Slow Cooker Beef Stew

This hearty and comforting slow cooker beef stew is perfect for cold fall or winter dinners. With tender meat, vegetables and a flavorful broth, it's a delicious meal you'll want to make again and again.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Top tips
• Serving suggestions
• Variations
• How to thicken stew
• Leftovers
• Frequently asked questions
• Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. Read more about it in the privacy policy.

If you love warming stews, you might want to check out our collection of healthy stew recipes, or try the popular Spanish chicken stew, beef and ale stew, butter bean and chorizo stew or slow cooker meatball stew.

Ingredients

For this recipe, you will need carrots, potatoes, onion, celery, and diced beef. I like to use chuck roast, but any lean diced beef will work.

Additionally, you will need beef broth (or water + beef stock cubes), bay leaf, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. You will also need cornstarch (UK: cornflour), or any other thickening agent to make a thick and hearty stew.

The vegetables can be substituted and replaced with other veggies that you like, or you can add extra veg if you prefer. Peas and sliced mushrooms are commonly used in traditional beef stews.

Instructions

Start by preparing your produce. Dice beef, carrots and potatoes into large chunks. Make sure that the vegetables are bigger than you normally would chop them, or they will cook too fast and go mushy.

Dice the onion and celery.

Heat up a little oil in a skillet or frying pan on medium heat, and add diced beef. Cook until the surface of the beef chunks has browned on all sides, then transfer the beef to your slow cooker, including any liquid left in the pan.

Heat up another spoon of oil in the same skillet, and add your onion. Sauté for a few minuted until the onion is soft and translucent, then add the garlic. Sauté for another minute, then add the onion to the slow cooker.

Add the carrots, potatoes, dried parsley, dried thyme, beef stock, bay leaf and celery to the slow cooker. Stir to combine the ingredients. Cover with a lid, and slow cook for 4-6 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low.

About 30-40 minutes before you want to serve the stew, it's time to thicken up the broth. In a small jar, combine the cornstarch with the water. Stir until the mixture is completely smooth, then pour into the stew and stir. Cover with a lid, and leave the slow cooker on for another 30 minutes.

The broth should now have thickened up nicely. If you prefer a really thick stew, you can use an extra tablespoon of cornstarch.

Top tips

Here are my best tips to succeed with this recipe:

• I highly recommend that you brown the beef chunks before adding them to your slow cooker, as this will improve the flavor of the stew. However, if you want to save some time, you can skip this step.
• After browning the beef, make sure to pour the liquid from the skillet into the slow cooker. You don't want to miss out on that flavor!
• Dice the potatoes and carrots into thick, big chunks, or they will be soft and mushy before the stew has cooked through.
• Avoid removing the lid from the slow cooker as the stew cooks, or you will increase the cooking time significantly. There is no reason to stir the stew - it will be fine.

Serving suggestions

Slow cooker beef stew is a filling dish, and does not strictly require a side dish. You can serve it as it is, steaming hot in a big bowl. However, if you prefer to pair it with a side, here are some excellent options to choose from:

Bread: Serve it with toasted bread, or some garlic bread if you prefer.

Rice: Beef stew can be served over rice. This is a great way to bulk out the stew, and make it last for more servings. Serve it over plain white rice, or alternatively you can pair it with dill rice.

Mashed potatoes: As with rice, you can serve the stew over mashed potatoes. If you have a second slow cooker, you can even make slow cooker mashed potatoes.

Variations

Looking to change it up? Here are some excellent variations to try:

• Replace the vegetables with peppers, corn, black beans, chili and cilantro for a Mexican version.
• Add some red pepper flakes for a spicy beef stew.
• Replace the beef broth with tomato sauce (UK: tomato passata) if you prefer a tomato based stew.
• Add extra vegetables like peas, asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms or kale.
• Replace the beef with chicken to make a delicious chicken stew.
• To make a keto beef stew, you can substitute the vegetables for keto friendly ones, such as broccoli, green beans, brussels sprouts and cabbage.

How to thicken stew

This stew usually tastes much better when it is slightly thickened. There are many ways to thicken a stew, and although the recipe suggests using the cornstarch method, you can choose the version you prefer.

Allow the stew to finish cooking first, then thicken in shortly before serving. You can make a stew as thick or as thin as you like.

Cornstarch (UK: cornflour): In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with a few tablespoons of water. Stir to make a thin paste, called a cornstarch slurry, and add this back to the stew. Leave the slow cooker on for another 30-50 minutes, and you will find that the broth has a lovely, thick consistency.

Gravy granulates, or powdered sauces: Add a few spoonfuls of gravy granulates, or powdered sauce from a packet to the stew. These usually have a built-in thickening agent, and will also give some extra flavor to the stew.

Mash some potatoes: You can thicken this stew with no extra ingredients needed! You can simply mash up a few of the potatoes, and stir them into the stew. The liquid will seem a lot thicker. If you want to try this method, I suggest dicing about ¼ of the potatoes into small pieces before you add them to the slow cooker. This will make them dissolve naturally while the stew cooks.

Instant potato flakes: You can find these in most supermarkets as "instant mashed potatoes". They are flakes of dried potatoes that you simply combine with hot water to make instant mashed potatoes. Drizzle a few spoons of the flakes into the stew, and stir to combine evenly. Thick stew in no time!

Make a roux: A roux is a traditional way to make many sauces, and can also be used to thicken stew. Combine equal amount of melted butter and flour in a small sauce pan, and gradually add liquid from the stew, or more beef broth. A thick sauce will form, which you can then add to the stew.

Leftovers

Few things are better than leftover stew. It seems that the longer you leave it, the more flavor it will develop, and the leftovers are usually better than the freshly cooked beef stew.

Storing: Store your leftover slow cooker beef stew in airtight containers in your refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you have a lot of leftovers, you can store it in portion sized containers for quick and easy meals in the days to come.

Freezing: If you want to store the dish for more than a few days, I recommend freezing it. Allow it to cool down completely first, then transfer it to freezer safe containers, and freeze for up to 1 year. Frozen stew should be thawed in a refrigerator overnight before you want to use it.

Reheating: Beef stew is definitely best served hot, and I recommend reheating it. If you want to reheat a small amount, you can simply microwave it for 1-3 minutes, or until it's hot throughout. For larger amounts of stew, you can reheat it in a pot on the stove top.

Meal prep / freezer meals: Because slow cooker beef stew stores incredibly well, it's an excellent choice if you want to prepare meals for later. I always make a big batch and freeze half of it. That way, I have homemade beef stew available in my freezer for busy days when I don't have time to cook.

Frequently asked questions

Recipe