This Dutch Oven Beef Stew recipe takes some time, but it’s worth the wait. You’ll be amazed at how the simple ingredients transform into a hearty, cozy meal, just like the Boxcar Children experienced in Gertrude Chandler Warner’s classic book.
I believe I started reading The Boxcar Children series in about third grade. I was fascinated by these tales of utter self-sufficiency by children my own age, often in far-flung destinations. And it was a series! I could devour book after book from the library or through the Scholastic book club. (Pause: Was there anything better than that colorful book order catalog arriving on your desk at school as a kid?!)
The characters and structure of The Boxcar Children stories were consistent and easy to follow--perfect for a newly independent reader--but also full of adventure. And no matter what Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny were up to, and no matter where they found themselves, one thing was always certain: they always ate well.
About The Boxcar Children
Gertrude Chandler Warner taught first grade in Connecticut for over 30 years. As stated in the biography of Miss Warner included in the back of every Boxcar Children book, "[she] discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read." She first published The Box-Car Children in 1924, and later shortened and rewrote it as The Boxcar Children, which was published in 1942.
The revised edition (that we're all likely familiar with today), used a prescribed vocabulary of just six hundred easy words so that it could be used as a children's school reader. If you're curious, you can read more about the differences between the two versions of the story and a commentary on the books' themes in this article.
The book tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny (from oldest at 14 to youngest at 6). Having lost their parents and afraid of a grandfather they've never met, they strike out to make a life on their own. They come upon an old abandoned boxcar in the woods and transform it into their home. The siblings make do with everything around them, and find joy in the simplest of pleasures. Warner "liked to stress the Aldens' independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do." After a series of chance encounters in their new hometown, they reunite with their grandfather, who turns out to be a loving benefactor.
Miss Warner went on to write 18 more books in The Boxcar Children series until her death in 1979. In the subsequent books, the siblings take trips to a wide range of settings during school vacations thanks to their Grandfather Alden, and usually encounter and solve mysteries along the way. In all of the books, "The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible--something else that delights young readers."
Over 180 (!) additional Boxcar Children books have been published since Warner's death, written by other authors, but always but always featuring the credit "created by Gertrude Chandler Warner." She clearly created a world that young readers love!
But we have to talk about the book cover. Was this the cover of the edition you read as a kid, too?
It is, of course, the paperback edition first published by Scholastic in 1989. There have been dozens (if not hundreds) of editions of the book released over many years, featuring a wide range of cover art, but this one really seemed to take hold at schools for a solid 20 years.
And I bring it up mostly because it really confused me as a kid. The kids in this picture are so very 1980s, but the story was clearly much more old-fashioned. The interior black and white silhouette illustrations by Kate L. Deal also suggested a very different time period. Though never explicitly stated in the book (hence my confusion), Warner intended the settings in the books to line up with the dates of publication (so, in this case the 1920s or 1940s). That makes so much more sense, and I wish I had understood this way back when.
Recipe Inspiration
The girls were delighted with the meat and the little vegetables. With Henry's knife they cut the meat into little pieces. Then they filled the kettle with water from the fountain and put the meat into it, with a tin plate for a cover.
Gertrude Chandler Warner, The Boxcar Children
All of the Boxcar Children books feature great food scenes. I remember being fascinated that Jessie could roll out pie dough with an old green bottle and make a whole apple pie from scratch in Surprise Island, but that's a story for another day!
In this story, Dr. Moore, a kind local doctor, hires Henry to do some odd jobs for him. One task is to thin the vegetable garden, and Henry dutifully pulls up a pile of small onions, carrots, and turnips. He brings the tiny vegetables and some meat he's purchased back to the boxcar, where Jessie, Violet, and Benny have just built an outdoor fireplace. Jessie has hung their prized black kettle (or Dutch oven), rescued from the dump, over the fire, and proceeds to make an excellent beef stew.
"Oh, oh!" said Benny. "I am so hungry. I must eat my supper!"
Gertrude Chandler Warner, The Boxcar Children
The meat was well cooked, and the vegetables were delicious. Violet passed her plate for more turnips.
"I'd like some more onions," said Henry.
All the children ate until they could eat no more.
"That was the best meal I ever ate," said Jessie.
Naturally, an outstanding beef stew featuring onions, carrots, and turnips was my assignment to myself!
Since most of us don't have a vegetable garden to thin, I developed my recipe with chopped carrots and turnips and frozen pearl onions for pops of sweet onion flavor. In the book, Jessie uses water for the broth of her stew, and I was curious to see if I could make that work as well. I usually develop soup and stew recipes with chicken or beef stock, but I was delighted by how the water let the clean flavors of the beef and vegetables shine through. By creating a base of aromatic sautéed onions, tomato paste, and spices and deeply seasoning the meat with salt, the stew had plenty of rich flavor without the need for stock. Though not in the story, I also added a handful of peas to the stew at the end of cooking for a little extra flavor and color. (But you can skip them if you'd like to stay very true to the book!)
Now here's the truth about stew: If you want to transform tough cuts of stew beef (like the odds and ends Henry would have been able to afford) into tender, falling-apart morsels, you'll need to cook them for a long time. This recipe starts the stew off on the stovetop but then moves it to the oven, where it can braise low-and-slow for a few hours. In that time, the beef will turn silky, the vegetables soft and tender, and the broth rich and flavorful. Though it can be hard to wait, using the oven makes the cooking much more hands-off, freeing you up for other tasks (or to read or play!) while it simmers away.
Ingredients You'll Need
Right up front, yes, there's a fair amount of ingredients to prep for this recipe! But this meal is a fun and mostly hands-off project once it's cooking. To make this Dutch Oven Beef Stew recipe, you'll need:
- Beef stew meat (either beef round or chuck)
- Spices: garlic powder, paprika, dried oregano or rosemary (or both), ground black pepper
- Kosher salt (the large, coarse crystals make it easier to evenly season the beef)
- Olive oil (or vegetable oil works, too!)
- All-purpose flour
- Tomato paste
- A yellow onion
- A turnip (or you can swap in halved small potatoes)
- Carrots
- Water
- Frozen pearl onions
- Frozen peas (these are optional and not in the version made in the story, but I like the pops of color and flavor!)
How to Make Dutch Oven Beef Stew
The full recipe with detailed timing and instructions is below, but here are some key moments to look out for along the way:
- Make the seasoning: Stir together the spices and kosher salt to make a robust seasoning.
- Season the beef: Coat the beef with half of the spice mix to give it lots of delicious flavor.
- Make a flavor base: In a Dutch oven, stir together the sautéed onions, flour, tomato paste, and the rest of the seasoning to build a flavorful base for the broth.
- Add veggies and beef, then braise: After adding the water, stir in the chopped carrots and turnips and the seasoned beef and bring everything to a simmer before transferring the stew, covered, to the oven.
- Cook, then stir in onions: After braising the stew for 2 hours, uncover and stir in the frozen pearl onions.
- Cook some more, then add the peas: After cooking uncovered for another half an hour, stir in the frozen peas to the finished stew.
Why This Recipe Is Great for Kids
I've spent years writing cookbooks and creating recipes that are safe, fun, and engaging for kids and home cooks of all ages. Here are some key features of this recipe that make it perfect for kids and families to make together at home:
- There's a lot to prep, but the tasks can be shared between cooks with different experience levels. Older kids can practice their peeling and chopping skills with the carrots, turnip, and yellow onion, and younger kids can practice using measuring spoons and measuring cups with the spices, flour, and frozen vegetables.
- While this Dutch Oven Beef Stew recipe takes some time, a lot of it is hands-off. Kids can play, read, or take care of other tasks while the stew is cooking. This is also helpful for kids with shorter attention spans, so they can break up the project and pop in and out as the timer goes off.
- Cooking a main dish for a family meal is a big accomplishment! Kids and cooks of all ages should feel pride in the time and effort it took to make something delicious from scratch to share with others.
Let's Cook!
Gather your equipment, measure your ingredients, and get cooking with this kid-friendly recipe! If you loved making it together, please leave five stars and share your stories in the comments.
Dutch Oven Beef Stew
Good To Know
- What’s labeled “beef stew meat” at the store is a mix of offcuts from larger roasts, usually from the chuck or round. They’re often pretty irregular in size in the package, so you might need to cut some of them down into smaller pieces so they all cook evenly. Use a chef’s knife to cut any large pieces into 1- to 1 ½-inch chunks. But if your stew meat is already cut down into smaller, evenly-sized pieces, you’re all set!
- If you do need to prep your beef, make sure to use a separate cutting board and knife from what you use to prep your vegetables (or wash the cutting board and knife with hot, soapy water after using them to cut meat), and always make sure you wash your hands after touching raw meat before you touch anything else.
- The Boxcar Children’s stew was made with turnips, but they can sometimes be harder to find at the grocery store. You can swap in 1 cup (6 ounces) of small yellow or red potatoes, cut in half, for the chopped turnip, if you like.
Equipment You'll Need
- 2 Bowls (1 medium, 1 small)
- Spoon
- 5-7 quart Dutch oven with lid
- Wooden spoon
- Oven mitts
- ladle
- 4 Serving bowls
Measure Your Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt (plus extra to taste)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano or dried rosemary (or ¼ teaspoon of each)
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 ½ pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1- to 1 ½-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped fine
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 4 cups water
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
- 1 turnip, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup frozen pearl onions (no need to thaw)
- ½ cup frozen peas (optional, no need to thaw)
Let's Cook!
- Set your oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees.
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon dried oregano or dried rosemary, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepperIn a small bowl, use a spoon to stir together the salt, garlic powder, paprika, dried oregano and/or rosemary, and pepper.
- 1 ½ pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1- to 1 ½-inch piecesPlace the beef in a medium bowl and sprinkle it with half of the salt mixture; set the rest of the salt mixture aside for later. Use the spoon to stir the beef until it’s evenly coated with the seasonings.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped fineIn a Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat until it’s shimmering, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes.
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon tomato pasteStir in the flour, tomato paste, and remaining salt mixture to the onions and cook until beginning to brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
- 4 cups waterAdd the water and use the wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits off of the bottom of the pot. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil (big bubbles will vigorously break all over the surface).
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces, 1 turnip, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunksAdd the carrots, turnip, and seasoned beef and bring to a simmer (small bubbles will gently break all over the surface). Turn off the stove.
- Place the lid on the Dutch oven and transfer it to the preheated oven (this step is best done by an adult; the pot will be heavy and hot). Cook, covered, until the beef and vegetables are tender, about 2 hours.
- 1 cup frozen pearl onionsUse oven mitts to remove the lid and stir in the pearl onions (this step is best done by an adult; the lid and pot will be very hot). Continue to cook in the oven, uncovered, until the onions are tender and the mixture reduces slightly, about 30 minutes.
- ½ cup frozen peasUse oven mitts to remove the Dutch oven from the oven and set on the stovetop (this step is best done by an adult; the pot will be heavy and very hot). Stir in the peas (if using) and let the stew sit for 5 minutes. Season to taste with extra salt, ladle into bowls, and serve.
Conversation Starters
While your stew cooks in the oven and as you enjoy your meal together at the table, talk about The Boxcar Children and what it was like to cook the recipe together. You can help young readers make connections to the book and share your own answers, ideas, and stories with them with the following prompts:
- The Boxcar Children transformed an old train car into a home for themselves. If you could choose a surprising place to make a secret home, where would you choose and why? (A cave? A lighthouse? A movie theater?) What would you add to it to make it comfortable to live in?
- At first, the Alden siblings are afraid of their grandfather, who they've never met. Is there someone in your life who seemed like they might be mean or scary at first, but then turned out to be nice as you got to know them?
- How did the ingredients in this recipe change over time as the stew cooked? What did they look and feel like before cooking, and what were they like afterwards?
Grace says
Delicious stew and a walk down memory lane - yes that is the same book cover I had as well!
Lauren says
I love the Boxcar Children and loved making this stew!! It’s DELICIOUS!!! So excited to make every single recipe on this site—i’m hooked.
Afton says
Thank you so much!