Introducing you to slow cooker beef bourguignon. The famous French beef stew in the slow cooker combining perfectly cooked beef stew pieces, mushrooms, bacon, carrots, onions, and a rich flavoursome red wine sauce.
Whether you call it beef bourguignon, beef burgundy, boeuf bourguignon, beef casserole or simply French stew, it’s a delicious Sunday meal that is perfect for the slow cooker.
We originally shared how to cook beef bourguignon in the slow cooker back in 2015. We have updated it with more tips and tricks and new photos. We hope you enjoy the update.
Beef Bourguignon Slow Cooker
I don’t know about you, but a beef bourguignon is a reason in itself to go out and buy your first slow cooker.
In fact, the first thing I ever made in my first slow cooker was beef bourguignon.
I then went on to make more and more different beef stews in the slow cooker. But its always beef bourguignon that I go back to time and time again.
It reminds me of holidays to France. I have been to France many times both as a kid with my parents in the family RV and as a grown up with the hubby and our 3 kids.
But it was when I was at a French restaurant recently and Dominic ordered beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes and carrots, that I remembered that I must update our crockpot beef bourguignon for you and give you an easy way of bringing the famous French stew together.
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What Is Beef Bourguignon?
Beef bourguignon, is better described as the French take on a rich and creamy beef stew. Whilst the British make the beef stew with beef stock, beef bourguignon is heavy on the red wine. It is also really creamy.
This is our beef bourguignon that we had at a French restaurant earlier this year:
Also referred to as beef burgundy because it uses red wine from the burgundy region of France.
Beef bourguignon or the proper French spelling of boeuf bourguignon if probably most famous because of its feature in TV shows and movies, such as the movie Julie Vs Julia.
What Is The Difference Between Beef Bourguignon & Beef Stew?
Beef bourguignon is simply a French version of a beef stew. Its like comparing a Big Mac vs a hamburger. They are one of the same just with a different spin on the recipe.
If you have cooked beef stew before and love to eat beef stew, then you will love beef bourguignon.
What Cut Of Meat Is Best For Beef Bourguignon?
The best cut of beef to use is any braising meat. This can be chuck roast, diced beef from the supermarket, or what is readily available. When we lived in Portugal we would use beef shin, but any will do the trick.
I love to save money on groceries and used the 2 for £7 packs of diced beef from Asda and they were delicious.
What Type Of Wine Is Used In Beef Bourguignon?
Traditionally a dry red wine from the Burgundy region of France would be used to make an authentic boeuf bourguignon.
But we don’t all have big budgets and many of our readers are on a small pension. With that in mind, I recommend whatever red wine you can afford or that you have in. I went with a cheap red wine that I regularly buy from Tescos.
How To Make A Healthy Beef Bourguignon?
With a traditional beef bourguignon you will often have flour on the beef and corn flour to thicken the beef stew with.
In our French slow cooker beef casserole, we are using potatoes for thickening the stew and cutting out these two ingredients.
There is butter in this beef slow cooker recipe, but its also healthier and gluten free.
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Beef Bourguignon Slow Cooker Ingredients
Beef – I recommend any diced beef that you would use in a classic beef stew or a beef casserole. We used some diced beef from Asda.
Wine – Its all about slow cooker beef in red wine. After beef your most important ingredient is the red wine and I recommend any red wine, you like to cook with.
Stock – You will also need some beef stock. We used some frozen stock cubes from the freezer that we had previously made. They are amazing and can be dumped straight in the slow cooker with the other ingredients.
Mushrooms – Mushrooms is a big part of this beef bourguignon slow cooker recipe. Though because mushrooms cook fast, we add this ingredient last.
Onions – You can use any onions you have in. Whether that is red, white, or shallots.
Carrots – In a traditional slow cooked beef Bourguignon you will find baby carrots. They were out of season when I made this stew, so I opted for sliced carrots.
Bacon – a slow cooker recipe for beef burgundy is known for its bacon lardons. You can use these or just slice and dice some back bacon.
Seasoning – Then for seasoning your slow cooker recipe for beef bourguignon we used salt, pepper, frozen garlic, bouquet garni, thyme, and parsley.
Extras – Also to give your beef stew an even better taste we recommend adding some tomato puree and then some butter for the mushrooms.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this slow cooker beef bourguignon recipe it has just been our Crockpot. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of slow cooker recipes and also great for easy Sunday lunches.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our slow cooker recipes category as we have more than 100 tried and tested slow cooker recipes and have been using slow cookers for 18 years.
How To Cook Beef Bourguignon In The Slow Cooker?
- Peel. Start by peeling and dicing your potatoes. Load them into the slow cooker with butter, or margarine along with mixed herbs and salt and pepper. Let them slow cook for 90 minutes.
- Prep. Just before the mash is ready, peel and dice carrots and onion and slice any bigger mushrooms into smaller pieces.
- Sauté. Remove the potatoes from the slow cooker and load into a mixing bowl. In the meantime (no need to clean first) add your diced beef to the slow cooker with a little extra virgin olive oil and brown on all sides. Remove the beef onto a plate and next sauté the mushrooms, onion, and garlic with butter. Place the garlic mushrooms on a 2nd plate.
- Bacon. Next add a little extra virgin olive oil back in the slow cooker and sauté the diced bacon. Then add in carrots, beef, red wine, beef stock, tomato puree, and seasonings.
- Slow. Place the lid on the slow cooker and slow cook for 3 hours on high.
- Mash. When the slow cooker is back on add margarine and any extra seasonings and some milk to the bowl with the potatoes and mash until you have creamy mash.
- Mushrooms. When the slow cooker has done 3 hours on high add in the garlic mushrooms and a heaped tablespoon of mash and stir.
- Finish. Cook for a further hour on high and then serve with mashed potatoes.
And I am sure you can see why this beef bourguignon slow cooker recipe is a true favourite of mine.
How Long To Cook Beef Bourguignon?
You will be pleased to know, that it takes JUST 5.5 hours on high in the slow cooker to cook a tender beef bourguignon. This also includes making delicious mashed potatoes that you can also use as a natural thickener in your stew.
Though add an extra 10 minutes to this cook time to account for sauteing some of the ingredients in the slow cooker prior to cooking the stew.
Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon & Dumplings
You can also add a little British to your beef bourguignon in the slow cooker by serving it with dumplings.
You can make a side of our suet dumplings or go suet free with our dumplings without suet.
Or follow our slow cooker lamb stew and dumplings.
More Slow Cooker Beef Recipes
- Slow Cooker Roast Beef
- Slow Cooker Beef Hotpot
- Slow Cooker Corned Beef Hash
- Slow Cooker Brisket & Gravy
- Slow Cooker Prime Rib Stroganoff
- Slow Cooker Goulash
Your slow cooker beef bourguignon recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon
Ingredients
Slow Cooker Mash
- 1 kg White Potatoes
- 2 Tbsp Butter/Margarine
- 4 Tbsp Skimmed Milk
- 1 Tsp Mixed Herbs
- Salt & Pepper
Bourguignon
- 800 g Diced Beef
- 400 g Mushrooms
- 6 Back Bacon Rashers
- 2 Small Onions
- 3 Medium Carrots
- 720 ml Red Wine
- 240 ml Beef Stock
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Tomato Puree/Paste
- 1 Tbsp Frozen Chopped Garlic
- 1 Tbsp Bouquet Garni
- 2 Tsp Thyme
- 1 Tbsp Parsley
- Salt & Pepper
Kitchen Gadgets:
Instructions
- Peel your potatoes and dice them and load the potatoes into the slow cooker with half the butter or margarine, salt, pepper, and mixed herbs. Allow to slow cook for 90 minutes on high to create soft mashed potatoes.
- Whilst the potatoes are cooking in the slow cooker, do your stew prep work. Peel and dice carrots and onions. Wash and quarter your mushrooms. Slice your bacon rashers into chunks.
- When the slow cooker is done, put the potatoes to one side in a suitable bowl and add the milk and other half of the butter and mash to make mashed potatoes.
- Then into the slow cooker add your beef and sauté for a couple of minutes with extra virgin olive oil and brown the beef on all sides. Transfer the beef to a plate.
- Same again and sauté the onion, mushrooms, and garlic but this time with the butter. When the mushrooms are nicely coloured and the butter is melted, move them to a spare plate too.
- Next add the bacon into the slow cooker with a little extra virgin olive oil and sauté for a couple of minutes to give bacon flavour to the slow cooker pot.
- Take the slow cooker from the stovetop and move to the slow cooker unit. Then add to the bacon the carrots, beef, tomato puree, tablespoon of the just cooked mash, red wine, beef stock, seasonings, and seasonings. Cook for 3 hours on high.
- When the 3 hours are up add in garlic mushrooms, stir and add in a little extra mash to make it extra creamier if not creamy enough already.
- Slow cook for a final hour before serving with leftover mashed potatoes.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
I didn’t realize you could brown meat in the slow cooker – great tip! This recipe tastes delicious 🙂
Hi, this sounds wonderful. Can you tell me what we would call “skimmed milk” in the U.S.?
Hi Cindy,
I reckon the Americans call it skim milk, it is basically milk but with alot of the fat taken out of it, so a healthier version of ordinary milk.