Beef stews are a kind of recipe that is the true backbone of many home-cooking meal schedules. They’re smooth, they’re often surprisingly easy, and they warm the belly and the heart. And, of course, they taste great!
Sure, they can take a little while to cook sometimes, but with meals like this, what price is a little extra time to get amazing food like this?
For Ina Garten, it’s not a high price at all, given how much both she and every other home-cooking enthusiast seems to love beef stew.
If you are short of time but are looking for a wintery beef dish, you could try a beef and barley soup Ina Garten style. This is more of a broth soup which only needs to cook for about 1 and a half hours. Its still not quick, but is considerably quicker then some others and is every bit as tasty.
For now, lets explore Ina’s take on this home kitchen classic.
Among the nearly infinite number of recipes that you’ll find out there, there are plenty of beef stews that either manage to replicate what Garten could with her beef stews or try something a little different, turning them into amazing new varieties for us to enjoy.
These are the recipes that we have included in this list, and hope that you will enjoy them!
If we’re going to be comparing a ton of copycat recipes, we should probably at least start with one that is as close to the original dish as possible. That way, we’ll know what it should taste like!
And, as we’ve implied, this recipe is just about as close as you can get to Garten’s original ultimate beef stew!
And as you can see, it’s a pretty extensive list of tasty goods that are in this beef stew. With everything from garlic cloves and bay leaves, to beef stock and Worcestershire sauce, and plenty more, this is one loaded stew!
Then again, it’s probably that massive range of ingredients, stewed and slow-cooked over at least 2 and a half hours, that gives this stew the character that so many have fallen in love with.
The result of all of this culinary toiling? An amazing beef stew that is phenomenally rich in every respect, from the diced beef that has been perfectly softened, to the stew broth itself.
No wonder so many people want to try and recapture that magic in their recipes!
Now, on to the next copycat recipe that you might want to try out for yourself.
Don’t worry, this recipe uses plenty of the same ingredients, so switching from one or the other won’t be too much of a hassle!
If you’re looking to get a really rich stew and marinade for your diced beef, make sure that you use a red wine or stock equivalent that is deep and rich. After all, you’ll be soaking it for a good 2 hours at least!
However to get the right consistency for recipes like these don’t forget to have plenty of all-purpose flour handy. You may find that the amount that the recipe calls for isn’t to your consistent liking.
Still, if you follow the instructions as written, you’ll find a stew recipe here that, while a lot to take in, is surprisingly easy to make, once you know what you’re doing!
With how filling and warming stews like this are, it’s no wonder that they’ve become such a popular meal in the winter. There’s just something so cozy about a recipe that stokes the fire in your belly, you know?
Well, that’s exactly what this dish does!
This recipe calls for a very specific kind of cut of beef called pancetta, which is a kind of Italian-seasoned pork. However, you’ll find that any good cut of pork or pork lardon will work just as fine.
So long as they’re seasoned right, and added at the right time, you’ll find that they perfectly accentuate any flavor your beautiful beef has.
This is still a pretty laborious cooking process. Plenty of steps to take into account, a long recipe list, and keeping track of time.
However, if you can pull it off, you’ll have a recipe that no one else’s beef stew will even come close to touching! Thanks again, Ina Garten!
Speaking of recipes that you won’t soon forget after eating them, we have another great copycat dish that deliciously falls into this category!
One of the best things that Ina Garten does with her cooking is taking a recipe that many of us remembered from our childhood, and turning it into something that tastes as good as we remembered (see also “Best Ina Garten Turkey Recipes“).
That’s ‘as good as you remember’, not how good it was, which is a whole other can of worms to get into!
It’s not an easy dish, that’s for sure. The ingredients list is pretty long, and you’ll still be spending a few hours waiting for the flavors to fully blend, and to get the right consistency with your stew broth.
But this dish, with its rich stews and juicy diced beef that is just waiting to fall apart at the first prod or poke, is your chance to have a recipe under your belt that your kids won’t soon forget.
While we know how this looks, just trust us for a second, and click on this bourguignon recipe.
Yes, while this dish isn’t technically a beef stew recipe, you’ll find that this dish has pretty much everything that you know and love in a good beef stew.
Just take a look at the ingredients list for this dish, and see what we mean. From the onions to the carrots to the olive oil and canned tomatoes. Heck, even bacon appears in both!
The only noticeable difference is the inclusion of mushrooms (which is always a plus in our cookbook), and the use of brandy to get a distinct smoky, almost burnt flavor to the sauce that this bourguignon is made with.
However, those are the finer details. As far as we are concerned, this recipe and the beef stew that we’ve covered are both great takes on an age-old combination of sauce and cooked succulent beef.
Like the previous ‘ultimate’ beef stew that was inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe, (see also: 7 Best Ina Garten Beef Bourguignon Recipes To Try Today)this one will require a little patience on your part. At 2 to 2 and a half hours, it’s not going to be cooked anytime soon.
And can you believe that this is one of the shorter cooking times for the recipes that we’ve covered?
However, with a rich stew that balances the line between a thick broth and a flowing sauce, you’ll find no complaints from us here. This dutch-oven-cooked dish is worth every minute of the time it takes to make it!
If we could recommend just one food item that you should serve your beef stew with, it would be to have a fresh loaf of hard-crusted bread at the ready, which makes for an excellent dipping side.
Slather on a little butter on a slice, and you have a little taste of heaven, ready to be enjoyed on a cold winter’s evening.
Well, rich is one way to describe it! It’s packed with so many ingredients, both meaty, veggie, and herby, that it is stretching the mark on what we might consider ‘stew-like’ here!
However, the sauce or stew, whatever you want to call it, in this dish is rich unlike anything else on this list. Just coating the many ingredients in this recipe, but adding so much when it comes to the flavor department.
Plus, at just over 2 hours in total cooking time, this might be one of the quickest recipes to make on this list!
(‘Quick’ is relative, of course. But our point still stands!)
You can’t go wrong with a good beef stew. Just about the only way to make one of these stews even better is to add even more ingredients to it!
The carrots shouldn’t be a big jump from the other recipes that we’ve covered in this guide so far (although they aren’t greeted thin here, to be fair).
It’s the potatoes that make this beef stew recipe stand out from the crowd of other recipes that we’ve covered.
Final Notes
So, there you have it!
Yes, a lot of these recipes are going to take an evening to make. And yes, the shopping lists are longer than some people’s weekly groceries.
But Ina Garten isn’t the kind of chef to just make a recipe that isn’t immediately loved just for the clicks. There’s plenty to love about this dish.
And, once you’ve cooked one of these dishes for yourself, you too will see why!
I'm Barbara Hunt, the founder of WomenChefs.org. Being a mom of two, I understand the challenges of meal planning and the monotony it can bring.
That's why I created WomenChefs.org, a platform dedicated to showcasing the skills and delicious dishes crafted by amazing women. My goal is to provide a space where women can find delectable recipes that tantalize their taste buds and ignite their senses.
I hope you'll join me in exploring WomenChefs.org and discovering your next favorite recipe. Let's embrace culinary diversity and try something new together!
