Fabulous Fall Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe

Evidently fall makes me more creative in the kitchen as evidenced by all the recent recipes I'm posting. Soups, donuts and now stew...delicious cold weather foods!

Today's slow cooker beef stew recipe is a variation of another recipe I've used in the past.  I pulled up that recipe last week but didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so I made this variation instead.  It is a little more simple to prepare and alcohol free as I didn't have red wine on hand (sadly).  It takes about 20-30 minutes of prep and then you're good to go.  Your house will smell A-mazing the entire day as it cooks.  Yum!

Fabulous Fall Slow Cooker Beef Stew

1 1/2 - 2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
¼ cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 cup carrots (sliced)
4 medium russet potatoes, cubed
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 yellow onion, sliced
6 oz fresh mushrooms, whole or in halves
2 ¼ cup beef stock
3 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 Tbsp dried)
3 bay leaves

Instructions 

1. Place meat in a large plastic bag. Combine ¼ cup flour with ½ teaspoon salt; pour into the bag with the meat, and shake to coat. Remove from the bag and tap the excess flour from the meat. 

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside. Remove meat and in the same skillet, add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add the stock, thyme sprigs and bay leaves and stir to dislodge any brown bits.  Then pour contents of the pan over the beef in the slow cooker. Add the carrots, potatoes, parsley, mushrooms and pepper.  Stir to combine.

3. Cover, and cook on high for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook for 6 hours or until meat is fork tender.  Remove the bay leaves before serving.  Add more parsley, pepper and salt to taste.

The stew is wonderful alone or with some fresh hot bread.  Enjoy!

For more Beef Stew recipes check out:

Spring/Summer Vegetable Beef Stew

Crockpot Beef Stew