Well, my friends, it’s been a while since I last shared a new recipe with you and that’s a shame since I’ve grown to love when I get to write a new recipe post for you! I started taking some pictures of my dinner experiments that have worked out really well this last week or so and this crock pot beef stew recipe was the real jackpot of the bunch, so I thought I’d share it first!
Honestly, this one has been years in the making. Being of Irish decent, I kind of feel like I should know how to make an amazing basic stew just kind of automatically, but I. did. not. I really thought that if I used my magical crock pot, then that would make it all somehow work out and taste better, but I just kept ending up with tasteless brown mush! I’ve been messing around with my recipe for the last few years and I think I’ve finally found one that I really love and is still in keeping with my pre-requisites for a good crock pot recipe: It can’t take more than 5 or 10 minutes to throw together, and there is absolutely NO PRE-BROWNING ALLOWED! I refuse. It seems silly to use an extra pot or frying pan when the whole point of a crock pot recipe is that it should only take one pot, right? 🙂
So here’s my really simple recipe!
You can add larger or smaller amounts of the meat or veggies and it will still work out just fine, just make sure you get the broth part right!
-1 package of stewing beef (mine was about 2 lbs)
-1 package of mini potatoes (about 2 lbs)
-1 small package of baby cut carrots (or similar amount of cut up carrots)
-About 5 fresh sage leaves, torn up
-1/2 tsp of dried rosemary
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 package of onion soup mix
-2 tsp soy sauce
-8 tbsp of pickled pepper “juice” (from a jar of banana peppers, pepperoncini peppers, or similar)
-2 tsp of sugar
-4 cups of water
-1/2 cup of warm water
-2 tbsp of corn starch
Combine everything except for the last 2 ingredients in your crock pot and turn it on low all day. Enjoy the delicious scent that reminds you what a great job you’re doing with dinner tonight. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat, whisk the 2 tbsp of corn starch into the 1/2 cup of warm water and pour it into your crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. Give it a stir. Serve it with buns, bread, or croissants so you don’t miss out on any of the delicious broth!
Something about the combination or fresh, dried, sweet, salty, and tangy ingredients really make this recipe work out perfectly and keep it from entering into bland, boring, flavorless mush territory. If you have a chilly day coming up, or even if you just don’t want to turn on the oven, give this recipe a try! A good stew is definitely something that should show up on your dinner table at least once in awhile!
Do you have any stew recipe-making secrets that make your stews amazing every time too?
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.