A cozy beef stew will aways top our list of favorite winter dinner ideas. Though any satisfying stew recipe can be made in a stovetop pot or Dutch oven, the slow cooker makes this beef stew recipe even easier! This slow cooker beef stew is the perfect family meal full of flavor and hearty ingredients—just the thing to warm you up from the inside out.
Yes, you can put raw beef in a slow cooker—that's exactly how this recipe starts! Add the beef to the base of a Crock-Pot, top it with the cooking liquid, then other vegetables. The beef sits closest to the heating element at the base of the slow cooker, while the vegetables cook gently at the top. This yields meltingly tender beef and soft, not mushy vegetables.
You can brown the stew meat before slow cooking, but it is not necessary. Searing meat caramelizes the surface, which contributes a savory element to a stew. In the absence of browning the meat in this recipe, the flavor is boosted by ingredients such as tomato paste, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, mushrooms and fresh thyme. The addition of flour to the cooking liquid yields a rich, thick broth, which makes the difference between stew versus soup.