Beef Ragout
Variation on a classic French beef stew, combining ideas from several recipes. Saveur meets Woman's Day. It's actually pretty good.
Course Main Course
Cuisine French
Keyword Beef, Stews
Prep Time 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes
Total Time 3 hours hours 45 minutes minutes
Servings 7
Ingredients

    4 lbs Beef (chuck or London Broil)
    7 oz Pancetta, diced
    8 oz Shittake mushrooms (optional)
    6 cloves Garlic, crushed
    2 large Onions, diced
    2 large Carrots, peeled and finely diced
    2 large Parsnips, peeled and finely diced
    2 stalks Celery, finely diced
    10 oz Cream of Mushroom soup
    1 envelope Beefy Onion Soup mix
    1 cup Red wine
    2 cups Beef stock
    1½ tbsp Better Than Chicken
    ¼ cup All-purpose flour
    ½ tsp Thyme, ground
    1 tbsp Parsley, dried
    1 tsp MSG
    Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

    Preheat oven to 325˚F
    Cut meat into ½-1 inch pieces, season with salt & pepper, toss with flour.
    Heat skillet to medium-high. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and add beef, working in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding the pan. Brown meat well on all sides, remove beef from skillet to dutch oven.
    Cook pancetta in skillet on medium-high heat; stirring occasionally, until fat is rendered, 5–7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pancetta from pan to dutch oven; set aside.
    Add onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips, and celery to skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly caramelized, 10–12 minutes. Transfer to dutch oven.
    Add wine; deglase. Add beef stock, mushroom soup, onion soup, Better Than Chicken, parsley, thyme, MSG, pepper; bring to a boil.
    Pour liquid from skillet over meat and vegetables in dutch oven. Cook in oven until beef is very tender, around 3 hours.