Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Summary

• Source: AllRecipes
• Genre: Soup/Stew
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cooking Time: 4-12 hours
• Servings: 6 (9 if you increase the recipe, read below)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• Seasoning salt to taste
• Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
• 2 pounds lean beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes (I've had good luck with top round, eye of round, and bottom round cuts)
• 1-2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced and divided
• 3 bay leaves, divided
• 2 tsp paprika, divided
• 1 package beef stew seasonings (optional), divided
• 4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, divided
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 3-4 cups low-sodium (< 150 mg sodium/cup) beef broth, divided
• 2-4 pounds potatoes, cubed (I've had the best luck with red or Yukon Gold potatoes, if you use small baking potaoes you'll need to peel them)
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced large

Directions:

1. Put flour, seasoning salt and pepper into a plastic bag. Add meat to plastic bag and shake to coat.
2. Add olive oil to a large cast iron or stainless steel (not Teflon) skillet and heat to medium-high heat. Add coated beef to the skillet in small batches to avoid crowding the pan. Saute until the outside just reaches a nicely browned color. Transfer beef to the slow cooker.
3. Drain any excess fat from the skillet. Add up to one cup of beef broth to the skillet and set the heat to medium-high. Let the broth boil for about one minute and then start scraping the pan with a wooden spoon. The cooked-on food (known as fond to chef-types) will come off easily and has now become a stunningly tasty pan sauce. Pour the sauce into the slow cooker.
4. Add half of the garlic, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp paprika, half of the package of beef stew seasonings, 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, onion, 2 cups of beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery to the slow cooker.
5. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 4-6 hours. As the liquid evaporates, occasionally add additional beef broth to compensate. When there are 1-2 hours remaining in the cooking time, add reserved garlic, bay leaf, paprika, stew seasonings, Worcestershire sauce seasoning salt and black pepper to slow cooker.

Recommendations

• Pair with some freshly-baked biscuits, mashed potatoes or a loaf of warm, crusty bread.
• This recipe can be sized up very nicely but you'll need a large slow cooker. I found that increasing all ingredients by a factor of about 1.5 filled my 6 quart slow cooker very nicely (within an inch of the lid) and generated enough food for a full week of leftovers.