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
- 2 tablespoons water
- 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).
- 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
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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My husband and I LOVED this! It’s the only stew I will make now!
Best Beef Stew I’ve ever eaten. Thanks for the recipe. I’ve made this several times and my family can’t get enough.
I’ve made this 2x in the past month. The 1st time I made it exact minus the rosemary (personal preference) and did not use wine (I prefer to drink it ). It was a little thinner than I normally like (once again, just a personal preference), but otherwise loved the flavor! The 2nd time I had a larger crowd so I doubled all (almost tripled the meat and veggies), I didn’t have any tomato paste so I used 1 1/2 cups of v8 juice and also used the v8 instead of water or broth for the cornstarch mix (I used 1/2 cup of each), which worked out really well. I did end up adding more garlic, salt and pepper than the recipe calls for but that’s just a me thing. This is a great recipe that you can tailor to your own preferences and is also great as is. Thanks so much for sharing!
I love this recipe. I added thyme, rosemary and Bay leaf. I don’t drink wine, so I used cranberry juice instead.
An hour and a half cooking produces very over-cooked potatoes and carrots. The stew itself is delicious, but I added the chopped vegetables about a half hour before the meat was done.
I made this with boneless short ribs and it was phenomenal. I did add a generous amount of salt though :)
Thanks for sharing!
loved it. I added bayleaf and used chopped fresh garlic. I also put in oven on low temp and simmered it instead of top of stove. It was delicious. Served with fresh salad and heated French bread
Could you please share what temperature you set the oven to? And approximately how long you left it in? Thank you!
Easy to make and very delicious
Amazing! Tried this for the first time and we loved it. I didn’t use red wine or garlic powder. I changed cornstarch for plain flour and I added a cup of boiled water to the pot. It turned out delicious. Will definitely make this again. Thank you for the recipe.
Excellent- I doubled most of the recipe. However- I used only 8 cps of beef stock it came out wonderful- Don’t be tempted to double the fresh Rosemary- it was strong. Also – deglazing the Dutch Oven was a challenge- I suggest definitely using the wine- I used Josh Merlot- it was great- ( don’t hesitate to drink the remainder of the bottle). I also added a small bag of pearl onions. This was very very good.
Thank you for sharing what wine you used, I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe Judie!
made this and thought a stew in an hour and a half was too good to be true! sadly I was right. the beef was chewy, the potatoes weren’t cooked through and the cornstarch didn’t work as instructed.
I’d recommend leaving this in a slow cooker for at least 3 hours maybe longer and mix up a gravy prior rather than relying on cornstarch after. really disappointed as it smelt amazing and I spent quite. ABIT of money on all the ingredients.
Was excellent and easy to put together. I browned the meat in small batches in the pot to really sear the meat and not steam it. I added onion and 4 cloves minced garlic to the last batch. Did 6 cups beef broth (used 3lbs beef). Added dried thyme, 2 bay leaves and rosemary sprig.
Was a great dish to kick off fall in New England!
Great!!!
Delicious! Made this for the first time tonight and it was so good! Family loved it.
This was amazing. I didn’t have any wine but it still came out delicious.
Tried this beef stew recipe and it was delicious!
I tried it for the first time and it came out excellent, very good ratio of meat to vegetables
used this recipe today and it flat out exceeded my expectations. My mom would have loved it!
It took me back to my younger days and simpler times. En riktig tröstmat!
The best kinds of memories, so glad you loved it.
I normally don’t write random reviews but this stew was so good that I had to jump on.
Modifications:
– I was able to successfully halve the recipe as I only had one pound of beef (I used shoulder chuck and it was marbled, worked well)
– I didn’t add the onion until after my beef was well browned (didn’t want the added liquid from the onion to interfere with the browning process)
– I didn’t add peas, didn’t miss them
– I added 1 bay leaf
– I substituted 1/2 tsp of dry thyme as I didn’t have rosemary
– I used about 3/4 cup of leftover crushed tomato as I didn’t have tomato paste
– I used all the cornstarch (it needed it imo)
This is now my go-to recipe for beef stew. I’ve struggled with this recipe for some time and this one is a winner.
Loved your review! Expecially the “I didn’t add peas, didn’t miss them.”
Love these recipes
Im in the strict shanghai lockdown with issues getting the groceries I want, so used this recipe as base and improvised a lot with the ingredients I had at home. It still became amazing and despite not being a huge fan of stews previously I really loved this one, will absolutely make again. Swapped wine for red wine vinegar, carrots for Asian radish/daikon, potatoes for sweet potatoes, onion for few cloves of garlic, beef broth for 1 chicken stock cube and 1 veggie stock cube. Added some Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, fennel seeds and star anise. Had to skip the peas and tomato paste unfortunately as none at home.