This hearty Beef Stew can take the chill off the coldest winter nights. It is chock full of fork tender meat, sweet carrots, potatoes, and savory onions. And best of all, it is gluten free, so everyone in your household can enjoy it.
To make it gluten free, I use potatoes as a thickener instead of the usual flour that most recipes use. To do this, I mash up half of the potatoes, one by one against the side of the pot (use a potholder!) about 90 minutes into the cooking. The potato starch combines with the liquid in the pot to make a thick, stick to your ribs stew.
Another bonus is that most of the cooking is hands off, as the stew braises in the oven for the majority of the cooking time.
Classic Beef Stew
- 2 lbs beef chuck
- 2 medium onions (diced)
- 2 cups carrots (sliced into 1 inch pieces)
- 2 cups celery (sliced into 1/2 inch pieces)
- 5 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1.5 lbs potatoes (peeled and diced)
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 12 oz red wine ((something you would enjoy drinking))
- 3 cups beef stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 5-7 sprigs of thyme (leaves removed, coarsely chopped)
- 4-5 sage leaves (coarsely chopped)
- 2 sprigs of rosemary (leaves removed, coarsely chopped)
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1-2 tbsp grapeseed oil
- Kosher salt
- black pepper
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Trim external fat and silver skin off beef and cut into 1 inch cubes. Heat grapeseed oil over high heat in a Dutch oven (pot). Season beef with a generous pinch of salt. Add enough beef to only cover the surface of the pot. Don’t overfill the pot or meat will steam instead of sear. Sear meat in two batches if necessary. When beef is browned on all sides, remove from pot.
Immediately add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to pot and reduce heat to medium high. Add another pinch of Kosher salt and saute until veggies release some of their moisture. Add tomato paste and stir into veggies. Sauté for another 1-2 min. Add wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to release the fond (the browned bits at the bottom of pot). Add beef to pot, then potatoes, then stock. Add chopped herbs. Bring pot to a boil, then cover.
Place pot covered, but slightly tilted so that a little steam can escape in the oven, on the lowest rack. Cook for 90 minutes. Remove pot from oven, and using a metal or wooden spoon, mash half of the quantity of potatoes against the side of the pot (you will mash the potatoes one by one). This is what will thicken your stew. Once have the potatoes are mashed, stir stew. Place pot back in the oven with the lid on but slightly tilted for another 45-60 minutes. At this point stew should be nicely thickened and meat very tender.
If you want to thicken stew more, place on stove, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, so that liquid reduces but nothing sticks to bottom of pot. Add Worcestershire sauce and season to taste with Kosher salt and black pepper.
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