Beef Stew Over Mashed Potatoes

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Beef Stew Over Mashed Potatoes is cooked in a Dutch oven and loaded with tender chunks of savory stew meat, red wine, carrots, fresh thyme, and olives with a thick and hearty broth.

Beef Stew with Mashed Potatoes Recipe 

Want to make an addictively delicious beef stew meat recipe with mashed potatoes? You’ve come to the right place.

After a few hours on the stove, the stew meat becomes fall-apart tender, nestled deep in the rich red wine sauce alongside baby carrots and black olives.

If desired, make this stew a day or two ahead of when you want to serve it. 

This allows the flavors to meld and intensify and all you have to do is reheat it on low heat when you’re ready to enjoy it. 

This recipe makes a big batch of stew. I like to make it on the weekend so we’ve got leftovers for lunches the following week. The flavors get better and better! 

To serve, just ladle it over a big bed of creamy mashed potatoes. 

Serve it with warm slices of no-knead homemade bread or hot rolls for a soul-satisfying meal.

Ingredients you’ll need

Beef Stew 

• Stew meat: Made from cuts of beef with a lot of connective tissue, stew meat is typically cut from chuck roast or round steak.
   
• Olive oil: You can substitute vegetable oil or canola oil for browning the stew meat. 
  
• Red wine: Wine doesn’t have to be expensive to use as a good marinade for the meat, just something you’d enjoy drinking when you serve the beef.  Use a good red wine that’s a bit on the dry side, such as a cab, Syrah, or merlot. 
  
• Aromatics: Yellow onion, garlic, zest of an orange, carrots (baby or whole), fresh thyme. These ingredients provide the flavor foundation of a dish. In this recipe the aromatics are used to flavor the marinade. 
  
• Tomato paste: Browning the tomato paste in Step 6 adds great of depth of flavor to this beef stew – don’t skip this step. 
  
• Black olives: Optional
  
• Beef broth: I use a beef broth concentrate called Better Than Bouillon so that I can make a very hearty (strong) beef broth for this stew. This is a handy ingredient to keep in the fridge whether you need a small amount of broth or a larger amount. 

Garlic Mashed Potatoes 

• Russet potatoes: I like russet potatoes because they make super fluffy mashed potatoes. You can substitute Yukon gold potatoes if preferred. 
  
• Heavy cream: Substitute half-and-half if needed, but heavy cream (aka whipping cream) makes the potatoes very rich and luscious. 
  
• Garlic: Steeping (simmering) the garlic in the warm cream infuses tons of flavor. 

How to make Beef Stew Over Mashed Potatoes 

The day prior to when you’d like to enjoy the stew, sort through the stew meat to make sure all the pieces are generally around 1-inch size.

Cut them if they are too large.

Place the beef into a large container or freezer bag.

Add the wine, onion, garlic, orange zest, carrots, thyme, sprigs, and bay leaves.

Let the beef marinate for 18-24 hours.

Be sure to press all the air out of the bag before sealing.

If you are placing all the ingredients into a freezer bag to marinate, be sure to place the bag into a large bowl.

This will catch all the possible leaks that can happen.

After the beef has marinated for the desired time, remove it from the marinate and pat dry with paper towels.

Reserve the marinade and all its ingredients.

Liberally season the beef with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

The meat will be dark in color, kinda purplish, after marinating in the red wine.

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.

When the oil is hot, add the meat a few pieces at a time.

Brown the stew meat on all sides, working in batches.

Leave enough room so that you can actually see the bottom of the pan when you’re browning the meat – this allows the heat to circulate around each piece of meat, giving it superior browning. 

More browning, more flavor! 

Remove the browned meat to a plate as you go.

Once all the beef is browned, deglaze the pan by adding a bit of wine or broth to the pan.

This will bring up all the browned bits attached to the bottom as you stir.

Add tomato paste to the pan and cook over low heat until the tomato past has turned from bright red to a deeper brownish red color.

Add broth or wine as you go so the tomato paste doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan too much.

Add olives to the pan, then pour in the reserved marinade and all its ingredients.

Add the browned stew meat.

Stir to combine.

Bring the stew to a nice boil over medium-high heat.

Skim away any foam that comes to the top.

Reduce the heat until the stew is barely simmering.

Add the broth and cook, partially covered over low heat, for 2-3 hours until the stew is nicely thickened.

Make the Mashed Potatoes

Bring a large pot of sales water to a boil.

Add the peeled and quartered potatoes and cook until the potatoes are fork-tender.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over low heat.

Warm the cream and garlic to a low simmer, then remove from heat.

Drain the cooked potatoes and mash.

Sometimes, I use a food processor, a hand mixer, or even mash by hand.

Add a bit of warm cream and garlic if needed, until they are very smooth.

Season the mashed potatoes to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper if desired.

Serve the Stew 

Place the warm creamy garlic potatoes into bowls creating a well in the center.

Add a generous helping of the stew. Garnish with fresh Italian parsley, if desired.

More Inexpensive Beef Recipes to Try

This Chuck Tender Beef Roast with Gravy is a fork-tender pot roast seared until golden brown, then cooked low-and-slow in the oven.

Here’s the roast that’s likely the best dinnertime value in the entire meat case! Bottom Round Beef Roast is an economical cut of beef that simmers low and slow until it’s fall-apart tender and juicy.

Stove Top Beef Stew is beef and vegetables simmered in luscious gravy until fall apart tender. This ultimate cozy dish is simply the best!