Beef and Mushroom Stew (Warwickshire Stew)

Beef and mushroom stew (Warwickshire stew) is an immensely cosy stick-to-your-ribs supper to make. This one-pot recipe creates fall-apart beef and it can be cooked in the oven or the slow cooker.

Beef and mushroom stew is the way to tackle the colder months of the year. The tenderest of beef chunks, a medley of tasty vegetables, soft potatoes and a scattering of fresh parsley combine to make this one-pot meal a winning supper dish.

This old-fashioned beef stew with mushrooms recipe is technically called Warwickshire stew. All of the ingredients are kept chunky and the gravy does not dominate. It’s a particularly easy, cosy and comforting plate to serve up on cold evenings.

Warwickshire stew is part of my collection of recipes from The Midlands. If you’ve not taken a look at this collection yet, I urge you not to miss out, there are plenty of comfort food gems including Nottinghamshire pie and a Birmingham balti with lamb.

What is Warwickshire Stew?

Warwickshire stew is an old-fashioned beef stew with mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. It’s hearty, rich and extremely comforting.

This beef and mushroom stew originates from the county of Warwickshire (you don’t say), in the West Midlands. However, it’s a long-lost recipe with not much of a trail of breadcrumbs left behind to reveal its history. In fact, I have, unfortunately, failed to dig up any interesting information about this delicious stew, so it’s on with the recipe details.

Why is it worth making?

There are plenty of positives surrounding this beef stew with mushrooms:

• It’s a simple recipe.
• But it is also deeply satisfying and comforting.
• This stew is loaded with healthy vegetables.
• And the recipe can be made with or without wine.
• It’s a one-pot meal so there’s minimal washing up.
• And there’s no need to mess around preparing side dishes to go with it.
• Hands-on time is minimal – once it’s in the oven this old-fashioned beef stew recipe is virtually effortless.

Ingredients notes

My recipe is largely in line with classic recipes for Warwickshire stew. In fact, all of the ingredients are the same. I have, however, specified weights for the potatoes and carrots and, I suspect, increased the quantities of these and the mushrooms to ensure that this recipe can easily satisfy four people. I have also incorporated slightly more liquid to stop this beef stew with mushrooms from being too dry.

Beef: the best beef to use for slow-cooked stews is braising steak (also called braising beef, stewing steak or chuck steak). There is plenty of connective tissue (collagen) in this cut of beef. As the meat cooks the collagen breaks down turning the beef wonderfully tender over the prolonged cooking time.

Mushrooms: my top choice for this slow-cooked mushroom and beef stew are chestnut mushrooms. They have superior flavour and texture compared to white mushrooms.

Tomatoes: these need to be quartered, so pick standard tomatoes rather than cherry tomatoes or beef tomatoes. It doesn’t matter if the fruit is over-ripe as it will break down completely during the slow cooking time anyway.

Potatoes: medium-sized new potatoes are ideal in this beef and mushroom stew as they hold their shape well and will not crumble as they cook.

Liquid: traditional recipes for Warwickshire stew suggest that either red wine or beef stock can be used. Either pick a side or opt for the middle ground (like me) and use 50% of each.

Parsley: this herb adds balance to savoury dishes, enhancing the flavour of the stew overall rather than making it taste of parsley. Really, it brightens and lifts the flavour of the entire dish. Use fresh flat-leaf parsley, if possible, otherwise substitute 1 teaspoon of dried parsley.

Step-by-step instructions

Making this recipe for beef stew with mushrooms couldn’t be simpler:

1. Peel the onions and cut into quarters.
2. Cut the tomatoes into quarters too.
3. Wipe the mushrooms clean and chop them in half.
4. Chop the parsley finely and crush the garlic.
5. Trim any excess fat off the meat and cut into large chunks (if necessary).
6. Toss the meat in the flour.
7. Melt a third of the butter in a heavy-based casserole dish and brown a third of the meat over high heat to seal it.
8. Remove the meat from the pan and repeat twice more, using up the rest of the butter and the meat.
9. Once all meat has been browned and removed from the pan pour in the red wine (or the stock if you are not using red wine). Stir to deglaze the base of the pan.
10. Now add the stock (if using), browned meat, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, parsley and salt & pepper to the pan. Scrape in any leftover flour. Stir, cover and cook in the oven for 2.5 hours.
11. Peel and chop the carrots into thick chunks and halve the potatoes. Add these to the pan, stirring well and cook for a further 2.5 hours.
12. Serve in bowls with a little extra chopped parsley scattered over the top to garnish.

Cooking beef stew with mushrooms in a slow cooker

The good news is that this beef stew with mushrooms can also be made in a slow cooker. Of course, all of the ingredients could be piled into the slow cooker and cooked on high for 7-8 hours, but better results can be achieved as follows:

1. Brown the meat before adding it to the slow cooker.
2. Add in the liquids, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, parsley, garlic and seasoning.
3. Cook on high for 4 hours.
4. Add in the carrots and potatoes and continue to cook for a further 3-4 hours until everything is fork tender.

Expert tips

• If you don’t own an oven-proof dish with a lid then cover the one you do have tightly with kitchen foil before placing your stew into the oven.
• Browning the meat helps to build up a rich & deep flavour in the stew, so please do not skip this step (even if using a slow cooker).
• When browning beef do so quickly, using high heat, and don’t crowd the pan. Instead, cook it in small batches as overcrowding in the pan reduces the heat, allows the meat to release more moisture and this leads to steam which prevents the meat from browning.
• Five hours is the minimum this beef stew with mushrooms needs to cook for. At this point, test a piece of meat and if it is still a little tough cook for another hour.
• Add more stock as necessary to stop the stew from becoming too dry.
• Warwickshire stew is not overly saucy, but for a looser version of this beef and mushroom stew double the liquids and toss the raw ingredients in an extra tablespoon of flour.
• Not into mushrooms? A few historical recipes do list the ingredients for Warwickshire stew without this vegetable. Feel free to leave them out and use alternative veggies in their place.
• Because the meat is so tender once cooked, it does break apart easily. If you want to retain chunks use a large metal spoon to stir it very, very gently before serving.

Frequently asked questions

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Have you made this recipe for beef and mushroom stew? If you have please give it a rating or leave a comment – I love to hear how you get along with my creations.