I love stews. Typically, I have made stews with stew beef (which is cut up beef chuck) but this time I went for the whole cut of beef chuck instead. The result was a much richer flavor, with a poor-man’s price tag—win-win. I love buying these tough cuts of meat and then watching them completely transform with two key inputs: browning and TIME. I used the braising style of cooking—instead of leaving this on the stove for hours like a traditional stew, I covered it and popped it into a low-temp oven. I feel less concern about things bubbling over or being a hazard with they’re inside the oven as opposed to sitting on the stove. In the oven I can stay home, grab a good sweater and some wool socks, and just “fuhgeddaboudit” while I busy myself with other things. This is a wintertime winner for those days when it’s just too cold to get out. Put in a smidge of effort, then grab a good book while the oven does the work.
Ingredients
3 lbs beef chuck
1 lg onion, diced
4 carrots, sliced or diced
2 parsnips, diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4 sprigs fresh thyme (2 tsp dried)
1 sprig fresh rosemary (2 tsp dried)
3 bay leaves
1 bunch fresh parsley, stems finely diced, leaves reserved for serving
6 cups beef stock/broth
16 ounces mushrooms, sliced or quartered (optional)
1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
plenty of vegetable oil
plenty of salt
plenty of black pepper
Serve with sour cream, a crust of bread, or a starchy side.
Sear the meat on all sides until it’s a deep brown color. Deeper color=More flavor
Use what you have! Don’t have parsnips? Double the carrots. Any color onion will do. Dried herbs or fresh. And chop those parsley stems super fine and they become a wonderful ingredient. Waste not.
Directions
Preheat oven to 325F.
Salt all sides of beef chuck generously. Also evenly coat the meat with black pepper. Heat vegetable oil in a large pan on medium-high. Sear the meat on all sides, taking care to really let the dark colors develop on all sides. Don’t rush this step. More dark colors = deeper and more complex flavor.
After the meat is adequately browned, remove from pan and wipe burnt oils from the pan. It’s okay to leave some pan drippings, just remove any blackened bits.
Add another swirl of oil to the pan and then saute onions with a dash of salt. When onions become slightly translucent, add the carrots and parsnips and another dash of salt. Then add all of the herbs.
After a minute or two, clear some space in the middle of the pan, add 1/4 c butter and let it melt. Then add the garlic. Let the garlic simmer until just fragrant but not burned, less than a minute. Then add 1/4 c. flour and toss everything until the flour has evenly distributed in the pan.
Then add the broth and stir.
Add the meat back into the pan of broth and veggies and bring back to a simmer.
Cover and put into the oven for 3 hours. Time to fuhgeddaboudit and enjoy the free time.
If you’re adding mushrooms, anytime during the three house, heat oil in a saute pan and brown mushrooms on all sides. After mushrooms are browned, toss with a sprinkle of salt and remove from heat.
After 3 hours, remove from oven, stir, and cut up meat into spoon-sized pieces. I use kitchen scissors for this. Sprinkle with fresh parsley leaves and serve.