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These Slow Cooker beef stew noodles are pure comfort food with tender beef, potatoes, carrots, rich gravy, and wide egg noodles. You only need three main ingredients, and the Slow Cooker does most of the work. It’s an easy, filling dinner for a cold night.
Why You’ll Love It
- Just three ingredients — no chopping, browning, or complicated seasoning blends.
- Slow Cooker easy — the beef cooks low and slow until tender.
- Built-in vegetables and gravy — canned stew brings the potatoes, carrots, and rich sauce.
- Feeds a crowd — a generous batch with plenty of hearty noodles.
- Comfort-food flavor — tender beef and wide egg noodles make it especially satisfying.
Ingredient Notes
For the beef, buy plain beef stew meat cut into chunks. It is usually already cut, though glance through the package for any pieces that look absurdly huge. If you have a chuck roast, you can cut it into 1- to 1 1/2-inch chunks yourself. This works beautifully—just trim off the big hard pieces of fat. A little fat is flavor; a hunk of chewy gristle is a personal insult.
The canned condensed beef stew is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, so use one you’d be willing to eat from a bowl. It needs to have the potatoes and carrots in it, plus plenty of gravy. Grab whichever store brand is cheapest, though Dinty Moore works well too.
Wide egg noodles are important. Those soft, wavy ones grab the gravy and make the whole thing feel more like a real supper. Don’t cook them directly in the Slow Cooker; they’ll drink up too much liquid and turn mushy, and then you’ll be irritated.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch chunks
- 2 (20- to 24-ounce) cans condensed beef stew, with the potatoes, carrots, gravy, all of it
- 12 ounces wide dried egg noodles, wavy-style if you can find them
Instructions
Add the 2 pounds of beef stew meat to the bottom of a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Keep the meat refrigerated until you’re ready to use it, especially if you’re doing this in the morning before work. Don’t let raw beef sit around having its own little day.
Pour both cans of condensed beef stew right over the meat, including every last bit of gravy, potatoes, and carrots. Use a spoon to spread it around so most of the beef is tucked down into the stew. It will look a little underwhelming at this point. Do not panic. Slow cooker food often begins its life looking like a beige mistake.
Give it one gentle stir, just enough to settle the beef pieces into the gravy so they’ll cook evenly. You don’t need to thoroughly mix it into oblivion. This is a forgiving recipe, which is more than I can say for a pie crust.
Put the lid on and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours, until the beef is very tender and the potatoes and carrots are soft. If your slow cooker runs cooler than it should—and some of those old ones absolutely do—start on HIGH so it gets moving. The gravy will darken a little and thicken as it cooks, and the kitchen starts smelling rich and savory.
Check the stew before you cook the noodles. If it seems too thick to coat the noodles well, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup hot water. Start small; you can always add more. If it seems thinner than you’d like, leave the lid off and let it cook on HIGH for 20 to 30 minutes so some of the liquid cooks down. I prefer it a little loose at first because the noodles are going to soak up gravy once they go in.
About 20 minutes before you want to eat, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil on the stove. Add the 12 ounces of wide egg noodles and cook them according to the package directions, usually 6 to 8 minutes, until they’re just tender. Don’t overcook them—they’ll get a little softer after they meet the hot stew. Drain them very well, giving the colander a good shake. Waterlogged noodles dilute the gravy.
If your slow cooker was on HIGH, turn it down to WARM or LOW. Add the drained noodles right into the stew, then gently fold everything together until the noodles are coated with gravy and the beef, potatoes, and carrots are spread through the whole crock. Be gentle so you don’t smash up every potato chunk. Some will break apart anyway. That’s called dinner, not failure.
Put the lid back on and let the beef stew noodles sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. That little rest gives the noodles time to absorb some gravy and helps the sauce settle into that thick, cozy texture. Spoon it into bowls while it’s steaming hot, and make sure each bowl gets some extra gravy.
Variations
Stir a few tablespoons of sour cream into each bowl after serving, which makes it a little creamy and tangy. You can also fold sour cream or a splash of half-and-half into the slow cooker after the noodles go in, keeping the heat on WARM.
If you want more gravy, add an extra half can of condensed beef stew, or a splash of beef broth before cooking. I wouldn’t add too much broth at the beginning, though. This is stew noodles, not beef noodle soup, although I suppose if that’s what you end up with on a busy night, nobody’s calling the police.
A spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, or a pinch of dried Italian seasoning can go in with the canned stew if you want to nudge the flavor around a little. And if you’re trying to stretch it or sneak in more vegetables, a drained can of mixed vegetables or green beans can be stirred in during the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Frozen peas can be added at the end. They’re fine. Not wonderful, not terrible. Just very green and a little too cheerful for this brown, gravy-soaked situation.
Storage & Reheating
Cool leftovers fairly quickly and get them into shallow containers in the refrigerator within 2 hours. They’ll keep well for 3 to 4 days, though the noodles do thicken up as they sit. This is one of those dishes that looks even less photogenic on day two but somehow tastes just as good.
To reheat, put a portion in a saucepan or microwave-safe bowl and add a small splash of water or beef broth to loosen the gravy. Heat until it’s steaming hot all the way through. Stir once or twice if you’re microwaving, because the edges can get lava-hot while the middle remains oddly chilly. Microwave physics. A mystery for the ages.
This reheats better than a little sandwich pretending to be enough for dinner.
Final Notes
This is the kind of recipe to keep tucked away for the weeks when everything feels louder than usual. When the phone keeps ringing, the weather is ugly, the grocery bill makes you want to sit down for a minute, and dinner still has to happen.
There’s something almost comforting about how plain it is. Beef. Canned stew. Noodles. No ceremony. No performance. Just a warm bowl that gives you leftovers for tomorrow, which can feel like a small mercy sometimes.
Slow Cooker 3-Ingredient Beef Stew Noodles
Ingredients Â
- 2 pounds beef stew meat Cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch chunks
- 2 20- to 24-ounce cans condensed beef stew With the potatoes, carrots, and gravy
- 12 ounces wide dried egg noodles Wavy-style if available
InstructionsÂ
- Add the beef stew meat to the bottom of a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker.
- Pour both cans of condensed beef stew over the meat, including all of the gravy, potatoes, and carrots, then spread it around so most of the beef is tucked into the stew.
- Give everything one gentle stir to settle the beef pieces into the gravy without thoroughly mixing or breaking up the vegetables.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours, until the beef is very tender and the potatoes and carrots are soft.
- Check the stew before cooking the noodles; if it is too thick, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup hot water, or if it is too thin, cook uncovered on HIGH for 20 to 30 minutes to reduce it.
- About 20 minutes before serving, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, cook the egg noodles according to the package directions, usually 6 to 8 minutes, until just tender, and drain them very well.
- If the slow cooker was on HIGH, turn it to WARM or LOW, then add the drained noodles and gently fold them into the stew until coated with gravy and evenly combined with the beef and vegetables.
- Cover and let the beef stew noodles rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then serve hot with plenty of gravy in each bowl.