Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

This Slow-Cooker Beef Stew is the perfect healthy comfort food for cold days! It’s hearty, flavorful, packed with veggies, and easy to make right in your crock pot. Make it for a cold winter night, or a festive St. Patrick’s Day meal! Beef stew is a simple recipe that will wow everyone who tries it.

The Slow Cooker is an amazing phenomenon in my opinion. Even those friends of mine who aren’t big cookers use it! Throw all the ingredients in with the right flavor combo and BOOM: the perfect stew. It’s hands off, easy to use, and safe!

What is Irish stew made of?

Filled with beef, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes is the perfect main dish for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The beef is so tender, it just melts in your mouth!

Tips For Slow Cooker Beef Stew

• Brown your meat
• Don’t use too much liquid
• Don’t skimp on the cook time
• Layer your beef and veggies
• Set it and forget it! The beauty of a slow cooker!

This stew is: hearty, flavorful, tender melt-in-your-mouth beef, and packed with veggies! It is also paleo-friendly, dairy-free, whole30 compliant and has no sugar added… does it get any better than that? I love making this soup at the beginning of the week and enjoy it all week long!

What defines a stew?

• In a stew you aren’t looking for the consistency of a soup, so minimizing added liquids is helpful!
• Beef stew doesn’t need to be super, super thick. You’ll most likely be using potatoes, and their starch will naturally thicken your stew! If not, don’t worry, this stew thickens whithout it, too.

What kind of beef is used for stew?

You can buy beef stew meat, which is cut and cubed and is generally chuck or round! Beef round cuts (bottom and eye) are generally leaner than chuck (shoulder, leg and butt) and very well-suited to stew.

I always add beef stew meat to my ButcherBox order in the cold weather months. Each month, ButcherBox  curates a one-of-a-kind selection of the healthiest, tastiest meats, humanely raised and free of antibiotics and hormones. Or you can customize your box and select your favorite cuts and get 20% more meat.The price works out to less than $6.00/meal and shipping is always free. You can also space it out so it’s not every 4 weeks, too! ButcherBox delivers your meat for the month, saves you money, and is the best quality! Order Today and get this amazing deal:

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Can you put raw meat in a slow cooker?

You certainly can, but for this beef stew recipe, we prefer to sear the meat first to bring out the amazing flavor that you’ll get!

Tools used to make this easy slow cooker beef stew recipe:

• Slow Cooker: Inexpensive and works great. I’ve had mine for years!
• Cast Iron Skillet: I like a nice, hot cast iron skillet to sear our stew meat!
• Chef’s Knife: My go-to chef’s knife. Use whatever you have on hand!
• Tongs: To easily flip the meat while searing.
• Cutting Board: A good cutting board, of course! To chop all those veggies!

Want other slow cooker recipes? Try these favorites:

• Slow Cooker French Onion Soup
• Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
• Slow Cooker Mulled Cider
• Slow Cooker Baked Potato Bar

If you like this beef stew recipe, make these other St Patrick’s Day Favorites:

• Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
• How to Brine Corned Beef Yourself!
• Paleo Thin Mints
• Carrot Cake Cookies

3.5 rating

2 reviews

Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

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Yield 6
Prep Time 10 min
Cook Time 8 hr
Total Time 8 hours 10 minutes

Course:

Make Ahead:
Author: Lexi

Scale This Recipe

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Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds boneless grass-fed chuck, cubed
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour or flour of choice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic granules
• 1 teaspon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper, more to taste
• Optional: 3 large yukon gold potatoes, diced

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Sear meat for about 3 minutes on each side, until browned. Set aside.
2. Place meat and vegetables in the crock pot.
3. Add in broth, tomato paste, tapioca, and spices. Mix well to combine.
4. Set on low for 8-10 hours.
5. After 7 hours, taste and adjust spices to your liking (i.e. add additional salt, cayenne, or red pepper flakes).
6. Remove bay leaf and serve hot!

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Nutrition

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