Easy Slow Cooker Beef Stew | Tender, Hearty & Delicious Crockpot Recipe

This isn't just beef stew. This is comfort in a bowl and this is going to be delicious any night of the week. Let me show you how to make it. You're going to start with two pounds of sirloin steak. The steak has been sitting out and it is room temperature and we are going to cut this steak in really nice big chunks. I like the sirloin because it gets really tender and it doesn't take a long time to cook. I'm taking my time when I'm cutting the steak because the meat is room temperature and it can be slippery and I want to make sure that each piece is around the same size. You want your meat to be the same size because that's going to ensure that every piece cooks evenly and also it's good for presentation. We eat with our eyes first. We want nice big pieces for this stew. Okay it's time to season. I always have one hand free and one hand for my seasonings. We're going to start with some Worcestershire sauce. This is imperative. This is the base flavoring for our steak and it's also going to tenderize the meat. We're going to go in with some sea salt or you can use regular salt but you have to salt your meat. This is going to induce the flavor. You know we're going to go in with some garlic powder. Garlic powder is a delicious seasoning. It adds a really nice flavor to the meat. You know we're going to go in with some black pepper. Black pepper is a staple. You have to season with black pepper. At this point you should be able to smell the aroma for the seasoning. That lets you know you're on the right track and now we're going to go in with some thyme. This is my secret ingredient. It adds such a depth of flavor to the meat. Now everything's seasoned let's just let the seasoning set in. It's time to start on our vegetables. I am going to peel two large russet potatoes here. These potatoes are great for beef stew because they are hearty and they can stand up to the beef. Feel free to use red potatoes or yellow potatoes if you like. However I enjoy the texture of these russet potatoes. I'm just going to make sure I get all the skin off. This is a labor of love. After my potatoes are clean I'm going to go in and do the same with two large carrots. I love using the whole carrots in this recipe. Do not use baby carrots. I mean you can use baby carrots but we're going to keep it traditional and we're using whole carrots here. I'm just going to get rid of all the peels and now it's time to slice these. Size is really important. I want to make sure that all my potatoes are the same size as well so I am cutting the potato in half lengthwise and it's a little thick so I gotta use my knife. Once I've cut it in half I'm going to take that half and cut it in half again and then I'm going to go in and make an equal amount of cuts on both sides. This is going to ensure that all my potatoes are the same size. I am going to do the same with the other potato and these are nice size chunks and if you see this they are about the same size as the meat and that's done on purpose. For the carrots it's a little bit easier. I want to keep that beautiful circle. I'm going to cut about a half inch circles all the way down to the carrot. I'm going to do this with both carrots and as you can see we have these beautiful nice circle carrots and they are going to cook up beautifully and be perfect for our presentation. We have everything cut. Now I hope you didn't think we weren't going to season these. We definitely have to season everything. We're going to season the potatoes and carrots with some salt, some black pepper, and garlic powder. Let's mix everything together to make sure that every single piece of vegetables has a little bit of seasoning. We are cooking with love here. Okay we are almost done but we still have one whole onion to cut. Did you forget about the onion? You have to have onion in beef stew. Here's the easiest way to slice an onion. I am cutting both ends off and then I cut it in half and I am just peeling that first layer of onion off. Sometimes onions can be really really difficult to peel. This is the easiest way to peel the onion. Just peel that first layer of skin off and then we are ready to go. I am going to cut these onions in big chunks as well similar to the same size as the potatoes and the beef. I just take it I put a cut down the middle and then I'm just going to cut about three or four down the sides and there you go. We have all of our vegetables ready for the beef stew. All right it's time to get this meat started. We are going to coat the meat with approximately one half cup of flour. We are going to brown this meat. Browning is going to lock in the flavor and we need the flour to brown it and also the flour is going to help make the stew thick and delicious. You want to make sure that every single piece of meat is covered and once it's covered it's time to brown it up in the skillet. To the skillet we're going to add approximately two tablespoons of oil. I am using avocado oil here and we are going to put our flour cubes in the skillet. Make sure your skillet is hot. I want to hear that sizzle. Once everything is browned on one side it's going to take approximately three to four minutes. It doesn't take long. We are going to flip the steak over. Now remember we are not cooking this steak all the way through. We are cooking it long enough to get those nice crispy brown sides. Like I said earlier the browning is going to lock in all that flavor that we put on the meat when we seasoned it. Once everything is browned it's time to remove it and let's put the stew together. All the hard work is done. This is the easy part. We are going to take our crock pot make sure it's on low. We're going to add the seasoned beef and we are going to add all of those beautiful vegetables that we worked so hard on chopping to make sure everything was the same size. Once you have all the food into the pot go ahead and take a spoon and stir everything up. We want to make sure that everything is mixed and all incorporated. Then we're going to add some warm beef stock to the vegetables. This is approximately three cups of stock and then we're going to let the crock pot do its thing. Turn it on low cover it and you're going to let this cook for approximately four hours. After about four hours you're going to add a cornstarch slurry. That is cornstarch with an equal amount of water and this is going to ensure that this stew is thick rich and delicious. After about 20 minutes you should have a finished product that looks like this. This is the best meal to eat on a chilly night or any night. Bon Appetit!