Slow cooker beef bone stew is a low effort family dinner; satisfying enough for a Sunday lunch but without the faff of a roast, easy enough for midweek dinner. It also makes a deeply nourishing beef bone soup, thanks to long, slow cooking of oxtail and marrow-rich bones.
Updated 2026 · Recipe originally commissioned by Crockpot (2014)
In researching how to make slow cooker beef bone stew, I watched a video on Youtube that had me in a state of awe. This American lady had an assembly line of slow cooker stews, bagged up in plastic freezer bags, the raw meat, the chopped onions, the veg, heck – even the stock.
She freezes them all into a lump and then whenever she wants a stew the next day, she grabs a rock of frozen beef stew ingredients, peels off the bag and whacks them into the slow cooker.
I am so trying this slow cooker beef dump meal out for myself. This production line freezer “dump” technique works with any slow cooker model so I have some keen experimenting to do.
I might put up this facade of being terribly organised but sometimes when we’re eating fish fingers and combi microwave oven chips, I’m thinking if only I had got ahead of myself this morning and made a hearty slow cooker meal.
I’ve used a slow cooker for many years; mine is a vintage Crockpot slow cooker with an attractive ceramic pot you can lift out and use to serve at the table. It’s no longer sold but helpfully, John Lewis here have an archive picture if you’re interested.
Having seen what the American lady does in hers, I need to raise my game getting more out of my slow cooker.
Meanwhile it was time to have a bash with this new slow cooker that Crockpot had sent me. The more modern slow cooker model has a digital display; with straight sides it’s easier to clean than my vintage one.
A glass lid lets you see what’s going on inside without letting heat escape. Logo geek that I am, I love the cute puff of steam coming out of the “o” in the word “pot”. Genius.
This slow cooker, as you’d expect, was very easy to use. Simply plug it in and press the power button. There are two heat settings; high and low – but also a “keep warm” setting.
I liked that the new slow cooker has up-down arrows to set a time on the digital display that counts down the cooking time – my old one only had a simple on-off knob.
Slow cooker beef bone stew – easy, thrifty classic
I cooked the beef bones in the slow cooker with oxtail pieces: this recipe is a really lazy, hearty stew. I don’t even intend to cut potatoes or carrots. I’ve selected these Chantenay carrots because you can chuck them in as they are without even topping and tailing them. If you were really lazy you might buy a bag of ready-chopped onion but honestly I think that’s taking things a tad far!
I’ve been having a beef bones moment lately – I was rereading Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse in which boeuf en daube is memorably served to Mrs Ramsay’s house guests. I first read the book at university and wasn’t sure what the dish was, but a few years later, on holiday in the Camargue (on the French Mediterranean coast) I learned it was a rich, slow cooked beef stew and French regional speciality.
The gelatinous ooziness, from the bones, gives the slow cooked beef stew its deep rich flavour. I’m sorry if that’s too icky for any vegetarians out there but chances are the title of this post has put you off already. This version isn’t a daube as it isn’t made with bull meat or black olives but I’d love to try that as well.
Adapt this slow cooker beef bone stew into a rich beef bone soup
You can adapt this stew recipe into beef bone soup; slow cooking beef bones breaks down and releases gelatin for a nutritious broth. If you wish to do make it into soup, I suggest you increase the ratio of stock / water, skip the flour and potatoes. Then you have two options for serving:
- Spoon directly into wide soup bowls with the vegetables and whole oxtail pieces;
- The same, but fork the meat from the bones before serving (the tender beef will slide off);
- Strain the beef bone broth and use by itself.
We forget in the UK, that for a long time, beef on the bone was actually banned – due to concerns about “Mad Cow Disease”. During my early-adult life, beef bone was a no-no in the UK with exports of beef bone temporarily banned.
Back then, when I visited friends in Florence, we ate tagliata, huge slabs of beef in slices. So infamous, at the time, was the British cow problem, that our Italian friends joked “No Crazy Cow here.”
Beef bones are now sold again here – although you’ll need a good butcher to find them. They’re not commonly sold by supermarkets.
To cook them, simply toss the oxtail beef bones in some flour, heat some oil in a pan and brown off the pieces for extra flavour in your slow cooked stew.
Sometimes, when using casserole cubes of beef steak, I have missed this step out. This is a mistake – it does make the stew taste good – and the flour coating helps thicken the stew gravy.
Next, leave the slow cooker beef bones stew for 4-6 hours. Meanwhile we went and looked at some other bones – dinosaur bones to be precise!
Ted has a four-week homework project researching dinosaurs, so whilst our dinner was slow cooking we hopped on the tube to look at the “real thing” at the Natural History Museum, famous for its bone displays.
Fast forward to later that day, as I put the key in the door, I could smell the rich aroma of slow cooker beef bone stew even before I went inside.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that the joy of slow cooking is using getting the best value out of cheaper cuts of meat such as beef bones. These cuts need longer cooking times meaning slow cookers are the perfect way to prepare them. So this stew works with either value stew packs or oxtail beef bones.
Another low cost meat that cooks brilliantly in the slow cooker would be bacon joints – see my Slow Cooker Pulled Bacon recipe for another reliable slow cooker meat dish.
Have I convinced you to get your slow cooker out? Or do you reckon you’ll nip out and buy one during “Crock-tober”?
Slow Cooker Beef Bone Stew (Rich Beef Bone Soup Option)
Equipment
- 1 Slow Cooker (Mine is a Crockpot)
Ingredients
- 600 g meat from oxtail bones (use 1kg worth on the bone) - oxtail or other beef on bones
- 2 tbsp flour plain, to coat meat
- 2 tbsp oil groundnut
- 1 cube beef bouillon
- 500 ml water
- 300 g shallots peeled and trimmed (cut banana shallots in half)
- 300 g carrots (I used whole Chanteney carrots as they are small)
- 600 g potatoes small, new
- salt to season
- pepper to season
Instructions
- Toss the beef pieces in flour with some salt and pepper.
- Over a medium heat, heat the oil and fry the coated beef until brown on each side.
- Lay the browned meat in the base of the Crockpot.
- Cover with the shallots, carrots, potatoes and beef stock.
- Cook on "high" setting for 4-6 hours.
Notes
Pin this slow cooker beef bone stew recipe and save it for next time you are looking for a hearty beef bones stew or nourishing beef bone soup recipe.
After you’ve cooked your beef, if you have leftovers, why not adapt my leftover lamb curry which would work equally well with leftover beef.
Love that idea of using the ziplock bag – I am definitely trying that one out too! Your recipe sounds lovely too and it looks like you and your son had a lovely time at the museum 🙂
It’s great isn’t it – I just need to clear our backlog of frozen McCain chips samples before I have any space!!
loving all these crockpot recipes. Yours looks particularly rich and dark and luscious… one for the memory bank!
Thank you – I should have splashed red wine in it too really shouldn’t I?
I think I’m going to have to go out and buy one, I’ve been meaning to for a while!
Do it! You’ve got the whole winter ahead of you to really get the most out of it!