1.5 to 2 lbs. Beef chuck
1 small onion, sliced
1 slice bacon
1 TBsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
McCormicks Unseasoned meat tenderizer
McCormicks Montreal steak seasoning
1 TBsp butter
1/2 tsp. French's Worcestershire sauce
2 cups beef broth
freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups sliced carrots
12 small "baby white" potatoes
2 TBsp flour
Preheat oven to 225 degrees.
Cut fat from beef, and cut the beef into 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch cubes.
Put flour in paper bag, add beef cubes and shake to coat them with flour.
Place the vegetable oil, beef fat, bacon, and onion into skillet..
Cook over fairly high heat (#8 of 10 on the stovetop dial).
When onion is soft and lightly browned, remove and put in dutch oven.
Remove bacon when it becomes crisp. (Discard bacon.)
Put the lowest simmering heat under the dutch oven (on the stove), just to keep it warm.
Continue to cook the beef fat until most of the fat has liquified (just a couple minutes more).
Discard fat from skillet and quickly place beef cubes in skillet.
Do not layer beef cubes.
Brown cubes on each side, then place in dutch oven.
Add 1 TBsp butter to skillet, followed by 1 TBsp flour (use the flour left over in the paper bag).
Whisk while cooking - about 1 minute.
Add beef broth, pepper, and worcestershire sauce to the butter-flour mixture, whisking to stir.
When broth mixture begins to boil, add to dutch oven, covering the beef cubes.
Bring beef mixture to a boil again (should take just a few seconds) then cover the dutch oven and place in the oven.
Note the time -- bake for 2 1/2 hours.
At the 2-hour point, prep and cook the vegetables:
Boil potatoes for 15 minutes.
Boil carrots for 10 minutes.
After the stew meat has cooked for 2.5 hours:
Add the drained potatoes and carrots to the stew.
Note the time -- bake (covered) for another hour.
To thicken the beef stew juice, mix 2 Tbsp. flour and 2 Tbsp beef broth (or water) together. Mix into stew (if you use the whisk, careful not to break up the potatoes and carrots) and cook 5 minutes more.
