Baked for 4 hours, this Easy Beef Stew is hearty, tasty, and filling. The perfect dinnertime meal that you can serve up on a cool winter’s night that is comforting and effortless.
Comfort meals for us are in full swing, now that the weather is cooling off, we want all the warm and hearty foods, and this Easy Beef Stew is one of them.
With hearty ingredients, this is quick to throw together in one bowl and pop in a baking dish, and let the oven do the rest of the work for you.
When I say that this is easy, I truly mean it. There is not much effort put towards the actual preparation, and that is my favorite part, easy, and you get a tasty meal in the end.
Serve this over mashed potatoes or egg noodles, and you have yourself a meal that will fill your belly and keep you satisfied.
If you are looking for that comfort food that doesn’t take much effort, look no further, this Easy Beef Stew is all that you need.
Some of my other favorite comfort foods that we have on our site include: Homemade Lasagna, Easy Meatloaf and Chicken Pot Pie Soup.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- The oven does most of the work for you.
- This feeds a crowd.
- You can serve it as is or over mashed potatoes or noodles.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE BELOW):
- Beef stew meat
- Carrots
- Sweet onion
- Celery
- Condensed tomato soup
- Kosher salt
- Granulated sugar
- Bay leaf
- Frozen peas
- Mashed potatoes to serve
- Fresh chopped parsley to serve
HOW TO MAKE EASY BEEF STEW:
- Preheat the oven to 300°F. Spray a 2.5-quart baking dish with cooking spray, set aside.
- If the stew meat is in large chunks, cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the beef, carrots, onion, celery, tomato soup, salt, and sugar into a large bowl, stir to combine and everything is coated in the soup. Add this mixture to the prepared baking dish.
- Tuck the bay leaf into the stew. Cover with foil and cook for 4 hours or until the beef is tender and the liquid has slightly thickened. We like to stir it every hour or so to see how it is doing. You can start testing the meat at the 3-hour mark to see if it is tender. The smaller the chunks, the faster it will cook.
- Add the peas and mix them into the stew. Cover for 5 minutes so the peas thaw and warm. Serve over mashed potatoes with parsley garnish if using.
WHAT IS THE BEST SIZE DISH TO BAKE THIS STEW IN?
You can use any 2.5-quart baking dish that you have. Also, a 9x9x3-inch baking dish is the same size as 2.5 quart, if you are unsure of the size, it will usually say on the bottom of your baking dish.
DO I HAVE TO SERVE THIS OVER SOMETHING?
Now a lot of the time you don’t think of serving Beef Stew over things, but this recipe we love to serve this over mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
You absolutely can enjoy it all by itself in a bowl as well. We don’t add potatoes to this recipe, so we use the mashed potatoes as the potato element for this dish.
HOW LONG DOES THIS NEED TO BAKE?
This usually will take about 4 hours to bake to make sure that the stew meat is tender, you can start to check the meat after 3 hours.
If you use smaller chunks of meat, it will cook faster, so that is why I recommend checking after 3 hours for tenderness, but usually, 4 hours is the length of time needed.
HOW TO STORE:
This Easy Beef Stew can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it will keep for 4 days.
You can also freeze this by placing it in a freezer container where it will keep for 3 months.
Defrost in the refrigerator overnight until thawed, and reheat in the microwave, on the stove, or in the oven until warmed through.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- We have never tested this with potatoes directly in the stew, so we do not know how it will turn out.
- You can serve this plain and not over anything.
- This can be frozen, see above on tips to do that.
- Make sure that you use a 2.5-quart baking dish, this is essential to how the stew will turn out.
Love that delicious, comforting, and hearty meal on a cool winter’s day? Then this Easy Beef Stew will warm you up from the inside out.
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If you’ve tried this EASY BEEF STEW let me know in the comments how it turned out! You can follow me over on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM OR FACEBOOK to find some more of our mouthwatering recipes!
Easy Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef stew meat
- 4 carrots peeled and 1/2 inch slice
- 1 small sweet onion large diced
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 10.75 ounce can condensed tomato soup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 ½ cups frozen peas
- Mashed potatoes to serve
- Fresh chopped parsley to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F. Spray a 2.5-quart baking dish with cooking spray, set aside.
- If the stew meat is in large chunks, cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the beef, carrots, onion, celery, tomato soup, salt, and sugar into a large bowl, stir to combine and everything is coated in the soup. Add this mixture to the prepared baking dish.
- Tuck the bay leaf into the stew. Cover with foil and cook for 4 hours or until the beef is tender and the liquid has slightly thickened. We like to stir it every hour or so to see how it is doing. You can start testing the meat at the 3-hour mark to see if it is tender. The smaller the chunks, the faster it will cook.
- Add the peas and mix them into the stew. Cover for 5 minutes so the peas thaw and warm. Serve over mashed potatoes with parsley garnish if using.
Notes
- We have never tested this with potatoes directly in the stew, so we do not know how it will turn out.
- You can serve this plain and not over anything.
- This can be frozen, see above on tips to do that.
- Make sure that you use a 2.5-quart baking dish, this is essential to how the stew will turn out.
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