Spanish Beef Stew

Spanish Beef Stew is a hearty one-pot dinner with chuck roast slow-braised in a tomato sauce flavored with smoky Spanish paprika.

Classic Beef Stew gets a rustic, old world Spanish twist in this new one pot recipe. For more hearty, savory stews and soups, check out our full Soup Recipe catalog.

Sabrina’s Spanish Beef Stew

This stew is a great one pot dinner full of warm savory flavors, tender chunks of beef stew meat, and a thick vegetable and tomato sauce. This hearty and rustic dish is perfect for cool fall evenings. It can be made in the oven, on the stovetop, in a slow cooker, or with an electric pressure cooker. This post contains instructions for every method to make stew, so find the way that is easiest for you!

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About This Recipe

This stew recipe has a longer list of ingredients, but it’s actually very simple to bring the whole dish together. This beef recipe can be broken down to three parts: browning the beef, making the sofrito, and finishing off the beef stew in the oven (or one of the other methods below). Plus, using canned tomatoes and dried herbs means less chopping for you!

Chef’s Note

The signature warm and slightly smoky flavor of this stew comes from the Spanish paprika. You may need to make a special trip to the store for this ingredient. The paprika most people have in their pantry is actually called “sweet paprika”. Spanish paprika is also known as smoked paprika and it’s a must have for the rustic smoky flavor of this dish!

Like most Spanish and Latin American soups, stews starts with a sofrito. This sofrito recipes is made with diced onion, green peppers, carrots, and minced garlic cloves. Sofrito is a combination of aromatic vegetables and herbs sautéed in oil (or braised in stock) used to flavor sauces, stews, and many dishes. Most cuisines have a version of a sofrito, just by another name.

How to Store

• Serve: Stew can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 hours, or warm in a slow cooker for 4 hours.
• Store: Place stew in an airtight container (after it has cooled) and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
• Freeze: Cool stew completely and freeze in a sealed container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating in the oven or on the stovetop.

Ideas to Serve

This stew is a one pot meal that can be enjoyed all by itself with a side of crusty Dinner Rolls or Sweet Cornbread Cake perfect for soaking all the rich sauce. For heartier meal, serve stew over rice or mashed potatoes. After dinner, you can serve a Spanish dessert like Basque Cheesecake for the perfect dinner party.

Alternative Cooking Techniques

Stove Top

• Instead of finishing stew off in the oven, you can cook the entire thing on the stove top. Once you add the seasonings, tomatoes, and beef to the pan, bring to a boil.
• Cover the dutch oven and reduce the heat to a simmer.
• Simmer on low heat for 2 ½ to 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
• Add in peas and olives during last 15-20 minutes of cooking.

Slow Cooker

• Follow instructions to brown beef chuck and sauté sofrito (onions, carrots, bell pepper, garlic) separately.
• Add chuck roast and sofrito to slow cooker after they are prepared.
• Add remaining ingredients except the peas to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
• Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or until beef is fork tender. Stir in peas and cook an additional 30 minutes.

Pressure Cooker

• Set Instant Pot to Sauté Function. 
• Coat the bottom of your electric pressure cooker and brown the chuck roast in batches. Set aside.
• Sauté onions, carrots, and bell pepper for 1 minute. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
• Deglaze pot with a ½ cup beef broth or red wine, scraping up browned bits from sides and bottom.
• Add meat back to pressure cooker and add the remaining ingredients except olives and peas. Stir to combine.
• Lock lid and seal valve. Cook on Manual High Pressure for 15 minutes. Let pressure naturally release, about 10-15 minutes.
• Remove lid and stir in peas and olives. Cover and cook on Manual High Pressure 5 minutes. Quick release pressure and serve.

Variations

• Potatoes: Make this an even heartier dish by adding 3 medium potatoes, roughly chopped, to the Beef Stew about 45 minutes before it’s done cooking.
• Red Wine: You can add a ½ cup of dry red wine when you add the beef back to the pan, cooking until the liquid has reduced by half.
• Vegetables: Use other vegetables like red peppers, green beans, or fresh diced tomatoes. You can substitute green olives for capers too.
• Spicy: Add some heat to this stew with chipotles in adobo, crushed red pepper flakes, or spicy dried chiles.

Other Hearty Soup Recipes

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Creamy Chicken Poblano Pepper Soup

Corn Chowder

Easy Taco Soup

 

Photos used in previous versions of this post.