few more strips if you like. Just don’t over do it, or the stew base will be greasy.
• Yes, you can omit any vegetable. Just remember, they are all included for a reason, so swapping out veggies will alter the overall flavor a bit. Or add more, like maybe some frozen peas or chopped kale!
• Whining over the wine? Non-drinkers, you can omit the wine if you don’t want extra wine going to waste. (You can also buy mini bottles.)
• When in a hurry, buy pre-cut stew meat (which is usually chuck roast), pre-cut vegetables from the produce department, and jarred minced garlic.
• Not a beef eater? Use this as a base recipe to create pork stew, lamb stew, or chicken stew using chicken broth.

Frequently Asked Questions

See Also

Yukgaejang Korean Spicy Beef Stew - Seonkyoung Longest

Looking for More Amazing Soups and Stews? Be Sure to Try:

• Perfect Beef Barley Soup
• Tuscan-Style Beef Cassoulet
• Seafood Cioppino Recipe
• Philly Cheese Steak Soup
• Mesir Wat Lentil Stew with Ayib