Beef Stew Recipe Without Wine

Beef stew recipe without wine on the stove is great. You can make in a Dutch Oven or large pot right at home. This is one of our favorite beef stew meat recipes with potatoes and lots of other vegetables with a thick gravy you’ll drool over.

If you buy meat in bulk like we do you could choose to use an arm roast diced into bite size pieces, or even a few thick cuts of steak works too. Comes out fork tender either way.

You CAN in fact make stew without wine and make it taste fantastic. If you find you don’t have any on hand or don’t want to add alcohol to your meal we have another version just for you! You can make Dutch Oven stew on the stovetop or in the oven. Both turn out great. (affiliate links present)

Beef Stew Recipe Without Wine Stovetop

The best thing about this dish is you can add a ton of vegetables in it. If you only want to use some meat and make it healthier, I would try our cabbage stew recipe instead. I don’t know about y’all but this type of throw in the protein, veggies and make a gravy with it was part of my childhood.

Beef Stew Without Wine Slow Cooker

My mom and dad worked full time so at the end of the day she was exhausted. Sometimes she would make this as a slow cooker beef stew with onion soup mix style if she remembered in the morning. If not this was the way to go. Two reasons it was always on the menu was it was cheap, and fell apart in your mouth.

Beef Stew with Frozen Stew Meat

Back then we always used stew meat right out of the package. It was the most inexpensive choice and when cooked for a really long time got super tender. We didn’t know then how to cook frozen stew meat but using pressure cooker or low and slow on the stove you could start off rock hard and it will get just as tender without much of a cooking time difference.

When it comes to vegetables there are a few that are expected to be in this pot. Peeled carrots chopped into really large pieces are a must, a thick sliced onion and potatoes would be the main 3. Beyond that you could think outside of the box but would need to choose varieties that are firmer in nature.

Instant Pot Stew without Wine

And you could totally use any cut you wanted, just cut up into large bite size pieces. We do the same thing when making our pressure cooker stew. If you want to make it the old fashioned way this time, or over the campfire, we have the answer for you.

What to Make with Beef Stew Meat

This is the most popular option, an Old Fashioned favorite. Beyond the regular 3 veggies you could use whole fresh green beans with the ends cut off, celery in large chunks and/or mushrooms thrown in halfway thru. As far as the sauce goes you can thin it out with more broth or thicken with some roux.

Ingredients

• Stew meat, beef chuck roast, pot roast cut into large chunks or you could use bear meat even
• Olive oil
• Baby potatoes halved, or large cut into 8ths
• An onion sliced
• 1 carrot peeled, cut into large chunks
• A few stalks of celery cut into large chunks
• Minced garlic
• Worchestershire sauce
• Soy sauce
• Beef broth or beef stock works
• Some flour or cornstarch will help thicken the sauce
• 2 bay leaves

This really is a one pot comfort food meal (without red wine) but some want to serve it with something else. You could have two bowls, one for your beef stew without wine and the other for a salad I suppose. Or pour some over a bed of mashed potatoes…because in Idaho you can never have too many taters. 😉

How to Cook Stew without Wine Dutch Oven

• Rinse and pat dry the beef pieces, cut into 1 inch pieces. Put in a bowl, add salt, pepper and olive oil. Stir.
• Fry the beef over medium high heat in portions in a hot pan so that a fried crust forms over the entire surface of the beef. Transfer to a saucepan or Dutch oven and scrape off browned bits.
• Pour the broth, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce into the pan you fried the stew meat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Pour this into the stew pan with the beef.
• Add bay leaves and garlic, cover the pot and stew on low heat for 1 hour until you get tender chunks of meat.
• At that time add your sliced onion, carrots, and celery into a hot skillet. Fry on medium heat for 5-6 minutes, add that into your pot.
• Wash baby potatoes and cut into halves. Fry for 7-8 minutes on medium heat, then transfer to your pot.
• Mix everything thoroughly and leave to simmer on low heat for another 30 minutes with the lid on.
  • you may want to add more time to get everything as tender as you want it to be
  • long cooking time will break down the connective tissues and make the protein tender and easier to chew
• Stir after 15 minutes. Mix flour in 2 tbsp of water and pour into the saucepan you’ve been browning things in.
• If there is not enough broth, add more (broth or water) to create a roux to thicken your stew.

Pour this into your pot and cover again for last 15 minutes or until your meat and potatoes are as tender as you want. Remove bay leaves and serve.

What can I use instead of wine in beef stew?

If you prefer not to use wine in beef stew, there are several alternatives that can still add depth and flavor to the dish like beef broth, red grape juice, tomato juice, balsamic vinegar, beer or even pomegranate juice will provide the pop of flavor you are looking for.