📋 Old Fashioned Slow Cooker Whiskey Beef Stew

slow cooker beef stew in a blue bowl with slow cooker in the background

5 from 1 vote

📋 Old Fashioned Slow Cooker Whiskey Beef Stew

Make this amazing Old Fashioned Slow Cooker Whiskey Beef Stew with all the tips I gathered from the pros at the Bar U Ranch Chuckwagon Stew Cook-off! This hearty beef stew is made with whiskey, potatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and fresh herbs. It's also gluten-free, dairy-free and Weight Watchers friendly!

Course Main Course

Cuisine North American

Keyword beef stew, old fashioned, slow cooker, whiskey

Special Diet Dairy-free, Gluten-free

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 6

Total Time 6 20

Servings people

Calories 218kcal

Author Terri Gilson

Equipment

slow cooker

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds beef stew meat ,cut into 1 inch cubes *Make sure you use stewing meat or the beef chunks will not stay together and you will end up with more of a shredded beef
1 teaspoon each salt and pepper, as needed approximately- add more or less as desired
1 ½ tablespoon fresh sage
1 ½ tablespoon fresh oregano
¾ tablespoon fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
6 fresh mushrooms large, chopped- about 1 ½ cups
3 celery stalks , chopped about ½ cup
1 onion large, chopped
4 carrots , chopped, about 2 cups
⅓ cup okra
4 potatoes large, chopped
½ cup whiskey Jack Daniels (gluten -free)
4.5 cups beef broth
1 ½ tablespoon gluten-free worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoon cornstarch
5 teaspoon water

US Customary - Metric

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

Sprinkle salt and pepper over meat, then sear beef on all sides in heated non-stick skillet/frying pan over high heat. *Do not cook through (this step is important to seal in the flavor of the beef and helps the hold the meat together).
1 ½ pounds beef stew meat, 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper, as needed
Spray a 6 qt slow cooker/crock pot with non-stick cooking spray, then add meat, chopped vegetables, bay leaf and herbs. Stir together.
1 ½ tablespoon fresh sage, 1 ½ tablespoon fresh oregano, ¾ tablespoon fresh rosemary, 2 bay leaves, 6 fresh mushrooms, 3 celery stalks, 1 onion, 4 carrots, ⅓ cup okra, 4 potatoes
Add beef broth, whiskey and Worcestershire sauce together and pour mixture over beef, potatoes, vegetables and herb mixture.
½ cup whiskey, 4.5 cups beef broth, 1 ½ tablespoon gluten-free worcestershire sauce
Cover, and cook on low setting for 8 hours. ** if you are in a hurry, you can cook on high setting for 4 to 6 hours. *However, the low and slow method is the very best!
When cooking time is almost complete (20-30 minutes left), mix the cornstarch and water into a paste (roux) and stir into the stew. *You can use equal amounts of flour and oil if you don't need the stew to be gluten-free.
4 tablespoon cornstarch, 5 teaspoon water
Allow it to continue to cook for the remainder of the time or until desired thickness is reached. If the stew is not as thick as you could like, add more roux.
Serve warm with biscuits, buns or 0 WW point Everything Bagel Cloud Bread.

Notes

*NOTE: This recipe is for a minimum 6 Qt. crock pot/slow cooker

Expert Tips for making the best old-fashioned beef stew

SLOW AND LOW: This is the #1 tip they gave me was to cook it slow on low for at least 6-8 hours. Regulating the heat is tricky when you're cooking over an open fire. But since cooking it on an open fire isn't necessarily a feasible (or even a desirable) option for most of us, Kelly agreed that the slow cooker/crock pot is the next best thing, as it slow cooks in the same way it would over a low fire.
RENDERING YOUR BEEF. If you really want to make your stew old skool (like they do at this competition), you'd render your beef fat. In essence, that means that you would take the suet and make it into tallow. This is where much of the flavor comes from in old-fashioned beef stew. But this also takes an enormous chunk of time that most of us don't have to dedicate to one meal, especially if you are working, have kids, or even have some semblance of a life! So, in modern times, we use beef stock instead. I researched how to render beef for stew when I was writing this post, and my thoughts were simply, "yay for modern food innovation!" There will be no rendering of beef happening in this kitchen...
SEARING YOUR MEAT IS KEY. Kelly and Sue don't use flour when they sear their meat because they want it keep it gluten-free, and I did the same. Anyway, using flour really isn't necessary. You can use a wok or frying pan on high heat to sear meat, and season it with salt and pepper prior to sauteeing it, just long enough to brown it on all sides, but not cook it right through. This seals in the juices and flavor.
KEEP IT FRESH! Kelly and Sue use as many fresh vegetables and herbs as possible. So that's what I did. I used fresh sage, rosemary, oregano, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, celery, and onion.
ADD SOME WHISKEY OR BEER. I used whisky, but don't worry - it's still family friendly! The alcohol evaporates during the cooking process because it's cooked for so long. Sue and Kelly don't use beer for the same reason they don't use flour- they want to keep it gluten-free. The whiskey also gives it a rich flavor.
ADD COFFEE GROUNDS. I had to be sure I heard her right. I was surprised and instinctively thought that adding coffee grounds would make it too 'grainy,' give it a weird texture, and likely be unpalatable. But according to Kelly, "No, that's not the case - it's really the thicker coffee at the bottom of the pot that you use, so you don't notice the little bits of coffee grounds in there because they give it such a nice flavour." They use the real 'cowboy coffee' that's cooked over the open fire. And since I drink vanilla-brewed coffee, I didn't try using coffee grounds this time around.

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