Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Slow Cooker Beef Stew is a hearty and flavorful dish perfect for a cold winter day. The beef is slow-cooked in a savory broth with vegetables until fall-off-the-bone tender. This stew is easy to make and can be customized to your liking.
Slow Cooker Beef Stew is a hearty and flavorful dish perfect for a cold winter day. The beef is slow-cooked in a savory broth with vegetables until fall-off-the-bone tender. This stew is easy to make and can be customized to your liking.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 pounds beef stew meat cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 potatoes, diced
- 4 carrots, sliced
- Carbohydrate 58.2427775160341 g
- Cholesterol 598.7419284 mg
- Fat 156.684500577388 g
- Fiber 2.67043838585439 g
- Protein 175.629982937673 g
- Saturated Fat 63.0093552008954 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (1201g)
- Sodium 1599.42420020175 mg
- Sugar 55.5723391301797 g
- Trans Fat 20.0292649728094 g
- Calories 2386 calories
Step-by-step
- 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.
Raw cubes of chuck or round do not immediately signal how much liquid they release during a twelve-hour simmer, meaning standard broth additions often yield excess water rather than a rich sauce. Flour tossed directly onto the raw meat absorbs this rendering fat before heat sets the starches, acting as a natural thickening agent without requiring a separate roux step.
Transforming Day-Two Portions
Leftover portions kept in airtight containers below 40 degrees Fahrenheit maintain peak texture for up to four days. Reheating dense root vegetables and tenderized muscle fibers requires gentle stove heat rather than aggressive boiling to prevent the potatoes from disintegrating completely into starch mush. Adding a splash of fresh beef broth during reheating restores viscosity lost to overnight refrigeration.
- Standard slow cookers require undisturbed lids; removing the glass top during the first four hours drops internal temperatures by up to fifteen degrees.
- Standard ceramic inserts retain residual heat efficiently, allowing food to continue softening for twenty minutes after the heating element turns off.
- Starchy potato varieties like Russets dissolve faster than waxy Yukon Golds during extended ten-hour holding cycles.
