Honey Balsamic Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 8 hours 10 minutes
Servings 5 servings

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This Honey Balsamic Slow Cooker Beef Stew is full of flavor and couldn’t be easier — just throw everything in and let it cook! Loaded with veggies and thick honey balsamic sauce. Step by step recipe video.

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white crockpot with honey balsamic beef stew in it

Looking for more easy crockpot recipes? Check out these Dump ‘n’ Go Slow Cooker Recipes!

Often I think about how I wouldn’t be nearly as excited to see the seasons changing if I lived somewhere further South. Occasionally in the dead of winter it seems tempting, but the anticipation of Spring, then Summer, then Fall and then the first snowflakes of Winter just wouldn’t be there.

So now that we are officially onto Fall food (along with back to school and holiday chaos), I’m here with a a slow cooker recipe that can be an easy weeknight meal or an elegant holiday dinner with a loaf of crusty bread.

white bowl of honey balsamic beef stew with fresh parsley sprinkled on top

The honey balsamic combo is one we are familiar with around here — from this Slow Cooker Honey Balsamic Pulled Pork (our favorite!) to this Honey Balsamic Grilled Chicken (save that one for summer), we can’t get enough. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and tangy and savory and it goes with everything.

Next month is baby month here friends, and so I chose to keep things super simple. I love that these Little Potatoes are just dump and go — no peeling, not chopping!

If you do want to take this from “easy everyday” to “elegant dinner”, feel free to brown the beef cubes before adding them to the slow cooker. This adds an extra layer of flavor and the juices remain in the beef and don’t dilute the sauce quite as much.

But the flavor of this stew is incredible — the sweet and tangy sauce, the creamy potatoes, the earthy carrots — even without the extra work, so I opted to skip the step and just get a real, hearty dinner on the table even on the days I only have one free hand 😉

honey balsamic beef stew overhead in white bowl with bag of little potatoes on the side

Tips and Tricks for Making this Honey Balsamic Slow Cooker Beef Stew:

  • With most slow cooker recipes, I find that the flavors become muted after cooking for such a long time. With this stew though, I didn’t find that at all! It was still so good and didn’t need any adjustments after cooking, other than a bit of extra corn starch if you want a thicker sauce.
  • If you wanted to make this a vegetarian meal, you could simply swap the beef for mushrooms and add in extra veggies.

*This post is generously sponsored by The Little Potato Company and I was compensated for my time in creating the recipe — thank you for supporting the brands that keep us fed!

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Honey Balsamic Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe + VIDEO

4.83 from 110 votes
This Honey Balsamic Slow Cooker Beef Stew is full of flavor and couldn’t be easier — just throw everything in and let it cook! Loaded with veggies and thick honey balsamic sauce. Step by step recipe video.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 10 minutes
Cuisine American
Course Main Course
Servings 5 servings
Calories 304cal

Ingredients

  • 1 lb baby potatoes (halved or quartered)
  • 1 lb round steak (cut into 1" pieces)
  • 3 large carrots (cut into ¾-1" pieces)
  • 1 rib celery (chopped)
  • ½ medium onion (cut into ½" pieces)
  • 1 cup low sodium beef broth
  • cup balsamic vinegar
  • cup liquid honey
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

  • Add potatoes, beef, carrots, celery, and onion to a 3-4 quart slow cooker.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together broth, vinegar, honey, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, seasoning salt, pepper and corn starch with a whisk until combined. Add to slow cooker.
  • Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours until potatoes and carrots are tender. If desired, strain out sauce and thicken further on the stove top with a corn starch/water slurry.
  • Taste and adjust seasonings as desired before serving.

Notes

Ingredients and Substitutions:

Potatoes: any variety of potatoes cut into 1/2-1″ cubes will work just fine!
Beef: you can buy stewing beef, but I find it more economical to buy an inexpensive round steak and cut it myself. The steaks are often fresher as well! Since we are cooking it low and slow, we do not need a tender cut of beef.
Vegetables: feel free to improvise and use what you have on hand. Some frozen peas added at the end of the cook time add a great pop of color!
Honey and balsamic vinegar: I know these seem like strange additions, but trust me on this one! If you love a slightly sweet and tangy sauce, you’ll love this version. It’s a little unexpected but packed with flavor!

Browning beef before adding:

You can absolutely brown the beef in a skillet before adding to the slow cooker. This will build flavor and prevent some of the juices of the beef from escaping into the gravy. For my purposes, I wanted to keep this recipe super simple so we skipped it!
 
 

Nutrition Information

Serving: 284grams | Calories: 304cal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 57mg | Sodium: 682mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 25g
Keywords slow cooker beef stew

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Meet Ashley

My name is Ashley Fehr and I love creating easy meals my family loves. I also like to do things my way, which means improvising and breaking the rules when necessary. Here you will find creative twists on old favorites and some of my favorite family recipes, passed down from generations!

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Comments

  1. Leah says

    Can I cook this in a covered roasting pan in a low oven instead? Making for a crowd and my crockpot isn’t big enough if a triple the recipe.

  2. Courtney Simms says

    I was hesitant because I don’t particularly like balsamic vinegar and I couldn’t imagine how it wouldn’t taste sour but as it cooks magic happens I guess 😆 For some reason it took a little longer for my potatoes to fully cook but I believe that extra cooktime added more depth of flavour. This was very delicious, trust the process!

  3. Alyssa says

    Just tried this recipe today and it was so good! I did use russet potatoes (cut up) and baby carrots instead just to use up some things I had and it turned out great. Love slow cooker recipes like this that I can just toss together before work.

    • The Recipe Rebel says

      Hi Gina! I think it should freeze well with everything cooked! I haven’t tried it but I’d love to hear if you do!

  4. Michele says

    I have a 6qt Crockpot instead of 2.5qt. If I double the ingredients, should I keep the same cook time as your recipe? If I keep the same amount of ingredients, should I cut the cook time in half? What would you do?
    Thank you!

  5. Bia says

    I made this recipe for my boyfriend and he loved it! Like many who left a comment before me, I was initially worried that there wasn’t enough sauce in this recipe. Good thing I followed it as it was written. By hour 4, it looked like the sauce/broth had doubled and by the end of the 8 hours everything was fully cooked and delicious. In the beginning, I did place my potatoes at the bottom, followed by the veggies and then the meat on top and everything cooked perfectly. Mine was actually done in 7 instead of 8 hours.

    • The Recipe Rebel says

      Love that! Thank you Bia! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for this kind review!

      • The Recipe Rebel says

        Hi Linda, it should be okay but depending on which one you use, it may result in a different flavor. Enjoy!

  6. Caitlin says

    Do you cook the beef first at all? Or just put everything in together raw?

    Very keen to try this 😊

  7. Megan says

    I’m so confused.. I followed recipe exactly and there is no way those things are going to cook in that little amount of fluids. I also have a small crockpot. There is no “submerging” to anything. I am making it right now and added almost a half a box of beef broth just to cover things half way. We’ll see how it turns out.

    • The Recipe Rebel says

      Hi Megan! You actually don’t need to submerge anything. I have a smaller crockpot as well and my cooks perfectly every time we make it. Hope you enjoyed it!

  8. SR says

    I’m making this right now and I already have backup plans for dinner. The recipe calls for a whole pound of potatoes and a pound of beef but there’s barely a cup of sauce, how does that make sense for a stew? I ended up adding a ton more beef broth so the potatoes at least have something to cook in. We’ll see how it turns out.

  9. Allison says

    Hello! Easy to make recipe and nice flavors. My only question is was I supposed to do something to the potatoes to help them cook better? I cut into halves or some even into quarters, but even after 8 hours they were not tender. Any suggestions on getting them to cook better?

    • The Recipe Rebel says

      Hi Allison, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t be done at that point. Maybe make sure they are submerged in the liquid?

    • Michele says

      Did you use the smaller potatoes like in Ashley’s picture? Also, make sure you put the vegetables on the bottom and meat on top of them. Maybe that will help.

  10. Ashley says

    My family and I LOVE this recipe!! It is so dang good!! I’m making it again today, and for the future I was wondering if I could use baby carrots? Thank you!!

    • The Recipe Rebel says

      Hi Elizabeth! You should be able to do it this way, I just haven’t tried it myself. If you decide to experiment, let me know how it goes!

  11. Ryan says

    Trying it the first time today but I did not have as much sauce as the video did was the video a double batch?

  12. Michael Gard says

    If I double the steak (2lbs) then should I double the marinade? I’m not sure if there will be enough liquid but my family loves steak and didn’t want to double the entire recipe.

  13. kathleen timmins says

    Sorry but this was awful. I followed the recipe exactly and the basalmic overpowered. All the fixes I looked for to salvage recommended adding more vinegar and or sugar. That was the problem sweet vinegar. Maybe it was the basalmic I used, but I can’t afford to try again.

    • The Recipe Rebel says

      I’m sorry to hear you had problems with this recipe Kathleen! It’s hard to know what went wrong without being in the kitchen with you. It definitely has a balsamic flavor to the stew.

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