turkish-inspired spicy beef stew.
braised beef chuck simmers with bold aleppo peppers and bright sumac for a hearty, spicy, and surprisingly sweet beef stew.
Serves: 4-6 Cook time: 2 hours 30 minutes
My bread and butter: beef stew. Not only do I love meat and potatoes (irish girl) but I love throwing them all into a pot and letting low heat work its magic. Of course, it takes a little more than a working stovetop to make a good stew.
I did test this recipe in a slow cooker so that I could include the instructions for that too, but frankly, it wasn't the same and I can't bring myself to recommend it. Some of the flavor intricacies you get from braising and caramelizing just don't show up in slow cooker format, so while it was an edible, tasty stew, it wasn't this.
So braising - it's a technique for searing meat then cooking it low and slow in broth. It's common for fatty, tender cuts like short ribs and chuck roasts where cooking for long periods of time results in fall-off-the-bone tender meat. Typically you wouldn't refer to a braised meat as also being stewed, but I kind of used both techniques here, hence the stovetop method.
With a stew, you'd be throwing it all in a pot or slow cooker with lots of broth and cooking into the resulting veggie-heavy gravy. You can do that here, but as I mentioned, it won't be quite the same- and you have to watch out for dry beef.
The key here is cooking it low and slow- but not too long, or the beef chuck dries out and gets chewy. I cook for 2 hours covered, then another 20 minutes or so uncovered, just to give the broth some thickness from the starchy potatoes. The potatoes, as you can imagine, break down quite easily and need much less time than the beef- or else they get mushy. Same with the peas and carrots- add these guys in at the halfway point so that they cook to their perfect softness.
By the way, if you don't like having the stove on for nearly 3 hours, you can pop this in the oven, too. Begin on the stove until the broth step, then cover and put in the oven at a low temperature- 325F - for an hour. Add the veggies, cover, and go in for another hour. Remove the cover, up the heat to 400, and roast for another 20-30 minutes.
There's a couple notes on substitutions below, since there's a lot of ways this stew can variate - stews are fun, aren't they? Stay warm!
turkish-inspired spicy beef stew ingredients
beef chuck stew meat: I shop just about everywhere from Walmart to Whole Foods and I have not yet encountered a grocery store that didn't sell stew meat that was pre-cut into 1-inch chunks unless it was simply sold out or on shipping delay. A lot of stores will sell different kinds, like lean cuts or value-packs. I haven't noticed a benefit in getting a leaner meat for a dish like this, and usually opt for the family-value packs unless there's a better deal otherwise, like a 0.8 pound package. The missing .2 pounds goes unnoticed and saves a couple bucks. You may encounter something fancier like chunked sirloin, but I'd truly recommend the chuck (shoulder) meat for it's fatty, tender braising qualities. If you can't find the pre-cut version, you can also buy a beef chuck roast and cut it yourself. If there's no chuck at all, you can also opt for beef round, which will also have tender, fatty qualities.
flour: A small ingredient, but important: this helps thicken the broth into a gravy. Instead of making a true roux, you're combining a few steps by cooking the flour into the beef fat before adding the broth. It's a trick that helps thicken without turning the broth into a soup or chunky sauce. You want a kind of thin gravy, first thickened slightly with the flour and then otherwise thickened from the starch in the potatoes.
onion and garlic: About as lazily as possible, cut the onion into chunks. I cut it into quarters, then cut those quarters into halves, and separate the layers some before adding to the pot. You want pretty large pieces that caramelize in the stew and soften completely. The garlic will do the same - it will soften so much it will mash into a paste when stirred. And roasted aromatics? Delicious. No need to chop into tiny parts, let the broth do its work.
tomato paste: An acidic element, and one that adds a lot of body and balance to the spices used here. This stew highlights the spices and the tomato paste allows those flavors a great base against the beef.
aleppo pepper: I know, this is hard to find, so there's some substitutions here. You can use the very accessible chile de arbol, which is sold dried in the spice, produce, or international sections. It's a mexican chili pepper that is hotter but generally similar to the taste of aleppo and is found also in mexican grocery stores- though I've bought them at Kroger and Whole Foods, too. This is my favorite substitution because it's a great flavor and so easy to throw in, but there's some super-easy options too:
paprika and cayenne, as a 3-to-1 ratio. I included the specific amount in the notes section of the recipe.
red pepper flakes, in a similar ratio to the arbol chile.
cinnamon: Trust me- this little hint of sweetness is delicious with beef and will not taste like a dessert at all. There's a lot of acidity in this stew, so cutting some of it with cinnamon actually rounds out the flavor. You only need a pinch, or a very small stick.
sumac: Sorry for this, but it was the inspiration for the entire dish. I was given a bottle of sumac for christmas and needed a good reason to use it! Sumac is made from berries, and as you can guess, results in a kind of sweet, tart, lemony flavor. There's no easy substitution for this (there's already lemons in the recipe), so if you can't find it, just omit the sumac!
cumin: There's a lot of sweetness in the recipe already and the cumin is there to bring it back to the savory, spiced flavor of beef stew. Cumin is commonly used in Turkish cuisine and felt like the best compliment to the cinnamon, sumac, and pepper.
lemon: Squeeze a little of the juice out so that the lemons are pliable, then put both the juice and the rind in- yep, the entire lemon (minus the seeds). Slow roasted, the lemon is extracted of its juicy, tart, zingy flavor gently. Use a small lemon for less lemon flavor.
beef broth: I tried this recipe using only water, and the gravy was still lusciously brown and thick- but certainly not as flavorful and full of depth. I'd recommend using beef broth, or at least a cup of it - but if not, water does the trick- just add extra salt to make up for some of the flavor lost.
carrots, potatoes, peas: The classic trifecta of stews, these had to be included! I made this stew with parsnips and potatoes both and loved it, but couldn't decided whether the parsnips were a mandatory add or just redundant. I couldn't part with the potatoes, so I decided the parsnips got the boot. If you'd prefer them, add them in at the beginning, with the beef and onions. Cook the peas from frozen- if you are using fresh peas, add them during the last twenty minutes instead.
turkish-inspired spicy beef stew pairing options
I included in the recipe itself to serve this with rice, but here are a few additional options as well:
lemony orzo
coriander rice
homemade kale caesar
crusty bread or baked naan
pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, or vinho verde