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This easy Beef Stew recipe starts off on the stove but finishes up in the oven; that frees you up to tackle a project or two before dinner. When it’s time to eat, every bowl is hearty, delicious, and perfect for chilly nights.
Recipe ingredients:
Ingredient notes:
- Beef roast: Preferably chuck-eye roast (also called boneless chuck roll or boneless chuck fillet). Look for beef that is well-marbled with white veins of fat.
- Red wine: I love a Côtes du Rhône or Pinot Noir here. If you are avoiding wine, just use more broth.
- Chicken broth: There’s usually a block of frozen homemade chicken broth in my freezer, but you can use store-bought broth, too.
- Thyme and bay leaves: In my opinion, a bay leaf is essential, but you can switch up other green herbs if you don’t have thyme: rosemary, parsley, etc.
Step-by-step instructions:
Adding the ingredients in steps keeps the meat tender and the vegetables perfectly cooked.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Pat the beef dry with a paper towel. Season each piece with salt and pepper. Heat some olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add the meat in a single layer, being careful not to overcrowd, and cook until browned on one side. Flip each piece of beef and continue to brown the other side. Transfer the browned meat to a bowl, and brown the rest of the beef in batches, using more oil with each batch.
- Once you’re finished with the meat, heat some more olive oil in the pot and sauté the onions and celery until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Next, stir in the flour and cook until lightly browned—about two minutes. Add the tomato paste, wine, broth, bay leaves, thyme, and browned beef with any accumulated juices. Scrape up any of the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Bring to a simmer, cover, and transfer the pot to the oven. Cook for 1 hour.
- After that, stir in the potatoes and carrots. Cover again and continue to cook until the beef is tender and falling apart, 1 hour longer. Remove the pot from the oven. Discard the bay leaves and any thyme stems. Stir in the peas and let stand off heat about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Recipe tips and variations:
- Make ahead: Make several days ahead, without a problem. To keep the peas bright, add them when you reheat the stew before serving.
- Freezing: Beef stew was absolutely made for freezing to have on hand for last-minute meals. Let cool, then portion, date and label, and freeze for up to 4 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before gently reheating.
More cold weather favorites:
Beef Stew
This cozy Beef Stew recipe starts off on the stove but finishes up in the oven; it's filled with tender chunks of beef, root vegetables, red wine, and fresh herbs. Every bowl is hearty, delicious, and perfect for chilly nights.
Ingredients
- 1 (3 pound) beef roast cut into 1½ -inch cubes (see note 1)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 2 onions diced
- 2 celery ribs finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cup red wine (see note 2)
- 2 cups chicken broth (see note 3)
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried (see note 4)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 1/2 pounds new potatoes scrubbed and quartered
- 4 carrots peeled and sliced
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pat beef pieces dry with paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half the meat in a single layer and cook, without moving, until browned on one side, about 5 minutes.
- Flip each piece of beef and continue cooking until browned on the other side. Transfer to a bowl. Heat another tablespoon of oil and repeat with remaining beef until browned. Transfer to bowl.
- Heat last tablespoon of oil until shimmering. Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in flour and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add tomato paste, wine, and chicken broth, thyme, bay leaves, and browned beef, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer. Cover, transfer to the oven, and cook for 1 hour.
- Remove pot from oven. Stir in potatoes and carrots. Return to a simmer, cover, and return to the oven for 1 hour longer, until beef is tender.
- Remove pot from oven. Remove bay leaves and any thyme stems. Stir in peas and cover for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Notes
- Beef roast: Preferably chuck-eye roast (also called boneless chuck roll or boneless chuck fillet). Look for beef that is well-marbled with white veins of fat.
- Red wine: My favorite wines for stews, Pot Roast, and Beef Bourguignon are Côtes du Rhône or Pinot Noir. Or, you can substitute more chicken broth.
- Thyme: Fresh rosemary (instead of or in addition to) would be great in this stew, too. The bay leaf is essential.
- Yield: This Beef Stew recipe makes about 12 cups of stew, enough for 8 hearty servings, 1 ½ cups each.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: Beef stew tastes even better after it sits overnight, so consider making it a day or 2 in advance.
- Freezer: Freezing potatoes makes them soft and grainy, so if you want to freeze the stew, consider omitting the potatoes. Add them when reheating the stew, or consider serving the stew over mashed potatoes instead. To freeze the stew, cool it completely, then pack in freezer-safe containers. Label, date, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Serving: 1.5cupsCalories: 193kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 4gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 267mgPotassium: 633mgFiber: 5gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 5339IUVitamin C: 34mgCalcium: 43mgIron: 2mg
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Meggan Hill is the Executive Chef and CEO of Culinary Hill, a popular digital publication in the food space. She loves to combine her Midwestern food memories with her culinary school education to create her own delicious take on modern family fare. Millions of readers visit Culinary Hill each month for meticulously-tested recipes as well as skills and tricks for ingredient prep, cooking ahead, menu planning, and entertaining. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the iCUE Culinary Arts program at College of the Canyons.
I have found more delicious recipes on your site than any other. My son and I aren’t really roast beef, potatoes and carrots kind of people. We don’t care for soups that much either. We both LOVED this recipe. Can’t wait to try more. Thank You for sharing such good recipes.
I’m getting ready to fix this beef stew. I’m just curious..when I’ve cooked a whole roast I was taught to cover in flour and then sear it. I’m compelled to put the chunks of roast in flour before searing. Is there a reason you don’t coat in flour?
This is delicious. Thank you for the recipe.