Everybody will love this delicious Crock Pot Beef Stew with tender meat and vegetables. The ultimate comfort food that will warm you to the bone.
This small-batch beef stew recipe is ideal for a small household or is quickly doubled to full size. Or make it even smaller for only two servings.
🐄Ingredients
Beef—pre-cut stew meat or trimmed sirloin tip or chuck roast
Vegetables—Yukon gold or red potatoes, carrots, frozen peas
Aromatics—onion and garlic
Pantry ingredients—beef broth, tomato paste, soy sauce, salt, pepper
Optional ingredients—flour for browning, dry thyme, bay leaf
Thickening—tapioca or cornstarch
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Featured Comment from Lauren:
"5 stars This beef stew is the best! I made the smaller version and it was absolutely perfect."
😊Why you should make this recipe
- This easy slow cooker beef stew recipe is the best classic old-fashioned comfort food you can have on a cold day.
- A short prep to enhance the flavor and all-day cooking in the crock pot gets you a delicious dinner when you get home.
- Melt-in-your-mouth tender beef with excellent flavor and packed with tender potatoes and vegetables in a rich and hearty sauce.
- It is a complete meal, so there is no need for lots of side dishes. Serve with crusty bread, cornbread, or biscuits.
I started with a Cooks Country recipe (subscription required), but I think it is unrecognizable now. Lots of fuss, as usual from Cooks County, has been removed along with some other adjustments, and the size decreased.
👨🍳How to Make Crock Pot Beef Stew
Pre-cut stew beef or trim about 1 ½ to 2 pounds of boneless chuck roast or sirloin tip into 1-inch cubes. Give it a light dusting of flour and place in hot oil over medium-high heat in the large skillet—brown for about 7-8 minutes. Move the meat to the crock pot, but keep any liquid in the pan.
While browning meat, peel 2 carrots and cut them into ½ inch thick medallions. Scrub ½ pound of Yukon Gold or red potatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Other potatoes could be used, but if using russet potatoes, peel them.
Dice 1 medium onion and crush or mince 2 cloves of garlic. Add onion, 3 ounces of tomato paste, and ¼ tsp salt into the hot pan. Cook until onions are soft and lightly browned. Add the garlic for the last minute.
When the onion is ready, add 1 cup of beef broth to the pan and scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add all ingredients except the peas to the crock pot and stir well. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
Add the frozen peas for the last hour of cooking.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏰How long to cook
On low, this takes 8 hours, and on high, it takes 4-5 hours. Some beef may take a bit longer, so check the meat and potatoes for tenderness and extend the time by an hour or two if needed.
Meat tips
- You can use pre-cut stew beef or cut your own from sirloin tip or chuck roast.
- The more marbling, the more tender the results.
- Using soy sauce will enhance the beef flavor. Many recipes use Worcestershire sauce, which you can use instead. The tomato paste also will boost the beef taste.
Vegetable tips
- The potatoes can be any potatoes. If you use russet potatoes, they should be peeled. If you use the specified Yukon Gold or red potatoes, you don't need to peel them.
- You will get about 1 cup of cubed potatoes from ½ pound of potatoes.
- Do not cube the potatoes or the carrots too small, or they can easily overcook.
- Other common additions include celery, green beans, parsnips, and sweet potatoes.
Cooking tips
- The secret to tender beef stew is not to undercook the stew. Cook until the meat and vegetables are tender.
- You can skip the browning of the meat, and cooking the onion on the stovetop will only cause a minor change in outcome. Just dumping the ingredients into the crock pot works.
- Like all stews and soups, a little more or less of the meat or vegetable will be fine.
- It is acceptable in the crock pot on the "keep warm" setting for an hour or a bit more if needed for your timing.
Other crock pot stew and soup recipes
Small Crock Pot Chicken Stew
This easy crock pot Chicken Stew recipe features tender chicken, potatoes, and lots of vegetables in a tasty broth. This versatile small-batch recipe can be made for two in a mini crock pot or scaled up for a crowd.
Check out these tasty Crock Pot Chicken Stew. For some classic soups, try Crock Pot French Onion Soup, Crock Pot Ham Bone and Bean Soup, Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup, and Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup.
↕️How to make this a "for two" or "family size" recipe
This is a very easy recipe to cut in half or double. The full recipe makes about 8 cups of 4 large servings. Perfect for our "for two" household for two meals.
Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to half or double.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- The half recipe will fit in a 2-quart mini crock pot.
- A double recipe fits in a 6-quart or larger crock pot.
- Cook for the same amount of time.
❄️Leftovers—storage and reheating
Store leftover beef stew in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days or in a freezer for 3 months.
To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator first if frozen. Then reheat on the stovetop in a saucepan over medium heat, but the microwave will work, too.
❓FAQs
Browning the beef with a dusting of flour before adding it to the crock pot will add some depth of flavor with a Maillard reaction, but you can skip this with only a small effect on the final results.
Tapioca or cornstarch is used to thicken this recipe. For tapioca, add 1 tablespoon at the beginning of cooking. For cornstarch, make a smooth slurry of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of cold water, then add the peas near the end of cooking.
Using a roux with flour is just fussier than it needs to be. Potato flakes are another possible choice.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖 Recipe
Small Crock Pot Beef Stew
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Ingredients
- 1 ½-2 lbs stew beef or trimmed sirloin tip or chuck roast - trimmed and cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 medium onion - diced
- 2 cloves garlic - minced or pressed
- 3 oz tomato paste
- 1 cup low-sodium beef broth
- ½ lb red or Yukon Gold potatoes - cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 carrots - peeled cut into ½ inch medallions
- ½ cups frozen peas
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce - low sodium
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 bay leaves - Optional
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme - Optional
- 2 tablespoons AP Flour - Optional for browning
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil - Optional for browning
Optional thickening-covered in the pro tips below
- 1 tablespoon Minute tapioca
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Use pre-cut stew beef or trim about 1 ½ to 2 pounds of boneless chuck roast or sirloin tip into 1-inch cubes. Give it a light dusting of flour and place in hot oil over medium-high heat in the large skillet—brown for about 7-8 minutes. Move the meat to the crock pot but keep any liquid in the pan.
- While browning meat, peel 2 carrots and cut them into ½ inch thick medallions. Scrub ½ pound of red or Yukon gold potatoes and cut them into chunks. Other potatoes could be used but if using russet potatoes, peel also.
- Dice 1 medium onion. Crush or mince 2 cloves of garlic. Add onion, 3 ounces of tomato paste, and ¼ tsp salt into the hot pan. Cook until onions are soft and lightly browned. Add the garlic for the last minute.
- When the onion is ready, add 1 cup of beef broth to the pan and scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add all ingredients except the peas to the crock pot, and stir well. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Add the frozen peas for the last hour of cooking. Cook longer if needed for tender meat and vegetables.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Images are for a double batch.
- This makes about 2 quarts as written and will fit a 3-quart crock pot. I recommend a double recipe and use a 6-quart or bigger crock pot. How to cut the recipe in half is covered in the post.
- I prefer to cut and trim a chuck roast or sirloin tip for this, but beef stew meat will work fine.
- If you're in a hurry, skip the whole browning skillet steps. Just dump it in, and it will be great.
- Check for beef tenderness before stopping cooking. Some beef may take a bit longer.
- Leftovers are good in the refrigerator for 4 days or 3 months in a freezer.
- Nutrition is calculated on a large serving size of about 2 cups.
Optional thickening
Tapioca or cornstarch is used to thicken this recipe. For tapioca, add 1 tablespoon at the beginning of cooking. For cornstarch, make a smooth slurry of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of cold water, then add the peas near the end of cooking. Using a roux with flour is just fussier than it needs to be. Potato flakes are another possible choice.Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
Publisher Note: Originally published March 5, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation. Also, the technique has been updated a small amount to current my practice.
Alexis says
Is the only liquid besides the soy sauce 14 oz beef broth? Does that end up being enough?
DrDan says
Hi Alexis,
Welcome to the blog.
Yep, it is a stew so thick. Fluid does come out of some of the components. If it is too thick for you, add some more broth.
Dan
Dea says
Well once again, another winner of a recipe from you!!! Made this today and I was salivating the entire day, the house smelled soo good! The stew tasted as good if not better than it smelled!! It was husband approved which is important and we have plenty of leftovers to look forward to later in the week! This has got to be the most flavorful stew I've ever made... it's definitely a keeper! Thank you once again!
DrDan says
Hi Dea,
Welcome to the blog.
This is a recipe I only do a few times per year and always say I'm going to do it more. It is also on my conversion to pressure cooker list (if that ever happens).
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Thomas says
Sounds good, and pretty easy. Your directions (both in the post and in the recipe) say to add 6 oz. of tomato paste, but the ingredient list only has 3 oz. Can you let me know which is correct?
DrDan says
Hi Thomas,
Welcome to the blog.
The model recipe used 6 oz, which is a full can, but is a bigger recipe. I have done this recipe 25-30 times and now use 6 oz. for this size of recipe. When I re-edited the post last winter, I made it 6 oz and missed the one spot.
Sorry for the error. The increase in the tomato paste enhances the deep beefy taste.
Dan
Michele says
This recipe is super easy and tasty! Thank you for posting the least intimidating beef stew recipe on the internet. I will definitely try the thyme next time, just to see if I'm missing anything.
DrDan says
Hi Michele,
Thanks for the note. I do like relatively simple cooking.
Dan
Judy Uhl says
Do you peel your potatoes or leave the skin on?
DrDan says
Usually on. Also I have started to coat the cubes of meat with flour and brown that either before or after the onion part then do the rest of the recipe as stated.
Jack B says
Hi Dr. Dan,
Have you tried this in an electric pressure cooker? If so, how long did you cook it for?
Thanks!
DrDan says
Don't have one so I haven't tried it. I still remember the great pressure cooker explosion my mother had from years ago.
Bill Schick says
What is a serving size? 1 cup? 1/2 cup?
DrDan says
A little over a cup.
Darlene says
Would you have a recipe for dumplings to go with the stew? I'm not sure if they would be doable in a crock pot.
Susan says
Sure did love this beef stew. It had been too long, and I had never used the crock pot! Just for fun, sometime, steam some frozen Brussels sprouts till ready to eat and add with/or instead of the peas. It's a family favorite around here and the only way SOME people will eat Brussels sprouts (I cut them in half BTW). Kind of like adding cabbage to veg. soup. Cheers!
Jill says
When did you brown the meat? Before the onions?
DrDan says
In the recipe and at ATK the meat is not browned. However I now usually brown the meat after the onion. I remove the onion then add the meat to get some nice searing then deglaze. Not really necessary but I think a little more taste.
Lamia says
Can you sub cornstarch for the tapioca? And if so, how much do you recommend? Thanks!
DrDan says
Yes and no... The corn starch thickens nicely BUT it tends to break down with ongoing cooking and does not reheat well. So yes if you do it at the end and eat the whole thing. Not good otherwise. I have no luck with flour and crock pots at the end of cooking but here I brown the meat so coating with flour prior to the browning is also an option. Potato flakes are another possibility.
DrDan
Backi says
I'm not sure where the tapioca goes? I'm a novice :)
DrDan says
Just add it at the beginning and it will be fine. If you skip it, it will be a little thinner.
DrDan
Nikki says
I just made this and it was the best stew ever. I substituted half homemade chicken broth and half red wine for the beef broth, because that is what I had in the house. Just delish, and I never, ever comment online. Even my super picky oldest child, who eats nothing, pronounced it good.
DrDan says
This is one of my most under-appreciated recipes. I do really like this one also.
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Linda says
My husband and I just love your recipes. We especially enjoy the instructions and the pictures which make preparing the food easy. And the occasional misspelled word makes us chuckle and wonder if it's on purpose!!!
DrDan says
Thanks for the comment. This misspells are me at full speed. I need to slow it down a bit at times...
Martha (MM) says
Thanks so much for linking up your slow cooker recipes for my slow cooker recipe index. I have to say that yours look so appetizing! These are just the kind of meals I was looking for!
Jeffrey and Juli says
Juli here. I totally agree with you that Cook's Illustrated Recipes are completely fussy and overly complicated. Jeffrey thinks the fussiness is worthwhile, but it would absolutely make me crazy to cook the way CI does every day. Your beef stew looks great! Thanks for the recipe variation for the crock pot.