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This slow cooker beef bourguignon is a French classic made simple. It’s made without white flour and is paleo-friendly.

Beef bourguignon in a bowl

What is Beef Bourguignon?

If you’re familiar with Julia Child, you may know Beef Bourguignon. Beef Bourguignon or “Beef Burgundy” is a savory French stew that’s similar to coq au vin. It’s made by slowly stewing stew meat, hearty vegetables, and red wine… and some bacon for good measure! It’s often served over mashed potatoes or noodles and topped off with fresh herbs.

Though this dish can seem a bit labor-intensive, it’s really not that complicated at all. Using the slow cooker makes this a really simple dish that will still impress your dinner guests.

This Beef Bourguignon is gluten-free, paleo, and can be made AIP and whole30 depending on whether or not you choose to add the classic red wine to the dish.

How to Make Beef Bourguignon in the Slow Cooker

  • Using a large, deep skillet, cook the chopped bacon over medium heat or until crispy. Remove the bacon from the skillet and place in the bottom of the slow cooker. Reserve the fat in the pan.
  • Add the stew meat to the pan and lightly brown on each side. Remove from the pan and add to the slow cooker. 
  • Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape any browned bits off the pan, stirring it into the wine. Allow the wine to simmer for 2-3 minutes. 
  • Add the wine to the slow cooker along with the vegetables. 
  • Using a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup of broth and 2 tbsp of arrowroot starch. Pour into the slow cooker along with the seasonings (reserving the parsley).
  • Set the slow cooker to low and allow to cook for 8 hours.
  • Serve over mashed sweet potato and top with parsley.

 

The Ingredients for Beef Bourguignon

Beef stew meat

You can also use chuck roast sliced into pieces.

Bacon

Bacon adds a nice smokey flavor to the stew.

Carrots, mushrooms, white sweet potato and pearl onions

Pearl onions can be challenging to find fresh, but I was able to find them frozen. As for the white sweet potato, you can also use orange sweet potato or parsnip.

Beef broth & red wine

Red wine is a key ingredient in this recipe. Alcohol typically cooks out during cooking, however, if you’re following a whole30 or would rather not have alcohol, you can also sub more beef broth.

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Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Michelle
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
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Description

This slow cooker beef bourguignon is a French classic made simple. It’s made without white flour and is paleo-friendly.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 pieces of bacon, chopped
  • 2 lbs beef stew meat 
  • 1 ½ cup red wine, (sub broth for whole30, see notes for AIP)
  • 1 cup white sweet potato, chopped
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped
  • 1 cup mushrooms sliced
  • ½ cup pearl onions
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 cups beef broth, divided 
  • 2 tbsp arrowroot starch
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste (sub nomato sauce for AIP)
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 tsp sea salt 
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper (omit for AIP)
  • 2 bay leaves 
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

  1. Using a large, deep skillet, cook the chopped bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon from the skillet and place in the bottom of the slow cooker. Reserve the fat in the pan.
  2. Add the stew meat to the pan and lightly brown on each side. Remove from the pan and add to the slow cooker. 
  3. Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape any browned bits off the pan, stirring it into the wine. Allow the wine to simmer for 2-3 minutes. 
  4. Add the wine to the slow cooker along with the vegetables. 
  5. Using a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup of broth and 2 tbsp of arrowroot starch. Pour into the slow cooker along with the remainder of the broth, tomato paste, and seasonings (reserving the parsley).
  6. Set the slow cooker to low and allow to cook for 8 hours. 
  7. Once cooked, discard the bay leaf.
  8. Serve over mashed sweet potato and top with parsley.

Notes

Though alcohol is not AIP compliant, cooking wine allows the alcohol to cook off. If you still choose to forgo the wine, just substitute for broth. 

All nutritional information are estimations and will vary. Nutritional information does not include optional ingredients.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 serving
  • Calories: 341
  • Fat: 15.3g
  • Carbohydrates: 12.9g
  • Fiber: 2.3g
  • Protein: 35.2g