Red Wine Beef Stew
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Looking for the ultimate comfort food? This hearty red wine beef stew is exactly what you need. The combination of red wine, fresh herbs, and slow-cooked beef creates a restaurant-quality dish that’s perfect for both casual family dinners and special occasions!
While I love making my quick Italian beef sandwiches for game day, my crowd-pleasing stuffed pepper stew, or my warming beef barley soup, sometimes you need a slow-cooked, deeply flavored stew that fills your home with incredible aromas. This red wine beef stew delivers rich flavor, tender meat, and perfectly cooked vegetables in every bite.
If you are feeling especially hungry, grab a loaf of fresh crusty bread, and dunk chunks of that into the gravy – it’s sooo amazing.
Why Make This?
- Perfect one-pot meal that’s great for meal prep
- Rich, complex flavor from red wine and fresh herbs
- Can be made on stovetop or in slow cooker
- Make-ahead friendly (it gets nice and thick)
Ingredients Notes
- Beef: Choose chuck roast or pre-cut stew meat. The key is using a tough cut that becomes tender with slow cooking. Cut pieces uniformly for even cooking. See this chart for more information on different beef cuts.
- Red Wine: Use a dry red wine you’d drink – cabernet sauvignon or merlot work well. Can substitute with additional beef stock if needed.
- Vegetables: The classic combination of carrots, celery, and potatoes provides perfect texture and flavor. Feel free to add mushrooms or parsnips for variation.
- Stock: Homemade beef stock will elevate the flavor, but a good quality store-bought stock works well too.
Show above: starting from the top left and going clockwise: Carrots, Worcestershire sauce, salt, flour, potatoes, diced tomatoes, thyme, red wine, oil, celery, beef cubes, black pepper, bay leaves, garlic, onion, and beef stock.
- Another ingredient that did not appear in the group photo was green beans!
- You can also use peas instead if you prefer.
- I had LOADS of frozen fresh green beans so opted to use these.
Methods Overview
- Cut all vegetables and the meat (assuming the meat doesn’t come precut). I feel that chopping the ingredients is the most time consuming part of this recipe but it only took me about 20 minutes.
- Coat the meat with seasoned flour and then add to a large pot with oil and brown (photo 1)
- Remove meat when browned and then add your celery, onions, garlic and spices and continuing cooking until veggies are softened (photo 2)
- Add red wine (photo 3) to deglaze the pot and continuing cooking until the wine cooks off
- Add the remaining ingredients as well as the browned cubes of beef (photos 4 and 5)
- About 20 minutes before the stew is finished cooking, add green beans or peas (photo 6)
Tips & Techniques
- To save time, consider using beef cubes (precut from the grocery store, usually labeled stew meat.)
- Be sure beef is cut into bite sized portions (I find the precut meat is sometimes cut too big and will cut it a little smaller).
- Cut your meat and potatoes uniformly into similar sized pieces to ensure everything will be cooked evenly.
- Suggested cooking times are guides only; cook until your potatoes are nice and tender.
- Check your seasonings when finished!
- You can always add more salt but can’t really take it away it you use too much. When adding salt, do so a little at a time to adjust for your own taste.
- Finally, there is no need to thicken this stew – it will become quite thick especially over time if there is leftover! The starch from the potatoes contributes a lot of thickness as does the floured beef, which is browned for more flavor.
If you tried this recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
📖 Recipe
Red Wine Beef Stew
Easy-to-make, hearty, red wine beef stew is the perfect savory meal for a cold winter night! This version includes green beans or peas for added color and crunch.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (62.5 g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp (1/2 tsp) black pepper
- 2 pounds (907.18 g) cubed beef (see notes)
- 4 tbsp (4 tbsp) oil , plus more if needed
- 1 large (1 large) onion , chopped
- 3 to 4 stalks (3 to 4 stalks) celery , chopped
- 3 cloves (3 cloves) garlic , minced
- 2 tsp (2 tsp) salt , plus more to taste
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) thyme
- 1 cup (236.59 ml) red wine
- 2 cups (256 g) baby carrots , chopped
- 3 to 4 medium (3 to 4 medium) potatoes , chopped
- 1 tbsp (1 tbsp) Worcestershire sauce
- 14.5 ounces (411.07 g) diced tomatoes , 1 can
- 3 small (3 small) bay leaf
- 2 cups (473.18 ml) beef stock
- 1 cup (110 g) green beans , chopped
Instructions
- Combine black pepper with flour
- Coat beef with seasoned flour (you can do this in a large bowl, or a paper bag)
- Heat large large dutch over medium hight heat until hot (about 2 minutes) and then add oil and seasoned beef. Brown the meat over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.
- Remove meat and then add celery, onions, garlic, salt, and thyme to pot and continue cooking for 5 or 6 minutes until vegetable are softened.
- Deglaze the pot of softened vegetables with 1 cup of wine and continue cooking over medium high heat until the wine has reduced to 1/3 or less.
- Return the beef to the pot and add all the remaining ingredients expect for the beans.
- Bring the stew to a boil, then immediately turn the heat down to low and simmer the stew for about 60 minutes.
- Approximately 20 minutes before the stew finishes, add the green beans to the pot and continue cooking.
- Remove bay leaf before serving.
- If using slow cooker instead of pot/dutch oven, you can slow cook for 4 to 5 hours on high or 8 to 9 hours on low (may use slow cooker at step 6, which is when beef is returned to the pot with the vegetables)
Notes
- To save time, consider using beef cubes (precut from the grocery store, usually labeled stew meat.) If that’s not available, use a boneless chuck roast.
- Tougher cuts of beef (chuck or round) are well suited for beef stew, which is traditionally cooked long and slow, a process that tenderizes the meat. See this chart for more information on different beef cuts.
- Be sure beef is cut into bite sized portions (I find the precut meat is sometimes cut too big and will cut it a little smaller).
- Cut your meat and potatoes uniformly into similar sized pieces to ensure everything will be cooked evenly.
- Suggested cooking times are guides only; be sure to cook until your potatoes are nice and tender.
- Using a homemade beef broth would make this especially good if you happen to make your own and keep it in stock.
- Check your seasonings when finished! You can always add more salt but can’t really take it away it you use too much. When adding salt, do so a little at a time to adjust for your own taste.
- Finally, there is no need to thicken this stew with additional flour – it will become quite thick (especially over time if there is leftover)! The starch from the potatoes contributes a lot of thickness as does the floured beef, which is browned for more flavor.
- Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated. May freeze, but potatoes may soften significantly.
Nutrition
Calories: 489kcalCarbohydrates: 35gProtein: 41gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 1117mgPotassium: 1551mgFiber: 6gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 6196IUVitamin C: 26mgCalcium: 131mgIron: 9mg
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Thank you for the recipe. It is cooking now for our dinner. A suggestion you need to look at the instructions for the recipe and add when to put several of the ingredients in during the cooking process. I’m an experienced cook so I knew pretty well when to add them.