Best Beef Stew Recipes

A traditional supper favorite in countless homes all around the world is the beef stew. Starting with the proper cut of meat is the most crucial step. Chuck roast should be well-marbled, which means it should have numerous white fat veins running through it. Avoid meat sold as “stew meat,” especially if it appears thin. However, don’t overdo the trimming, as the fat helps the heart tend. Start by removing any noticeable chunks of easy-to-reach fat.

This quick and healthy beef stew dish is simple to prepare and works well in a slow cooker, oven, stovetop, instant pot, or microwave. We’ll demonstrate the many kinds of recipes for you. This mouthwatering homemade beef stew so you can prepare it whichever is more practical. Enjoy soft, cozy potatoes and carrots with juicy, melt-in-your-mouth meat chunks. This will be the best beef stew recipe ever; we guarantee it!

Beef Stew Nutrition Facts

What is Exactly Stew?

A stew is a mixture of components that are solid foods that are cooked in liquid and eaten with the resulting gravy. Any mix of vegetables and meat, notably more complex meats appropriate for slow cooking, such as beef, hog, lamb, chicken, sausages, and shellfish, may be used as ingredients in a stew. While the stock is frequently used, water can also be the liquid for stew preparation. Red wine is occasionally diluted and added for flavor. Additionally, flavorings and seasonings can be used. Stews are frequently simmered rather than boiled to allow flavors to meld while cooking.

Common Cantabrian food is cocido montaés, often known as Highlander stew. The least delicate portions of beef that become juicy and tender with slow, moist heat are appropriate for stewing, and it is hence well-liked in inexpensive cooking. Lean meat can quickly become dry, but cuts with a certain degree of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue produce moist, luscious stews.

By coating meat chunks in flour before searing them or using a roux or beurre manié, a mixture made of equal parts fat and flour, stews can be thickened by reducing or adding flour. It is also possible to employ thickeners such as cornstarch, potato starch, or arrowroot.

There may not always be an apparent distinction between stews and soups because they are similar. Stews are often thicker, have less liquid than soups, and need more time to cook over low heat. While stews may be wide enough to be served on a plate with the gravy as a sauce over the solid ingredients, soups are almost always done in bowls.

Here are some of the best beef stew recipes:

Best Ever Beef Stew

A hearty, traditional beef stew made with tender meat, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. This will be a hit with everyone, especially on chilly nights! We recently returned from Los Angeles. You know, from their ideal 70-degree, always-sunny weather. Why on earth did we leave California once more? No, but in all seriousness, it was a chilly 20 degrees outside and a short return to Chiberia reality, so Cartman balked at walking as usual. But it’s all right because I found the most OK beef stew ever when I got home.

Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

This traditional hearty stew is the perfect weekend cooking assignment. Red wine, beef, onions, carrots, and potatoes work well together. The good news is that it doubles (or triples) brilliantly if you are feeding a crowd. To begin, get your beef ready and brown it in your pot. The garlic will then be added for flavor. After that, you’ll add the broth, vegetables, and herbs before bringing everything to a boil. The stew will then be simmered for 90 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

Beef Stew with Carrots & Potatoes

Beef Bourguignon, a traditional French beef stew, is the perfect comfort food for chilly times. A rich wine-based broth is used to gently braise well-marbled beef chunks after searing them in a hot skillet. The meat becomes meltingly soft and covered in a richly flavorful sauce after a few hours in the oven. The stew must be made for a few hours, but the recipe is largely hands-off. Make it a day or two in advance; the flavor gets better the longer it sits.

All-American Beef Stew Recipe

Thankfully, American beef stew doesn’t follow the same standards or have the same history as some of the famous stews from Europe, such as boeuf bourguignon or goulash. So long as the beef is soft and the casserole is stew-like, nobody will tell you that you made it wrong. There are, however, a few archetypes. My encounters with beef stew as a child began with a can of Dinty Moore (with its curiously firm potatoes and carrots). They finished with a handmade variation containing chunks of dry, stringy beef wallowing in a gravy-like broth flavored with tomato paste. I won’t mention names, but the cook had a name that began with the letter M and rhymed with “nom.”

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

The most straightforward evening dinner to prepare during the busy winter is a beef stew made in a slow cooker! It can also be customized. Increase the number of vegetables or swap chicken for beef. Before adding the meat, stir the whole onion, garlic, tomato paste, broth, Worcestershire sauce, celery, carrots, and potato in the slow cooker. Set the slow cooker to the low or high setting for 6 to 7 hours. About halfway through, stir. For more vegetables, whisk in 1 package of frozen mixed vegetables for the final 15 minutes (I used corn, green beans, carrots, and peas). The stew is done when the beef is soft and easily shredded with a fork. When the serving time arrives, remove the entire onion.

What are the Best Cuts of Beef for Stew?

A filling beef stew is an inexpensive and delectable dinner choice. Any beef cut that is excellent when simmered will perform well in stews, which fall under the category of slow-cooked beef recipes. Use a cheaper amount now because they are rougher; they become tender-to-the-moment meat when cooked for longer.

Collagen is the Key

When selecting a beef cut for your stew recipe, seek meat that is high in collagen and comes from the more labor-intensive areas of the animal. Although stronger muscles may have less fat, they also have more connective tissue, which produces collagen.

The misconception that tender is always preferable is simple to fall into, but when beef is cooked for a long time, the fat in tender slices melts away too rapidly, leaving the meat stiff and chewy.

The connective tissues, including the protein collagen, are problematic when raw; however, the cooking process and its mix of time, low heat, and liquid will break down the connective tissues, which would otherwise make the meat tough when cooked quickly. You will receive a moist and tender piece of meat from the collagen melting into gelatin. A plus is that this gelatin seeps into the sauce gives it body and depth of flavor, and releases into the meat itself.

Go for the Chuck

Chuck steak, sometimes called gravy meat or braising steak, is the most typical cut of beef used in the stew. The forequarter of the animal, which includes the upper arm, shoulder blade, and neck, is where beef chuck is found. It is a fantastic option for your stew because it is accessible and reasonably priced. Chuck has a lot of connective tissue; thus, it will get moist when a lot of gelatin is released. It has modest exterior fat and a good quantity of marbling in addition to the connective tissue.

What’s the Difference Between Soup and Stew?

There is no disputing that when everything is cozier around this time of year, our meals typically consist of warm, hearty comfort foods served in bowls. But what’s inside that bowl is what gets people talking about whether something is a soup or a stew. So let’s delve into our collection of warm-weather recipes, examine the variations and resemblances of our go-to foods in a bowl, and explore the specifics of our most comforting winter dishes.

Difference Between Soup and Stew

Here is the difference between soup and stew:

Both soup and stew have the same goal: to provide a filling, cozy supper that the whole family will enjoy. These dishes are lovely, served in bowls, and go great with PillsburyTM crescents or biscuits for dipping. However, a soup and a stew differ in several other ways. Let’s continue to silence that, shall we?
The primary ingredient, liquid, is where the main distinction between soup and stew can be found. In a soup pot, the liquid is primarily responsible for delivering the ingredients. A soup may be entirely liquid or contain additional components (such as meat, fish, or vegetables) vered in broth, water, or stock.
However, the stew is much more substantial and thick than soup. Additionally, the components are chunkier, and while the dish does have liquid overall, there is only enough to cover the primary elements.
Alternatively stated: Any combination of ingredients cooked in liquid is considered a soup. Any food that has been stewed, or cooked for a lengthy period at a simmer in a covered pot with just enough juice to cover the ingredients, is referred to as a stew.

Conclusion

An exceptionally wonderful traditional beef stew is probably even better than what your family used to make when you were a child! It’s created with tender, bite-sized beef pieces, creamy potatoes, healthy carrots, and a hearty, flavorful broth flavored with red wine.

This simple beef stew is easy to prepare and has an authentic, vintage flavor in the end. On the stovetop, beef and onions are browned (tip: nicely browned beef is key to the complex depth of flavor here). The stew is then added, along with the liquids and herbs, and heated in the oven.

The remaining vegetables are added halfway through to prevent them from becoming mushy, and it is then roasted once more until everything is soft. You’ll enjoy this largely hands-off version that doesn’t require constant attention on the stovetop and how the oven’s even surrounding heat provides a more consistent outcome.