One Pot Beef Stew
Tender beef, hearty vegetables, rich broth - the stew that needs nothing but time.
This is stew stripped down to what actually matters - good beef, a long simmer, and a broth that thickens into something rich enough to soak into the potatoes. No onion, no garlic, nothing to chop beyond the vegetables themselves. The beef goes in plain, browned hard for flavor before anything else happens. The flour comes in later, whisked into a little broth and stirred back in, which thickens the whole pot without any of the mess of coating raw meat in flour first. Give it the full simmer time. Stew beef needs the long, slow cook to actually go tender - rushing it gets you chewy meat in good broth, which defeats the entire point.
Prep: 15 min • Cook: 120 min • Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 2 Tbl Olive Oil
- 2 lbs Stew Beef, cut into 1.5-inch chunks
- 4 cups Beef Broth
- 4 Carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1.5 lbs Potatoes, cut into chunks
- 3 Tbl Flour
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the beef with salt and pepper and brown it in batches, a few minutes per side, until deeply browned all over. Don't crowd the pot.
- Return all the beef to the pot. Pour in the beef broth and bring to a simmer.
- Cover and simmer on low for 1.5 hours, until the beef is starting to turn tender.
- Add the carrots and potatoes. Continue simmering, covered, for 30-40 minutes, until the vegetables and beef are both fully tender.
- Whisk the flour with a few tablespoons of the hot broth from the pot until smooth, then stir it back into the stew. Simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes until thickened.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.