I can’t believe we have seen approximately six months of Crock Pot Thursdays, and we had never done beef stew. This oversight was corrected this week, with a recipe from allrecipes.com. There are many ways to modify this basic recipe, so feel free to adjust it to suit your family’s tastes.
This particular beef stew recipe is great because you don’t have to brown the meat first. It seriously annoys me when I have to cook something before putting it in the crock pot. I like my slow cooker recipes to leave me with very few dishes to wash, and if I have to brown meat, I have to scrub a pan. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Having said that, I didn’t read the directions carefully, and I actually browned my stew meat. I blame my sister-in-law Sarah. We were FaceTiming, and while I love chatting while taking care of domestic responsibilities, I am terrible at reading and talking. If you are ever talking on the phone with me, and I have long pauses or say “Uh huh,” or “Oh, yeah?” too many times, just know that I’m reading something while we talk. Sarah knows this, so she really should have been double checking my work, or at least letting me focus. She also made me forget the potatoes until two hours before it was done, so my potatoes were chopped really small so they would cook quickly. I need an intervention, you guys. No more cooking and chatting for me!
Lucky for my family, stew is very forgiving, so mine still tasted good despite my lackluster effort. We enjoyed ours with biscuits that turned out well because I made them when I was not on the phone.
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Ingredients
Directions
- Place meat in slow cooker.
- In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture.
- Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.
- Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.
Feedback
Sarah
This was yummers. I added about 10 stalks of celery and a whole bag of baby carrots, Three cups beef broth, 3 pounds roast cut, 5 potatoes and like 1.5 everything else. It was great. I did have to add more salt and pepper.
Linda
This was a very good recipe. I added bay leaves, and some extra salt and pepper, but otherwise just followed the recipe. I did not brown the stew meat, and I thought it was great.
Kim
This was a super easy, hearty stew perfect for cool days. I stayed true to the recipe, though I goofed a bit because I ended up using about 2.5 lbs of beef (just tossed in the full package) and failed to adjust the rest of the ingredients, so it was a little on the bland side. Next time, I’ll amp up the salt and other spices, and be more generous with the vegetables like Sarah. No need to brown the beef. This recipe gets a big thumbs up from the hubby, a ‘meh’ from the 2yo, and is going in my ‘make again’ file.
Me
I used 3 cups of broth, about 4 cups baby carrots, and at least 6 celery stalks. The recipe calls for one stalk of celery, which I think is completely ridiculous. I browned my meat, but I already told you that’s Sarah’s fault. I added more spices, too.
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