The simplest slow cooker beef casserole

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4.86 from 21 votes

This slow cooker beef casserole, is both comforting, and simple, perfect comfort food for the winter. Fall-apart tender beef in a rich thick gravy. My slow cooker beef stew is taken back to the basics, with just 6 ingredients, and will become a firm favourite you will make all winter long!

Servings: servings

Author: Helen Best-Shaw

Prep Time10

Cook Time8

Total Time8 10

Ingredients

2 tbs dripping - 1
2 onions - 2
500 g beef - 3
2 tbs flour
250 ml beef stock - 4
125 ml red wine - 5

Instructions

Prepare the ingredients - Peel and dice the onions, and cut the beef into evenly sized cubes about 1".
500 g beef, 2 onions
Fry the onions - Put half of the dripping into a large frying pan. Melt over a medium heat, add the onions for a few minutes until they soften and start to get some colour round the edges.
2 tbs dripping
Fry the beef - Fry the cubes of beef in batches, adding more dripping as needed.
Don’t be tempted to cram it all in at once. There should be space around each piece to ensure that it browns properly.
Cook for several minutes over a medium heat turning from time to time. As each cube browns, transfer it to the slow cooker pot, replacing it with with a fresh piece. If you can have two pans on the go at once to speed things up
This will take a good 10-15 minutes. Don’t rush, as taking your time does make a difference to the flavour.
Add the flour - When frying off the last batch of beef, stir in the flour. This should absorb all the remaining fat. Cook for a few minutes and transfer to the slow cooker pot.
2 tbs flour
Deglaze the pan - Deglaze the frying pan with some of the stock, pouring a little in to loosen anything left in the pan. Add this to the casserole dish or slow cooker, along with the rest of the stock and wine.
Then give it all a good stir. The beef should be almost entirely covered in liquid. If not, add a little water.
250 ml beef stock, 125 ml red wine
Cook - Set the slow cooker to high and cook until the casserole is simmering. Then turn down to low and cook for 5 to 8 hours, until the beef is tender.
If the casserole needs thickening, prop the lid of the cooker open with a wooden spoon for the last half hour, so some of the liquid can evaporate.

To Oven Cook

Cook in the oven for two and a half hours at 150°C / 300°F / GM 2.

Notes

Ingredients Notes

Dripping - I far prefer dripping as the taste is so much nicer, ideally use beef dripping. Duck or goose fat would also work, as would ghee. A vegetable oil would be my last choice.
Onions - regular brown onions – you do not need anything fancy. You can also use ready chopped frozen onions, although these will take a bit longer for fry off in the first stage of cooking.
Beef - Stewing or braising steak – ideally with a little fat on it. This casserole is slowly cooked for a long time so the tougher (and more flavoursome) and cheaper cuts of meat are ideal here. Beef shin would work well.
Beef Stock - I find that many commercial beef stocks are very strong and can overwhelm the dish. I make up half strength and taste half way though cooking - you can easily add a little more.
Wine - a decent wine that you would be happy to drink

To Oven Cook

Cook in the smallest casserole dish, with a well fitting lid, that will hold all the ingredients. Cooking too small a quantity in a large casserole will often lead to a dried out stew.

To double

This recipe is easy to scale up (I do not recommend scaling down).
When scaling up add add less liquid. A good rule is that if you double the ingredients only add about 1.66 of the liquid.

• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

• Unless stated otherwise cup conversions have been made with an online tool. For accuracy please check with your favoured conversion tool. We recommend buying inexpensive digital kitchen scales.