I’ve never had a beef stew as good as this. The first time I cooked it, my husband ate four bowls, and my 9-month-old ate two bowls mashed up! I like to brown my meat before making stew, and since I detest cleaning both a pot and a slow cooker, I choose to make stew only on the stove.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 3 hrs 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into cubes
- ½ cup all-purpose flour, or more as needed
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1 onion, chopped
- 8 cups beef broth, divided
- 6 cups sliced carrots
- 6 cups diced potatoes
- 3 cups chopped celery
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Combine beef stew meat and flour in a resealable plastic bag; seal bag and shake to coat beef.
- Melt butter with olive oil in a large pot over high heat; add beef and season with seasoned salt. Cook and stir beef until seared on all sides 5 to 7 minutes. Stir onion into the beef; cook and stir until the onion is browned, about 5 minutes more.
- Pour enough of the beef broth into the pot to cover the bottom; bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add remainder of the beef broth; bring to a simmer before adding carrots, potatoes, celery, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, basil, paprika, and garlic powder.
- Bring liquid to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook stew at a simmer until the meat and vegetables are very tender, 3 to 4 hours.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 455 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 41 g |
| Cholesterol | 75 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 1120 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is the best beef stew I’ve ever tasted. It has an old fashioned heartiness to it and my 97 yr old father absolutely loves it. It’s a real crowd pleaser made exactly as the recipe ingredients show. I use my Dutch oven pot on top of stove although stew cooks well in slow cooker too. This is my favourite comfort food recipe and is a great tasting beef stew.
Great recipe – so many others simmer only 2 hours and that’s not long enough to convert chuck or round connective tissue into gelatin within the meat. I would make one suggestion: simmer everything except the celery, carrots, and potatoes for 4 hours, but add those three in the last 20 minutes so they retain more texture.
Made this stew; it was tasty but since there are only two of us, I did not use the full amount of broth. It would be really helpful if the originator of this recipe would give guidance for cooking for only 2 people.
This is a fantastic beef stew recipe! I don’t ordinarily make a stew in summer, but a friend of mine had purchased small red potatoes, and was surprised (and dismayed) she received a bag of the teeny dark red potatoes. I could not figure out what else I could put them in. Was going to put this in the crockpot but decided to just do it on the stove top- still getting adjusted to cooking/baking with electric.? As many folks have commented, the balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce were surprising additions and really gave it a much deeper flavor! The only thing I switched up was adding a bunch of crushed raw garlic??. Thank you for posting such a delicious stew that I will add to my recipe collection!?
I made this last night and it was delicious! Even my picky eater bragged about it. I forgot that it was a slow cooker dish and by the time I remembered it was too late to cook it that way. I decided I would have to use a pressure cooker. I have a large old Presto that is frying pan size so was able to brown the meat in it. My package of stew beef was smaller than two pounds so I adjusted the vegetable quantities down. I left the potatoes whole since they would be in the pressure cooker the entire cycle. I only used 4 cups beef broth but kept the amount of seasonings as called for. When I was done with the pressure cooker I scooped out the meat and veggies and used what was left of the seasoned flour to thicken the gravy. This was an EZ and delicious recipe and I highly recommend it!
This recipe is excellent! The only change I made was to use green beans instead of celery. Definitely give it a try, and thanks for sharing
This is fantastic! So easy to double, triple or quadruple recipe for a large crowd. I never have changed a thing and I have made this recipe for years!
I did not have any beef broth so I used 2 pkgs of brown gravy mix with 3 cups of water. Also I did not have balsamic vinegar so I used red wine vinegar. The end results were amazing. Put it in a crockpot and supper in 3 1/2 hours. Very easy to make and tasted fantastic.
Nice beef stew. I only used half the amount of beef broth and I had plenty of gravy ! The whole amount would have turned this into a soup .. My stew was ready in 2 1/2 hours. I served with biscuits.
Made this exactly as the recipe states with only the addition of 2 Bay leaves. I seared the meat in a skillet, sauted the onions as well then added that to the crackpot. I deglazed the skillet and added that as well. 1 hr before it was done I did add a couple tablespoons of cornstarch mixed in water to the crackpot to thicken this up. IT IS GLORIOUS! THE best stew, fully of flavor…I just can’t say enough of this stew. It has replaced my old recipe and will use this going forward.
I’ve never made beef stew, but I had some random leftovers, so I thought I’d give it a try. Really great flavor! Loved the balsamic vinegar – I think that’s the key ingredient. Spices and seasonings were to measure, but the meat and veggies were what I had on hand, so may not have been exactly 2 pounds meat, or 6 cups carrots, etc. After cooking the beef and onions (and a little garlic) in the pan, I added the rest of the beef broth and the veggies to a crockpot instead. Pan mixture added after deglazing, and cooked on high for 3 hours. Then left on warm for several more hours until I got home and could eat. My husband and I both enjoyed it.
It was easy to prepare and it was delicious!
worst beef stew ever! I was skeptical about the vinegar but put in anyway.
I mad this rec
This recipe is a family favorite! We pressure cool moose and add 1 tsp onion salt, 1 tsp garlic salt. Delicious!
Sorry thought this was very bland
Great recipe. Would never think to add vinegar to stew, but it gives it a nice tangy taste. I skipped the butter and it was delicious!
Really great flavor!!! I only had 1 1/2 # stew meat, used about 1/2 the vegetables and beef broth. I did use all the spices called for, saved the recipe and it will be my go-to stew recipe from now on!
Great flavor combination
This was excellent. Boyfriend gave it 4.5 stars, which is pretty good for him. I made 1/2 of the recipe with some tweaks, as follows: – used 2 small canned potatoes (saved peeling time) – Used 1/2 small onion, leaving it in big pieces (boyfriend doesn’t like onion) – Put Montreal steak seasoning in flour mixture before adding beef (did not use seasoned salt). Saved remaining flour to thicken it up at the end – Added 1 bay leaf – Added red cooking wine after an hour of cooking – Used gravy master instead of the Worcestershire, since we don’t like that flavor – added a little bit of fresh pepper Note to self: boyfriend asked for more beef and less carrots next time (there was a lot of carrots)
This was excellent. Boyfriend gave it 4.5 stars, which is pretty good for him. I made 1/2 of the recipe with some tweaks, as follows: – used 2 small canned potatoes (saved peeling time) – Used 1/2 small onion, leaving it in big pieces (boyfriend doesn’t like onion) – Put Montreal steak seasoning in flour mixture before adding beef (did not use seasoned salt). Saved remaining flour to thicken it up at the end – Added 1 bay leaf – Added red cooking wine after an hour of cooking – Used gravy master instead of the Worcestershire, since we don’t like that flavor – added a little bit of fresh pepper Note to self: boyfriend asked for more beef and less carrots next time (there was a lot of carrots)