Best Beef Dutch Oven Stew

This easy Dutch Oven stew is hearty & will bring you back to your childhood! Packed with tender beef stew meat, carrots, potatoes and other vegetables, it’s the perfect dinner or camping meal.

Camp Stew Recipe

I was new to the whole idea of a dutch oven but saw one on a cooking show and was intrigued. Now I LOVE my cast iron skillet so a cast iron pot had to be amazing right??

And no you don’t only use these if you’re camping, that is not my kind of vacation. Using it right on your stovetop is amazing because anything and everything inside stays so moist and just falls apart. You can use beef as you see here or make Creamy Chicken Stew in it too.

Stew in Dutch Oven

Dutch Oven Stew Meat

So why a cast iron dutch oven?? Well if you don’t have one you can check out the one I have here. Cast iron pans in general cook or bakes everything more evenly than a pan that has hot spots, and it maintains great flavors the more you use it.

You see you don’t want to scrub scrub this pan or pot. You merely rinse it off and over the years it becomes “seasoned” as they say.

My pan was my husband’s grandmothers and it still looks great (as opposed to my Teflon pans that are totally shot after a few years). They may look kinda’ icky but once you make something in them you will be a believer too in no time.

Beef Stew Dutch Oven

If you’re around my age (40ish) you surely had stew growing up, beef stew is most common. I bet your mom was like mine and made it almost every weekend because everything could be cooked together, it was inexpensive, and her mom made it for her so it was just part of her DNA (and now yours).

Crockpots were big “back in the day” and I remember many many stew dinners cooked in that. That was good but seriously this dutch oven beef stew is WAY better!! It is super easy to throw it in your cast iron pot too!

You literally throw everything in except the potatoes and mushrooms if you choose to add those. Then add them halfway thru. Stir and serve!

• No need to thicken the sauce at the end. It is plenty thick and hearty when you take the lid off at the end of 3 hours total.

Throw in some rolls and voila, you’ve got yourself the perfect comfort food ever!

Dutch Oven Stew

This is what I used. Of course you can tweak it as you wish but if it’s something new you’ve never done you might want to stick with my specifics.

1. Dutch oven – this is the one I have
2. Stew meat or beef tips
3. Small red potatoes – I buy the bag of baby ones that is about 1.5 lbs. at the store, quarter them, and use the whole thing
4. Carrots – buy the mini snackable ones and just halve them
5. Flour – as a thickener
6. Diced tomatoes – I like the petite version
7. Tomato sauce will thicken it up
8. Onions are great to add a bit of texture and flavor too, white or yellow are best
9. Spices – I gently season and then add a bit of salt when served because everyone is different

Can I use chuck roast for stew meat?

If you use an already tender cut cut of beef, it will dry out and get tough as the stew cooks. It’s actually best to go with a tougher variety. The best beef stew meat is a boneless chuck roast. It doesn’t dry out, and offers up all the rich flavor you want in a beef stew

Dutch Oven Beef Stew Without Wine

If yo do not want to add alcohol into your meal you don’t need to. The reason people do this is because it will deepen the color and flavor of the overall dish. Most of the alcohol will cook off but some will be left, maybe 15% so there is an easy option to use something else. Beef broth works just great as far as I’m concerned.

What is also great about dutch oven recipes is that you can use the pot when you’re camping too!! That is right, if you have a grill on site you can set on top of indirect heat. OR use a grate over your campfire and heat until your meat is fork tender. Both of these methods will likely take longer since heat isn’t even.

• It’s so fun to cook just about everything over a campfire. Here are some other easy camping recipes if you’re looking for that.
• Even baking bread in a Dutch Oven is fun! So yummy too.
• If you want to cook a dutch oven roast we have instructions for that too.

You can also make this Crock pot slow cooked stew we love to make at home. OR choose one of our Instant Pot stew meat recipes.

If you want a shorter cook time, you can follow this Instant Pot beef tips version that is heavy on the protein, or pressure cooker stew here.

Dutch Oven Beef Recipe

Here are a few questions you might have in mind before you get started on this. If you have others please ask below in the comment section and I will try to help you out as soon as possible. Step by step directions in the printable recipe card should help you get it just right though.

Beef Stew Dutch Oven Stovetop

To thin any of these out you can add some beef broth or chicken broth. 1/2 cup of red wine can also be used for bolder flavors. If you wanted to cook this on the stove it would take about the same timing set on medium high heat. You’d want to stir this every 15 minutes or so to rotate ingredients for an even cook.

• After this try our dutch oven corned beef and cabbage. It’s not just for St.Patricks Day!
• And dutch oven ham for Easter time.

Put stew meat inside your dutch oven with onions, carrots, salt, oregano, w. sauce, and diced tomatoes. Pour beef broth on top ensuring all beef is covered and most veggies too. Add a bit more than 12 oz. if you are adding more ingredients. I do not choose to brown beef over medium high heat beforehand but you could.

Whisk together your flour and tomato sauce in a small bowl and pour it on top of your mixture in the dutch oven, stir until combined and coated. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes. Take out, add quartered potatoes and mushrooms if you’re adding those.  Recover and cook an additional 90 minutes.

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