Beef Stew

I just realized I’ve been making this stew for about 23 years, and I still love it! My friend Leslie gave me her recipe in college. This is pretty much it, except she uses a package of dry onion soup mix instead of the real onions. I like to use as few packages as possible, so I started using onions instead.

At the moment, I don’t have any pictures of the process, though I’m pretty sure I took some. That’s what I get for grabbing one of 4 available cameras and only uploading pics from one of them onto my laptop.  (Don’t get any fancy ideas, they’re all cheap, except my current go-to, which is my iPhone.) I promise I’ll come back and add them in when I find them.

OK, enough with the excuses. Let’s make some beef stew!

If you’re using a piece of beef that isn’t already cut into stew beef-sized pieces, go ahead and do that.

Now grab a gallon size resealable bag and put some flour and a dash of salt and pepper in the bag.

Add your beef chunks and shake gently (more like gently tossing) until all of the beef chunks are coated with flour.

Peel your onion and cut in into small chunks. (It will pretty much disappear from the sight of not-so-adventerous eaters if you chop them small.)

Lightly oil a large skillet, and get it pretty hot. (Not smokin’ hot, just hot enough to put a nice brown seal on your beef to hold in all that juice and flavor).

Add onions and beef and brown the beef on each side.

Transfer the beef & onions to your crock pot and add in all but the potatoes.

Cook on low for a few hours then add your peeled potatoes that you’ve cut into about 2 inch chunks.

Cook on low for another 2-3 hours.

You really can’t serve beef stew without biscuits, so head on over and make some of these Fabulous Freezer Biscuits (made with whole wheat).

Bake some for tonight and freeze the rest before baking. Now you’ve got supper underway and some biscuits for another time!

Beef Stew

 

Author:

Beth Cranford

Recipe type: Main Dish

Serves: 4

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 6 hours

Total time: 6 hours 15 mins

Print

 

Easy, hearty beef stew with a hint of tomato.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. stew beef
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• ½ cup white flour
• 3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• Baby carrots or whole carrots, peeled and chunked
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 can tomato soup plus 1 can water
• 2 beef bouillon cubes

Instructions

1. Start early and smell supper cooking all day!
2. Peel and chop onion.
3. Lightly salt and pepper the beef and coat with flour.
4. Add onions and beef to a large, lightly oiled and preheated skillet.
5. Brown beef chunks on each side.
6. Put beef & onions in Crock Pot.
7. Add soup, water,bay leaf, carrots, and bouillon in crock pot.
8. Cook 2-3 hours on low.
9. Add peeled potatoes.
10. Cook another 2-3 hours on low.
11. Tweak the times according to how your Crock Pot cooks.

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