Small Crock Pot Beef Stew (2024)

4.41 from 76 votes

Everybody will love this delicious Crock Pot Beef Stew with tender meat and vegetables. The ultimate comfort food that will warm you to the bone.

This small-batch beef stew recipe is ideal for a small household or is quickly doubled to full size. Or make it even smaller for only two servings.

🐄Ingredients

Beef—pre-cut stew meat or trimmed sirloin tip or chuck roast
Vegetables—Yukon gold or red potatoes, carrots, frozen peas
Aromatics—onion and garlic
Pantry ingredients—beef broth, tomato paste, soy sauce, salt, pepper
Optional ingredients—flour for browning, dry thyme, bay leaf
Thickening—tapioca or cornstarch

👨‍🍳How to Make Crock Pot Beef Stew

Pre-cut stew beef or trim about 1 ½ to 2 pounds of boneless chuck roast or sirloin tip into 1-inch cubes. Give it a light dusting of flour and place in hot oil over medium-high heat in the large skillet—brown for about 7-8 minutes. Move the meat to the crock pot, but keep any liquid in the pan.

While browning meat, peel 2 carrots and cut them into ½ inch thick medallions. Scrub ½ pound of Yukon Gold or red potatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Other potatoes could be used, but if using russet potatoes, peel them.

Dice 1 medium onion and crush or mince 2 cloves of garlic. Add onion, 3 ounces of tomato paste, and ¼ tsp salt into the hot pan. Cook until onions are soft and lightly browned. Add the garlic for the last minute.

When the onion is ready, add 1 cup of beef broth to the pan and scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

Add all ingredients except the peas to the crock pot and stir well. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Add the frozen peas for the last hour of cooking.

For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.

⏰How long to cook

On low, this takes 8 hours, and on high, it takes 4-5 hours. Some beef may take a bit longer, so check the meat and potatoes for tenderness and extend the time by an hour or two if needed.

Meat tips

• You can use pre-cut stew beef or cut your own from sirloin tip or chuck roast.
• The more marbling, the more tender the results.
• Using soy sauce will enhance the beef flavor. Many recipes use Worcestershire sauce, which you can use instead. The tomato paste also will boost the beef taste.

Vegetable tips

• The potatoes can be any potatoes. If you use russet potatoes, they should be peeled. If you use the specified Yukon Gold or red potatoes, you don't need to peel them.
• You will get about 1 cup of cubed potatoes from ½ pound of potatoes.
• Do not cube the potatoes or the carrots too small, or they can easily overcook.
• Other common additions include celery, green beans, parsnips, and sweet potatoes.

Cooking tips

• The secret to tender beef stew is not to undercook the stew. Cook until the meat and vegetables are tender.
• You can skip the browning of the meat, and cooking the onion on the stovetop will only cause a minor change in outcome. Just dumping the ingredients into the crock pot works.
• Like all stews and soups, a little more or less of the meat or vegetable will be fine.
• It is acceptable in the crock pot on the "keep warm" setting for an hour or a bit more if needed for your timing.

Other crock pot stew and soup recipes

Check out these tasty Crock Pot Chicken Stew. For some classic soups, try Crock Pot French Onion Soup, Crock Pot Ham Bone and Bean Soup, Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup, and Crock Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup.

↕️How to make this a "for two" or "family size" recipe

This is a very easy recipe to cut in half or double. The full recipe makes about 8 cups of 4 large servings. Perfect for our "for two" household for two meals.

Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to half or double.

1. Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
2. The half recipe will fit in a 2-quart mini crock pot.
3. A double recipe fits in a 6-quart or larger crock pot.
4. Cook for the same amount of time.

❄️Leftovers—storage and reheating

Store leftover beef stew in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days or in a freezer for 3 months.

To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator first if frozen. Then reheat on the stovetop in a saucepan over medium heat, but the microwave will work, too.

❓FAQs

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Small Crock Pot Beef Stew

Everybody will love this delicious crock pot beef stew with tender meat and vegetables. The ultimate comfort food that will warm you to the bone. This smaller beef stew recipe is ideal for a small household or is quickly doubled to full size.

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Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print. Otherwise step-by-step photos are in the post.

Your Own Private Notes

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories : 434 kcal (22%)Carbohydrates : 24 g (8%)Protein : 37 g (74%)Fat : 22 g (34%)Saturated Fat : 10 g (50%)Cholesterol : 117 mg (39%)Sodium : 951 mg (40%)Potassium : 1283 mg (37%)Fiber : 4 g (16%)Sugar : 6 g (7%)Vitamin A : 5472 IU (109%)Vitamin C : 20 mg (24%)Calcium : 63 mg (6%)Iron : 5 mg (28%)

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

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