Beef Stifado {Slow Cooked Recipe} (2024)

FAQs

Can you overcook beef stew in a slow cooker? ›

Can you overcook beef stew in a slow cooker? Yes, you can overcook the beef. You're looking for fork-tender meat, not dry and tough. You can always use the machine's warming setting if needed to avoid overcooking the meat.

Chuck meat is your best bet for beef stew, but it's also a pretty tough cut so it needs time to break down and become tender. Rush the cooking process and the beef will be tough and chewy. Follow this tip: For really tender meat, cook the stew low and slow, for approximately two hours.

Stifado is a slow-cooked Greek stew made with beef and small onions, cooked together in a tomato sauce.

“Beef may be tough in the slow cooker if you haven't added enough liquid, or haven't cooked it for long enough,” Kristen Carli, M.S., R.D., owner of Camelback Nutrition & Wellness, tells SELF. “For cuts of meat, the fattier cuts are often the ones that get juicy and tender.

Browning Is Better

And if you dredge the meat in flour before you brown it, your sauce will thicken up to make a gravy. You should always brown ground beef or any ground meat in a skillet before adding it to your slow cooker to prevent the meat from clumping up or from adding excess grease to your cooked dish.

Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew. Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family.

While many slow cooker recipes can be made on high for 3-4 hours, I highly recommend cooking this beef stew on low for the full 7-8 hours. This will ensure that the beef gets nice and tender. Thicken your stew properly.

Tender vegetables such as zucchini and beans can be added to your dish in last ¾ - 1 hour of cooking when cooking on High, or 2 hours if cooking on Low. Hard, starchy vegetables like potato and carrots are best added around 3 hours before the meal is done if cooking on High, and 4 hours on Low.

Stifado, pronounced stiff-ah-do, is a hearty Greek beef stew seasoned with warming spices, red wine, and loads of pearl onions. This stew, which is typically served as a Sunday family dinner on colder fall and winter days, is one of the many traditional Greek comfort food recipes.

Irish stew (Irish: Stobhach Gaelach) or Stobhach is a stew from Ireland that is traditionally made with root vegetables and lamb or mutton, but also commonly with beef. As in all traditional folk dishes, the exact recipe is not consistent from time to time, or place to place.

Who invented stifado? ›

The dish as we know it today in Greece is traced back to the 13th century, when the Venetians introduced it to the areas they had conquered. One of the most classic versions of stifado is made with rabbit, and it's absolutely delightful.

Searing meat before slow cooking adds flavor through caramelization, but it's not mandatory. If you skip searing, you might miss some depth of flavor, but the slow cooker will still cook the meat thoroughly.

Tossing the raw meat in a starch, like flour, will increase the rate of browning, but browned flour just doesn't taste as good as browned beef. Eventually, that liquid will evaporate again, and your meat will start browning, but the problem is that the entire time the liquid is steaming, your meat continues to cook.

Can you slow cook meat for 12 hours? This totally depends on the cut of meat and the slow cooker brand. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for optimum cook times. Generally, meat cooked on the Low setting can have up to 8-10 hours of cook time.

While it's perfectly ok to use your crock pot in this way, try to avoid leaving food on the warming setting for more than four hours. According to the USDA, food kept at between 40 and 140 degrees is more at risk of forming bacteria. In this temperature range, bacteria can double in number within just 20 minutes.

Cook it on low.

While many slow cooker recipes can be made on high for 3-4 hours, I highly recommend cooking this beef stew on low for the full 7-8 hours. This will ensure that the beef gets nice and tender.

Start checking your meat when you hit around 80% of the total recommended cooking time, and stop cooking as soon as it reaches the stage at which the meat is tender, but not falling apart—so, if a recipe says to cook the stew for two and a half hours, start checking it around the two-hour mark.

Collagen makes meat tough when cooked quickly, but when slow-cooked, it breaks down into gelatin, giving you that juicy, tender mouthfeel. Fattier — and cheaper — cuts of beef can also be good for slow cooking, because the fat helps to ensure the beef won't dry out while adding extra flavour.