Slow Cooker Beef Stew is full of flavour and so easy to throw together. Filled with fall apart, tender beef pieces and melt in your mouth sweet potato.
There’s nothing better than coming home to a home cooked meal, filling your house with rustic comfort food aromas with nothing else to do but serve and eat. Slow Cooker Beef Stew with sweet potatoes melting through the gravy creates a flavour so rich, you’ll be happy to have leftovers!
BEEF STEW
Tender, fall-apart chunks of beef with melt-in-your-mouth sweet potato and veggies in a rich and flavourful gravy that practically cooks itself! Your kind of dinner, I know.
Not only is this Beef Stew absolutely delicious, it may be the easiest stew recipe you’ll throw in your slow cooker.
If you’ve been with me from the beginning, you may recognise this recipe from the archives as this Warm Beef And Sweet Potato Casserole. A few readers have been asking how to convert that recipe for a slow cooker or crock pot, and since we have been slow cooking this stew for a while now, it was time to deliver.
DO YOU HAVE TO COOK THE MEAT BEFORE ADDING IT INTO A SLOW COOKER?
As with many slow cooker recipes, browning the meat is required first for an added depth of flavour. A light sear over medium-high heat is all you need, not necessarily cooking the meat all the way through. Your slow cooker will do that for you.
With this recipe however, you don’t need to brown the meat if you’re pressed for time. I do recommend it for added flavour.
The onions and garlic may also be sautéed before adding them to the slow cooker.
HOW TO COOK BEEF STEW IN A SLOW COOKER
Once your meat is browned, throw everything in the slow cooker and wait for it to cook and thicken into a glorious stew! That’s pretty much it with this recipe. The ingredients list may be long, but the depth of flavour in the end result is worth it.
LEFTOVERS
Store leftovers in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Simply reheat the amount needed in the microwave or in a pot on the stove.
TO PREPARE BEEF STEW THE NIGHT BEFORE
Prep all of your ingredients the night before and have them ready the morning of! Dice the beef and cut your veggies. Refrigerate the meat and veggies in separate air-tight containers overnight, then continue with the recipe in the morning. As mentioned above, browning the meat, onions and garlic is not necessary if you’re pressed for time.
Love Stews? Try these recipes!
Beef And Guinness Stew
Chicken Cacciatore
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 3 pounds (1 1/2 kg) beef chuck roast (diced into 1 inch cubes)
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 6 garlic cloves (crushed (or 1 tablespoon minced garlic))
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 large sweet potato (peeled and diced into 2-inch pieces (roughly 3 cups diced))
- 10 ounces (300 g) baby potatoes (halved)
- 2 large carrots (sliced)
- 1 red bell pepper (capsicum) (deseeded and chopped)
- 1-1/2 cups beef broth or stock
- 1 cup dry white wine ((optional))
- 14 ounces (410 g) can diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 beef bouillon cubes (crushed)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon mild paprika
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley (to serve)
Instructions
- Season beef with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Sear beef until browned (about 2 to 3 minutes per side) in batches, adding more oil when needed.
- Transfer browned meat to into a 6qt (6 litre) slow cooker bowl.
- Fry the onion with remaining oil in the same skillet until softened. Add in the garlic and sauce until fragrant (30 seconds). Transfer to the slow cooker bowl.
- Add flour and mix to coat the meat and onions/garlic. Throw in the rest of the ingredients (except for the bay leaves and parsley) and give it a good mix. Place bay leaves on top.
- Cover, and cook on low heat setting for 8-10 hours, or high heat setting for 4 to 6 hours.
- Taste test before serving, and add extra salt or pepper if needed. Garnish with parsley,
- Serve over white rice or mashed potatoes.
Claudia says
I just made this- well, I used it as a building block 😀 it looks great. I have an instant pot Mini, so I had to shrink it down. I diced and browned about 1.3 lbs of chuck roast using the saute function, put it in a bowl and browned 1 small onion and a minced clove of garlic. Then I added back the roast (with a bit of flour), 3 red potatoes cubed, a carrot and a stick of celery finely diced, 1/3 to 1/2 a red bell pepper diced, about 1/2 a cup each of buillion (I use “better than buillion” in water) and white wine, a table spoon of tomato sauce. Plus spices like parsley, pepper, etc. It sat for about 2.5 hours on Slow Cook High. It was great! Some carrots didn’t cook all the way though, and the potatoes cooked unevenly. But I’ll definitely be trying it again. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Fred Lenn says
This looks like the recipe I’ve been looking for. The directions say in step 4 to add in the garlic and sauce.
What is the “sauce”? Is it all of the liquids?
Karina says
The sauce is the liquid from before. Hope that helps! Enjoy! XO
Kayla says
Absolutely fantastic recipe! This was my first time making a slow cooked meal and it turned out beautifully. Super easy and my family loved it! Will 100% be made again. <3
Rosa Maria says
Can I make this in a pressure cooker?
Karina says
Yes, of course! I have not made it in the pressure cooker yet. Let me know how it turns out! XO
Pat @ Wholesome Kitchen says
This one looks absolutely delicious too! Can’t wait to make it!
Dianne Hopkins says
Hi Karina,
Already sent email to you and just found this from another lady asking the same question?.
Connie says
October 7, 2018 at
This looks Devine. I have a question on adding the sauce. I did not see this in the list of ingredients. Help.
Karina says
The sauce will come together while you are adding ingredients to the pot. Hope that helps! XO
Connie says
This looks Devine. I have a question on adding the sauce. I did not see this in the list of ingredients. Help.
Bunny says
Is there a reason for 2 kinds of carrots, or should it be one kind or the other?
Karina says
There is only one kind of carrot. Hope that helps! XO
Tatiana says
Do I need the flour? I thought I had some guess not.
Maria says
Is the red pepper a bell pepper, or a spicy pepper of some kind, like red pepper flakes?
Karina says
The red pepper is a bell pepper. You will want to deseed it and dice it up. Hope that helps! Enjoy your stew!
Erica says
What would be a good spice blend to replace a beef bouillon cube?
Katie says
The beef bouillon is concentrated beef flavour. If you want to replicate that you can use beef consomme, or replace the beef broth and bouillon with a whole quart of beef broth which you’ll simmer to reduce by half.
Gloria Jonas says
Can I use regular red potatoes instead of seeet potatoes? My husband does NOT like sweet potatoes
Rachel Lange says
We had this tonight for dinner and it was very nice. Can the leftovers be frozen?
Meghan says
We made this dish tonight for dinner. We didn’t have time for the crockpot so we cooked it in a pressure cooker as directed. It is so delicious!!! The only complaint was due to the pressure cooker my sweet potato broke apart. And it was so good we didn’t realize we didn’t pair it with rice or potatoes. Will definitely cook this again!
Jillian says
Could I put the ingredients in a bag to freeze and put in slow cooker another day ? Thanks!!
Karina says
Hi Jillian! That should be fine! Make sure to thaw everything out about an hour before cooking 🙂
Sabrina says
nice tip re: not having to brown the chuck steak first, and for all of my love of sweet potato, never thought to swap out “regular” (boring) potatoes for them, so thank you for this recipe I’m making it next!