Dutch Oven Beef Stew

 More Dutch oven.  Why not? It's absolutely delightful and so easy.

First of all, this calls for "stew meat." What is stew meat? Google says round steak or chuck steak. Take your pick.

We tried this 3 ways over the course of the winter. First we added the potatoes into the stew as the recipe suggests. That was fine. Unremarkable but fine. Then we skipped the potatoes in the stew, made a separate bowl of mashed potatoes, and served the stew over those. Oh yes, this is how it was intended to be. The pure definition of warm comfort food. Last, we put the stew over white rice made separately. That was Jeff's favorite.

Ultimately, my suggestion is to skip the potatoes in the stew and make whatever starch you want for your bowl, whether it's mashed potatoes or rice.

Beef Stew
Adapted from here

1 tbsp butter
2lbs stew meat, diced
1/2 cup flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Paprika
Thyme
1 cup dry red wine
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 small can tomato paste (about 2-3 tablespoons)
2 bay leaves
2 1/2 cups beef broth
2 large onions, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
3 russet potatoes, diced (OPTIONAL)
  1. In a gallon bag, dump the flour, some salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and thyme. Add in the stew meat and seal. Shake the bag, coating the stew meat in the flour mixture completely.
  2. In the Dutch oven, melt butter. Dump in the meat, trying not to dump in all of the flour from the bag. Discard extra flour. Brown the meat on all sides, about 5 minutes.
  3. Remove meat from pot. Pour in wine and vinegar. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pan, stirring the wine to incorporate all the browned bits.
  4. Add meat back to the pot, as well as the vegetables (NOT the potatoes, if you are using them). Mix in tomato paste and all of the seasonings again. Pour in the beef broth and add in the 2 bay leaves. 
  5. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 2 hours or until meat is tender. If you are cooking the potatoes in the stew, add them in about 30 minutes before you intend to serve.
  6. Discard bay leaves and add more broth to thin if desired.

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