Enjoy the comfort of a piping hot bowl of our Easy Beef Stew! Our easy recipe features classic ingredients like carrots, potatoes and beef, simmered in a thick, beef and red wine gravy. The perfect one-pot meal, full of flavor and takes just minutes to prepare.
Why You’ll Love This Easy Beef Stew Recipe
Our Easy Beef Stew is sure to become a family favorite recipe. Tender pieces of beef simmered with potatoes and carrots in the most scrumptious red wine-beef gravy.
- Comfort Food Recipe: Beef stew is a classic comfort food recipe that we all crave during the colder months. Big pieces of beef combined with carrots and potatoes make it a hearty, cozy meal all in one bowl.
- Make Ahead Meal: This stew recipe gets even better the next day. Prep it ahead of time and warm it up right in the pot you cooked it in.
- Adaptable: Easily adapt this recipe to your liking by adding different vegetables and herbs. You can even add pieces of Italian sausage or browned chicken thighs.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This easy beef stew recipe uses the traditional ingredients for stew, with some that be swapped out or interchanged. If you don’t have fresh herbs you can substitute dry herbs, but fresh are better for flavor.
- Chuck Roast: Beef stew meat is one option, or you can buy a chuck roast and cut it into large cubes as we’ve done here. A good chuck roast that has nice marbling is our preferred cut of beef.
- Flour: Regular, all purpose flour for dredging the beef cubes. The flour will help to thicken the broth and turn it into a flavorful, thick gravy.
- Vegetables: The vegetables that we like for this beef stew are potatoes and carrots, along with onions, garlic.
- Herbs: Fresh thyme and bay leaves are our go to for flavoring beef stew.
- Beef Broth: Find the best beef broth or stock that you can find, as this is the base of the stew gravy.
- Red Wine: A dry red wine is used to deglaze the pot and add flavor to the stew. If you don’t cook with wine you can use use all beef broth.
- Tomato Paste: Instead of diced or crushed tomatoes, we like using tomato paste to thicken the stew and to provide a mild tomato background flavor.
How To Make Beef Stew
For complete recipe instructions, please scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Step 1: Start by seasoning the beef with salt and pepper and then dredging in flour. Shake off the excess flour and then brown the beef in olive oil and butter until browned on all sides. Remove the beef from the pot and keep warm.
- Note: You’ll likely have to do this process in two batches so that you don’t overcrowd the pot while searing the beef. Once the beef is browned, remove to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
- Step 2: Add the onions and garlic along with potatoes and carrots, cooking down until softened. Stir in tomato paste and then pour in red wine to deglaze the bottom of the pot. Once reduced, pour in the beef broth and stir. Add the seared beef with juices from the plate back to the pot and stir to submerge with the red wine and beef broth.
- Step 3: Cover and bring to a simmer. Once the stew is simmering, stir again and transfer to the oven for 1 hour. Remove the pot from the oven, stir again and test the beef and vegetables for tenderness.
- Step 4: Place the pot back into the oven and cook for another 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how tender the beef and vegetables were after the hour of cooking. Remove the stew from the oven and taste for seasonings, add a splash more of beef broth if the stew is too thick. Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems.
What’s The Best Type Of Beef For Making Stew?
Like we talked about above, we prefer a nice, well marbled chuck roast that we cut into cubes. Pre-cut stew meat is another option, but make sure that the stew meat has some fat running through it.
If the beef that you’re buying is very lean, it won’t result in that melt-in-your-mouth tender beef that we’re looking for in a stew recipe.
Sometimes we buy whole beef tenderloins (filet mignon) when they go on sale, trim them ourselves and save the tail and trimmings for making this easy beef stew.
Can I Make This Stew In A Slow Cooker?
Yes you can. You’ll still have to brown the beef and sauté the vegetables for optimal flavor. But at that point you can add everything into a 6-8 quart slow cooker and set on low for 8 hours. We do prefer the low cooking setting for this recipe so the beef gets super tender.
Reduce the wine to 1/4 cup, since it won’t reduce in the slow cooker, or just omit it from the recipe. If you need to thicken the gravy after the stew is done cooking, make a cornstarch slurry with a tablespoon of cornstarch and a tablespoon of water.
Drizzle the slurry into the stew while whisking. Add as much of the slurry as you need to thicken the gravy before serving.
Variations
Add more or different vegetables to this Easy Beef Stew like peas, sweet potatoes, stewed tomatoes, mushrooms or bell peppers. In addition to the chuck roast, you can add pieces of browned Italian sausage, chicken thighs or both.
Any herb you like will work, too. Rosemary is classic in stew recipes, sage and oregano are also delicious.
Looking For More Stew Recipes?
- Marsala Wine Beef Stew
- French Bistro Beef Stew
- Slow Cooker Italian Pork Stew
- Chicken Stew Recipe
- Hearty Turkey Stew
Easy Beef Stew
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 Servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeOur Easy Beef Stew is sure to become a family favorite! Tender pieces of beef and vegetables simmered in a red wine and beef gravy. Hearty and comforting, it’s dinner in one bowl!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chuck roast, cut into large cubes (can also use beef stew meat)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Fresh black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup diced onion
- 2 large carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 pound baby potatoes, halved
- 1–2 tablespoons garlic (we use 2 but add 1 tablespoon if you want a milder garlic flavor)
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 2 1/2 cups beef broth
- 4–5 stems of fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Season the beef with 1 teaspoon of the salt, garlic powder and fresh black pepper. Dredge each piece of meat in the flour, tapping the excess off.
- Add the olive oil to a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add the beef to the pot, leaving room around each piece so that the beef sears properly, you’ll need to do this in two batches. Brown the beef on both sides until a nice crust forms, then remove to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining beef and then add to the plate to keep warm.
- Add the butter to the pot and let melt, then add the onions, carrots and potatoes. Stir to coat in the oil and butter and let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the potatoes don’t stick. Add the tablespoon (or two!) of garlic and stir.
- Pour the red wine in to deglaze the pan, stir and cook down for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste until mixed in with the vegetables, then pour in the beef broth and stir.
- Add the beef back to the pan along with any juices that are on the plate. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt (and more black pepper if desired) to the stew along with the thyme stems and bay leaf. Make sure that the beef and vegetables are tucked into the broth, cover and place into the oven for 1 hour. Stir the stew and check the beef and potatoes to see if they are fork tender. Cook the stew for another 20-30 minutes, depending on how tender the beef and potatoes were at the hour time check.
- Remove the bay leaf and thyme stems. Taste the stew for seasonings and adjust if needed. Serve in large bowls with bread on the side for sopping up the gravy.
Recipe Notes
Store: Store leftover stew in a container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This recipe can also be made in advance, cooled down completely and then stored for reheating.
Reheat: Reheat the stew in the microwave or on the stop top. Add a splash of beef broth to thin out the gravy while reheating.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
