Crockpot: 4-Hour Stew

There is nothing better than a yummy bowl of stew on a cold day. When we lived in AZ, my window of making soups and stews was pretty small, but in Oregon it's been cold and rainy since we moved here in December so it's been perfect for these recipes.


Make some yummy bread and it's so delicious.


Today's Ingredients:
2 lbs stew meat, cubed
2 cups potatoes (new, white or red), quartered
20 baby carrots, cut in thirds
1 (8 oz) package whole mushrooms - optional
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of celery soup
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can water
1 (1 ounce) envelope onion soup mix


This part is optional - you can brown your meat before adding to the crockpot. I haven't done that before and next time I think I'll just put the meat in raw. I just wanted to see if it added any flavor or tenderness and it really didn't.


Add your quartered potatoes.


I used three carrots instead of baby carrots, so either work. Did you know that baby carrots aren't baby carrots at all but just mature carrots shaped to make those little carrots. They are essentially the middle of carrots. You can read about it here.


The original recipe didn't call for mushrooms, but I love mushrooms and we had some leftover that needed to be used up and then I also bought another package so there would be enough. I didn't know how they would do, but they were so good and juicy. If you don't like mushrooms, leave them out.


Last add the meat. We only used 1 pound and I did feel the stew was a little sparse without it, but 2 pounds would have been too much. It was fine though especially since I had added the mushrooms.


Combine the soups, can of water and soup mix (I prefer Lipton over generic-I can taste the difference).


Pour over all the ingredients. Cook on high for 4 hours (hence the name) or low for 8 hours (that's what I did).


I don't know if it was because I didn't use enough meat or the mushrooms added some liquid while cooking, but the liquid was a little thin for me - I like a thick broth. Next time I'll only do 1/2 can water and see what the results are.

Seriously delicious!

4-Hour Stew Printable Recipe