This Dutch Oven Beef Stew is a cozy one pot dinner made with tender beef tips, potatoes, carrots, peas, and a rich, thick gravy. Everything simmers together on the stovetop until the beef is tender and the vegetables are soft and flavorful.
It is the kind of cold weather comfort meal that makes the whole kitchen smell amazing. If you want a faster version, try my Instant Pot Beef Stew. For more Dutch oven dinners, you might also like Dutch Oven Pot Roast, Short Rib Ragu, and Dutch Oven Chili.
Quick Look: Dutch Oven Beef Stew
- ⏱️ Ready in: About 2 hours 30 minutes.
- 🍽️ Serves: 6 people.
- 🏡 Best for: Fall and winter dinners, Sunday supper, cozy meal prep, and cold weather comfort food.
- ❤️ Why you’ll love it: The flour coated beef browns beautifully, then slowly simmers with potatoes, carrots, and peas in a thick homemade gravy.
- 🥘 Flavor profile: Savory beef, sweet carrots and peas, tender potatoes, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and rich gravy.
- 🎯 Best paired with: Serve it with Easy Dinner Rolls or Potato Rolls.
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“This recipe works exactly as expected, creating a rich, thick stew gravy. Use decent quality stewing beef to ensure tenderness.”
– Molly Reynolds
Why This Recipe Works
- Flour helps build a thick gravy. Coating the beef before searing helps the meat brown and naturally thickens the stew as it simmers.
- Browning the beef adds flavor. Searing the beef tips creates browned bits on the bottom of the pot that flavor the whole stew.
- The Dutch oven keeps the heat steady. It is ideal for slowly simmering beef until tender without scorching the gravy when stirred occasionally.
- The vegetables go in at the right time. Potatoes and carrots are added after the beef starts to tenderize, so they cook through without turning mushy.
- Tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce add depth. They give the gravy rich, savory flavor without needing red wine.
Key Ingredients
- Beef tips. Beef chuck roast is the best cut for stew because it becomes tender after simmering. You can buy it already cubed or cut it yourself.
- All-purpose flour. Flour helps the beef form a browned crust and thickens the gravy as the stew cooks.
- Onion, celery, and carrots. Together, onion, celery, and carrots create a classic mirepoix, which is the flavor base for many soups, stews, and braised dishes.
- Tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce. These two ingredients add richness, color, and deep savory flavor.
- Chicken stock. I like Chicken Stock because it balances the flavor, but beef stock also works if you prefer a deeper beef flavor.
- Yukon potatoes and carrots. Yukon potatoes become creamy but still hold their shape, while carrots add sweetness.
- Frozen peas. Add them at the end so they stay bright and tender instead of overcooking.
Substitutions and Additions
- Beef broth: Use beef broth instead of chicken stock if you want a stronger beef flavor.
- Gluten-free thickener: Some readers have used arrowroot flour instead of all-purpose flour. You can also use a cornstarch slurry near the end if needed.
- Extra vegetables: Mushrooms, parsnips, green beans, or pearl onions can be added depending on what you have. Add quicker-cooking vegetables near the end.
- Red wine: You do not need wine for this recipe, but you can replace part of the stock with dry red wine if you like that flavor.
- Potatoes: Yukon gold or baby potatoes work best. Russet potatoes can soften more and may break apart in the stew.
How to make Dutch Oven Beef Stew
The full printable recipe is in the recipe card below, but this is the basic process. The most important step is browning the beef in batches so the stew develops a deep, rich flavor.
- Coat the beef. Pat the beef dry, season with salt and pepper, then toss it with flour until the pieces are coated on all sides.
- Sear in batches. Brown the beef in a hot Dutch oven with olive oil. Do not overcrowd the pot or the beef will steam instead of sear.
- Build the gravy base. Cook the onion and celery until soft, then stir in garlic, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce. Add the stock and scrape up the browned bits.
- Simmer until tender. Return the beef to the pot, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender.
- Add vegetables. Add diced potatoes and carrots, cook until tender.
- Add peas. Stir in frozen peas for the last few minutes.
Expert Tips
- Brown the beef in a single layer. If you overcrowd the pot, the meat releases liquid and boils instead of browning. Work in batches for the best flavor.
- Shake off excess flour. Too much loose flour can burn on the bottom of the pot. Coat the beef, then lightly shake off the extra before searing.
- Scrape up the browned bits. When you add the stock, use a wooden spoon to loosen the fond from the bottom of the Dutch oven. That is where a lot of the flavor is.
- Stir occasionally. Especially after adding potatoes and carrots, stir the stew from time to time so nothing sticks to the bottom.
- Simmer gently. Keep the heat low after the stew comes to a boil. A gentle simmer helps the beef become tender.
- Adjust the thickness at the end. If the stew is too thick, add a splash of stock or water. If it is too thin, simmer uncovered for a few minutes.
What to serve with it
Dutch oven beef stew is already a complete meal with beef, potatoes, carrots, and peas, so you can keep the sides simple.
For bread, serve it with Easy Dinner Rolls or Potato Rolls to soak up the gravy. If you want an extra cozy plate, spoon the stew over Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes.
Dutch Oven Beef Stew FAQs
A Dutch oven is made with cast iron, which helps retain heat and cook evenly. Because beef stew cooks slowly, this type of pot helps the meat braise gently and keeps the stew from burning when you stir it occasionally.
The best meat for beef stew is beef chuck roast. You can cut it yourself or buy it already cut into cubes as stew meat.
The key to tender stew meat is to let it slowly simmer until the beef has time to break down. Depending on the size of the beef pieces, it usually needs at least 1 hour before you add the vegetables to the pot.
You don’t have to. I prefer beef stew without red wine. Instead, I add tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce for rich, complex flavor.
More cozy dinner recipes
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If you make this Dutch Oven Beef Stew recipe, I’d love for you to leave a rating and comment below. Your feedback helps other readers and gives them useful tips before they try the recipe themselves.
Dutch Oven Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef tips trimmed from excess fat
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 pound Yukon potatoes diced
- 1 pound carrots diced
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Pat dry 2 pounds beef tips. If it has too much fat pieces, you can trim them, so the stew won’t be too fatty.
- Place the meet in a bowl, season well with salt and pepper and mix well. Then add ⅓ cup all-purpose flour and toss everything, so the meat pieces are covered with flour from all sides.
- Preheat a Dutch oven with 3 tbsp olive oil over medium/high heat.
- Shake off the excess flour from the meat and place the pieces in the pot in a single layer. Sear for a few minutes on each side, until brown. It’s better to sear the meat in batches, not to overcrowd the pot.
- When done, transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Then lower the heat to low/medium and add a chopped onion and celery to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes or until they soften and start to caramelize.
- Add 2 smashed cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp tomato paste, and 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce. Stir and cook for a minute.
- Then add 6 cups chicken broth and the browned beef tips with the juices.
- Bring the pot to boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover with the lid and let it simmer for one hour or until the meat is tender.
- When done, add diced potatoes and carrots, cover with the lid, and continue cooking for about another 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked through.
- Add frozen peas and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Brown the beef in a single layer. If you overcrowd the pot, the meat releases liquid and boils instead of browning. Work in batches for the best flavor.
- Shake off excess flour. Too much loose flour can burn on the bottom of the pot. Coat the beef, then lightly shake off the extra before searing.
- Scrape up the browned bits. When you add the stock, use a wooden spoon to loosen the fond from the bottom of the Dutch oven. That is where a lot of the flavor is.
- Stir occasionally. Especially after adding potatoes and carrots, stir the stew from time to time so nothing sticks to the bottom.
- Simmer gently. Keep the heat low after the stew comes to a boil. A gentle simmer helps the beef become tender.
- Adjust the thickness at the end. If the stew is too thick, add a splash of stock or water. If it is too thin, simmer uncovered for a few minutes.
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published in 2018, but was republished with new photos, step by step instructions, tips, and FAQs in September of 2022.
Why is it so liquidity when I added carrots and potatoes? Stew is usually thick
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Why not use beef broth instead of chicken?
Hi Renea. I prefer to use chicken broth to balance the flavors. But you easily can substitute it with beef broth.
I made this today and it’s delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
Thank you so much, Gail!
I made this last night for St. Patrick’s day dinner and loved it!! I am gluten free but subbed flour with Arrowroot flour and it worked perfectly. My only recommendation is stir frequently after you put the vegetables in and lid on. I left my house for 30 minutes (with my husband home) after I put the veggies in, on simmer with the lid on and the potatoes stuck to the bottom and burned a bit. My house smelled amazing and this is my new favorite stew! I will be making it again for sure.
Hi Lindsey! So happy you enjoyed the recipe! Also, you always need to stir the stews occasionally to make sure that nothing is getting stuck at the bottom or gets burnt.
Has anyone tried to freeze this before?
it’s such a complete “brain save” for me. I literally do nothing.The texture ends up being a tad different, but not enough that my family has ever noticed. The kids love having it cooked in baggies too because I will keep some in the fridge and it makes them much more apt to cook up something on their own.
CrazyAsk
These meatballs are so good. My family loves them…kids included. They’ve become my “go to” turkey meatball recipe. I’ve made them quite a few times and finally decided I should say thank you for a good recipe. Thank you
Kelly Hubbard
It was delicious. I used celery and peppers but all the same, my daughter and I enjoyed it
Thank you, Leora! I’m so happy to hear that you and your daughter enjoyed this stew!
Got stew meat for good price at Costco & looked for recipe. I made this recipe for dinner tonight exactly, except I used 4.2lbs of meat, did not use flour, to stay gluten free, cooked meat in small batches like noted. It turned out delicious! Definitely saving this recipe to make again. Thanks!
This recipe works exactly as expected, creating a rich, thick stew gravy. Use decent quality stewing beef to ensure tenderness. I made it with the epicurious one-a-day baguette recipe (https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/one-a-day-baguette-14497/amp). If you mix the bread dough before starting this recipe they will both be ready in 2.5 hours and you’ll have rich stew and crusty bread!