Hearty Campfire Beef Stew

This camp stew is a pared down version of the stews I make at home. It uses a few basic vegetables - easy to find almost anywhere - and it’s suitable for campfire cooking.

I love a good beef stew when the weather starts to cool down. Cooking one while sitting around an open fire with family members, enjoying the fresh air, listening to the birds in the surrounding trees?

Bliss.

Besides, slow cooking methods - as used here - are a good way to break down even the cheapest, toughest meats... so it’s an economical meal, as well!

So, free up an afternoon to relax around the campsite, and throw on a batch of this warming stew.

Most of the time involved with making it is just waiting, so it’s a great excuse to crack open a new book and relax.

No really, it’s become my favourite way to get some reading time in! It’s amazing just how little down time we end up getting, on the big road trips...

Anyway, enough talk, let me show you how I make this simple meal.

Ingredients

This delicious campfire stew recipe uses really basic ingredients, that you should be able to find at pretty much any local grocery store, throughout the year.

That makes it a good one for our camping trips - sometimes, we are WAY out in the middle of nowhere, with the grocery stores being smaller than we could even have imagined!

I like to look at this recipe as a framework. If I can’t find one of the vegetables, I’ll swap in more of one of the others.

Anyway, a few ingredient notes for you:

Beef

I generally aim to get some beef chuck roast for this, but I’ve definitely had to be flexible, based on availability.

You’re cooking low and slow, so the cheaper cuts with a lot of connective tissue work well in this stew. “Stewing beef” or bottom round are also good options.

Beef Broth

I generally just use tetra packs of whatever beef broth I can get on the road, with a preference to the lower sodium versions. Reduced sodium broth gives you more room to season it to your personal taste.

That said, feel free to use a homemade beef stock if you prefer. While I’ve made homemade chicken stock on camping trips a bunch of times, I haven’t bothered to do the same with beef bones, yet.

Vegetables

I use a fairly basic mix of stew vegetables in this recipe - Turnips, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts.

If you can’t get one of these, feel free to substitute more of one of the other ones, or a similar veggie.

Turnips, rutabaga, carrots, and parsnips are all relatively interchangeable.

I’m not sure what I would swap for mushrooms or celery (aside from maybe having to use white / button mushrooms instead of crimini), but luckily those are usually the most easy to find in ANY grocery store.

As far as Brussels sprouts go, I recommend using fresh. If you’re using frozen, don’t add them until the last minute, and only cook them long enough to heat through - stewing them too long is exactly why Brussels sprouts have a bad reputation!

Not into Brussels sprouts? Toss some green beans in, instead.

Oil

You’ll be heating your cast iron dutch oven over a hot fire to sear the beef in the first step, so you’ll want an oil that has a high smoke point.

I usually use Avocado oil for this - NOT olive oil - but vegetable oil would also work.

Thickener

There are a few different ways you can thicken your stew, based on your dietary needs.

Corn starch is the easiest to come by, and arrowroot starch is a good alternative if you’re on a paleo or AIP diet.

If you want to keep it a bit lower carb, use Xanthan Gum instead - you’ll need less of it, see the recipe cards for the amounts.

Note: If you like a really thick stew, you can increase your thickener by up to 50% - just do it up front. Adding any of these to a pot of boiling stew without mixing in the herbs is going to produce clumps.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Bay Leaves
Dried Parsley
Dried Rosemary>
Dried Thyme
Salt & Ground Black Pepper

The only real note I have here is that if you’d prefer to use fresh herbs for any of these, use 3x the amount called for in the recipe.

How to Make Campfire Beef Stew

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Trim roast of any visible fat, cut into 1" large pieces. Allow to come up to room temperature.

Pat beef cubes dry with a paper towel, season well with salt and pepper.

Measure about 1 tablespoon of the oil into a large pot. Heat over a high fire, or really hot coals - this has a long cooking time, so you’ll need to keep the campfire coals going.

Add the beef to the heated pan. Sear, stirring occasionally, until browned all over.

Once the beef is all scraped off the bottom of the pan and incorporated, add remaining beef broth and the bay leaves.

Bring to a boil, then reduce fire to maintain a low simmer. Simmer over a low fire for 1 ½ hours, or until meat is very tender.

Quarter or slice the mushrooms, peel and chop the turnips, chop the celery, peel and slice the carrot, chop the onion, press or mince the garlic, and cut the Brussels sprouts in half.

In a small bowl, combine the starch, dried parsley, dried thyme, and dried rosemary. Be sure to stir well - you want the starch (or xanthan gum) well distributed over the other ingredients, to prevent clumping. Set aside.

Taste, season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves, and serve hot.

Will keep for 3 days in the fridge, or several months in the freezer.

More One-Pot Camping Recipes

Looking for more easy - but satisfying! - one pot meals to cook over your campfire? Here are some of my favourites!

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup
Beef & Root Vegetable Stew
Cajun Chicken Sloppy Joes
Campfire Chili
Dutch Oven Jambalaya
Easy Chicken Curry
Egg Roll in a Bowl
Sloppy Giuseppes
Traditional Sloppy Joes

... But wait, there's more! See our main Camping Recipes page for ALL of our camping recipes - snacks, desserts, mixes to make ahead of time, and more!