Last Updated on April 14, 2026 by Deliciously Organic Editor
Beef stew is a comforting and nourishing meal that has become a family favorite.

Years ago, this stew that taught me how to tenderize tough cuts of meat. It’s all about the cooking time. A tough cut of meat like a beef roast needs to cook low and slow. In this recipe, the meat cooks for 2 1/2 hours at 250ºF. The low temperature allows the meat’s enzymes to act as natural tenderizers, breaking down the tough connective tissue.
This trick comes in handy since we buy our beef in bulk from an organic farmer each year. I cook the roasts, eye-round and chuck using this low and slow method – yielding consistently tender stews, soups and roasts.
I prefer to serve this stew with buttermilk mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower. We put the mashed potatoes on the bottom of the bowl and ladle in the slow-cooked, tender meat and onions.
It’s a great meal for an informal dinner since you can prepare it two days in advance and keep it in the refrigerator until you reheat it on the stove for your guests. A hearty salad provides a great complement and a bowl of chocolate mousse makes for a sweet ending.
PrintBeef Stew (Gluten-Free)
Adapted from The Best Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
- Category: Dinner, Main Dish
- Method: Slow Cooking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten-Free, Paleo
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee, divided
- 4 yellow onions, sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine (you can substitute this with chicken stock)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 3 pounds beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons Celtic sea salt
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250ºF and place rack on middle-low position. Heat 2 tablespoons ghee in a large dutch oven (an ovenproof pot with a lid) over medium-low heat. Add the add onions and sauté, stirring frequently until onions release their liquid, about 10 minutes. (If the bottom of the pot begins to brown too much, push the onions aside with a spoon, pour a small amount of water and scrape up the brown bits.) Continue to cook until the onions caramelize, about 15 minutes. Stir in coconut flour and cook for 1 minute. Make a well in the center of the pot and add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add the wine and chicken stock, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the beef, honey, cider vinegar, bay leaves and sea salt. Bring to a boil, cover with the lid and place in the oven. Cook for 2 1/2 hours, until meat is tender. Stir in mustard and parsley and additional sea salt to taste. Serve alone or over creamy mashed potatoes.
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This looks delicious and hearty and incredibly cozy!
Oh haaaaave mercy.
Thank you, my friend. 🙂
Very delicious!
Made this in the Dutch oven recently, and it was so simple.
I may be going off the gaps train here but when reheating the next day I mixed through a packet of peas and some cooked prawns and it was heaven. A big hit with my husband too!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Would this work in a slow cooker?
You could caramelize the onions and then when it’s time to add everything together, you could put it all in a slow cooker. I haven’t tested it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work!
I could use a big ladle of this over mashed potatoes right now!! It looks heavenly and comforting!
I love this recipe and didn’t even know coconut flour existed btw! 🙂
Thank you! Coconut flour makes for a great thickener when trying to stay away from grains. I also love baking with it!
When do you re-incorporate the beef? Right before placing in the oven? Are there any cuts of steak this would work with too? We also buy beef in bulk. I find I use my roasts quickly but usually have several steaks to do something with. I love the sound of this recipe!
Oops! I made the edit. You add the beef back after the chicken stock and wine are added. Thanks! I think this would well with just about any cut – ribeye, sirloin, stew meat, etc.
Thanks so much for the quick response!
I’ll admit it, I’ve gotten lazy about visiting your site unless something pops up in my fb feed. I am so glad I ambled over today though, and I realized I’ve been missing some pretty great stuff. 🙂 I can’t wait to try this one and I have officially signed up for newsletters. I can’t let your grain free goodness pass me by! Thanks for all you do.
I’m glad you stopped by! And, thank you for the kind words. 🙂
I don’t even like stew but you might have convinced me with this recipe.
Thank you!
How many days after letting it sit in the fridge for 2 days before will this last? We are a family of three so I am wondering if this will serve good leftovers too? I like the tip about prepping two days in advance since we’re a working family but want to also prep this in advance on a weekend for a weeknight meal.
This stew makes for the best leftovers! You can make the entire recipe and then serve it up to 48 hours later. So, if you made it on Sunday it would be a great weeknight meal for Monday or Tuesday.
I love beef stew. My wife makes it occasionally. I really wish she would make it more often. She’s gluten intolerant so she’s pretty careful about what she cooks. Along that line, I saw a post on a gluten-free site yesterday that I thought was pretty funny and which fits your subject: http://elegantlyglutenfree.com/floride-pamplemousses-sucre-a-la-jami.
I accidentally found your site last week and think it’s great!
Best regards,
Al
Such a great family meal!! Perfect for aprés ski 🙂
I love hearty beefy meals like this. We’re recent converts to mashed cauliflower. This stew would be delicious with them.
I am fairly clueless when it comes to cooking beef..I made this stew with maybe a 1 1/2 – 2lbs. of stew meat…so i just cut the onion qty. in half and left the rest of the seasonings the same… I was unsure whether i should let it cook the same amt. of time even though the amount of meat was less. If I cook the beef for even longer than the 2 1/2 hours will it just continue to get more tender or is there a point at which it is just overcooked and goes back to being tough? I’d appreciate your help! I just took it out of the oven and it smells great though!
Thanks.
I’m not sure at what point you need to stop the cooking in order to keep the beef from becoming tough. Cook’s Illustrated is a great place to go for scientific information like that – I’ve been a subscriber for 15 years and have learned so much from them. I hope you enjoyed the stew!
I’m putting this in the slow cooker today. Hopefully it will turn out good???? 🙂
I haven’t tried it in the slow-cooker, but with enough cooking time, it should turn out great! Let me know how it goes!
Oh my goodness, just took this out of the oven, quickly stirred in the mustard and scooped a bit of the stew into a bowl for a taste test. Amazing. Rich, flavor-packed broth and chunks of meat that fell apart in my mouth. I didn’t have dijon mustard, so I used horseradish mustard and that last little bit of flavor sent this stew over the top. ~K
I couldn’t have said it better.
I made this last night. It was so so so so so yummy! Thank you for sharing!
Accidently found your website and love it. Going to try this stew recipe this weekend with either bison or venison. Can’t wait! Thanks for all the awesome info. And thanks for including Paleo recipes too!
Any chance I could use red wine instead of white for this???
A dry white would work well, or you can use extra chicken stock if you have it on hand.
This looks wonderful. I will add dried assorted chiles, cinnamon and unsweetened chocolate. Along with thyme, basil and oregano 🙂 I make in crock pot, long and slow 🙂
Ohh I forgot! Whole peeled shallot and kabocha/Japanese pumpkin is so wonderful. In place of carrot and potato 🙂
I was wracking my brains for a GAPS legal thickener for stew – totally forgot about coconut flour! Just put this stew in the oven – can’t wait to see how it turns out. Thanks for the recipe!
This has been a family favorite for many years. Thank you for sharing it. I recently found out that I am sensitive to all things coconut so I cannot use the flour in this recipe. Do you have any suggestions for substitutions? Arrowroot perhaps? And if so, how much?
Thank you for the help!
For this recipe, you could substitute coconut flour, but just to warn you, that kind of substitution won’t work for baking recipes. Hope you enjoy!
Can I finish the cooking in my slow cooker!
This récipé looks delicious!
I haven’t tested it this way, so while I think it’s possible, I have no idea the temp or how long.
Any idea how long it might take to cook simmering on the stovetop? Or, in the instant pot?
I haven’t tested this recipe on the stove, so I’m not sure what length of time or heat would lend the exact same texture and flavor.