Beef Stew Delight

Here is to day #1 of the Crock Pot Challenge! Nothing better than a Monday Beef Stew cooking while you care for your sick kiddo!  Scroll down verdict!!

Total Cooktime: 6-8 hours

What you will need:

•  2-3 lbs. boneless chuck, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 Cups of Chicken Broth
• 2 Cups of Beef Broth (Use your judgement I always notice it calls for more than a recipe states, use what you like, I love my Beef Stew Chunky!)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 onion, sliced then chopped into peices
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 cup beer (be creative! use a beer you normally don’t have!)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup of baby carrots
• 3 Celery Stalks, chopped
• 3 Large Red Potatoes, chopped into 1 in pieces
• 3/4 cup of frozen string beans

Fill a ziplock bag with 1/2 cup of flour. Dump in the beef cubes and coat thoroughly.

Get out a saute pan and melt the butter. Brown the beef cubes just until all sides have been seared. Drain off the excess fat.

In your crockpot combine the meat, onion, salt, pepper, garlic and beer. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours (all day) until the meat is tender.

Crank the crockpot up to high. Add the string beans and combine the remaining 1/4 cup flour in a small amount of water (about 4T). Stir into the crockpot and cook on high for an additional 30-40 minutes.

THE VERDICT IS IN:
OK so I changed a few things and went wrong with a few things, I’ve never made a Beef Stew like this before, my mom has always thickened it and I never did until now but It made me remember how much better it is when it’s thickened!! So I didn’t brown the meat first, I never do, I always think with it’s a crock pot meal I don’t want to do ANY WORK LOL….nothing but put the items in the crock pot!! But I do know browning the meat gives it more flavor. I feel like something was missing as far as liquid is concerned because once I put everything in the crockpot and added the 2 Cups of beer to it, it only filled half the crock!! SO I went to add broth and low and behold I was out of beef broth so I had no choice but to use chicken broth, I just used enough to cover the rest of the veggies. It cooked awesome then the last hour I started mixing a tablespoon of flour with 1/4 cup of cold water, mixed it in a separate bowl, then poured that mixture into the crockpot and after doing that 3 different times it was thickened to how I wanted it!! Believe it or not with the fact that I didn’t brown the meat and used chicken broth instead of beef it was still really good! I love that kind of meat, my husbands review was that if I had used Beef broth the thinks it would have given it the taste it lacked….I just added pepper and it was yum!!! So those are my suggestions!!