Beef And Potato Quick Cooking Skillet Stew
A Mouthful For A Title and A Dinner
If you are looking for a budget friendly meaty meal, this quick cooking Potato and Beef Skillet Stew is the answer to your prayers. This will easily feed a family of four to six people with maybe some leftovers.
Inspired by some wonderful senior lady friends I used to teach, it’s made from simple ingredients that you likely will have on hand and it cooks up savory and delicious on your stovetop. This cooks so quickly that you can start it at 5:30 pm and eat by 7pm.
The Friendly Ladies
This Beef and Potato Quick Cooking Skillet Stew recipe came from an idea I had when I used to teach. I taught a group of senior ladies cooking when I worked for the Chicago Park District in the Avondale community.
The park was actually called Avondale Park. If you are familiar with Chicago this was at Belmont and Kimball.
The ladies were called The Friendly Ladies Club and they were very interested in cooking. We would cook some days and other days we would do chair exercises and arts and crafts.
Later, I involved them in my preschool program by having them come to run the learning stations the kids rotated between. It was a wonderful group of ladies.
They were all on fixed incomes at the time and this was a recipe that I came up with that fit their budget and they were able to freeze. The park district gave me no money to spend on the program so I would buy all the ingredients myself.
Later the ladies were feeling bad for me and my twenty year-old budget fronting the bill for all this cooking so they would all sign up to bring two ingredients each. This was a testament to their love of me, cause they really had no money and they insisted on doing this.
All that being said, I know this is a budget friendly recipe that was delicious. Trust me, the Friendly Ladies were usually friendly until they didn’t like something we cooked, and they were not afraid to tell me! LOL
Straightforward Ingredients
Everything in this recipe is pretty common. If you use a lot of my recipes, you should have built up a spice selection for your pantry now that we use quite frequently.
The only ingredient some of you may not have is the Better Than Bouillon. I keep a few varieties of these products on hand for recipes. They have great flavor for quick cooking recipes.
You can peruse all my recipes using this product on my website.
One of my favorite recipes using this product is my Poor Man’s Lobster Pasta. Another delicious budget friendly recipe.
I am not sponsored by this company, it is just a product I really love.
Taste The Goodness In The Biscuit
The other step I want to offer more clarification on is the biscuits step. I have a step at the end where you steam and then bake the biscuits.
This only works if you have an oven safe skillet. There are two more options for adding biscuits on the recipe card if you do not have an oven safe skillet.
I like to steam and then bake the biscuits because it gives the texture of a nice dumpling. I think you will enjoy this touch but it is not necessary to make these and the recipe to still be filling and good without them.
Beef It Up With Potatoes
If you are feeding a crowd you can make this stretch further by adding more potatoes. You can also add more frozen vegetables.
This saves you some money by not having to add more beef.
Turkey Gravy
I like to use a turkey gravy in this dish because I love the added flavors of the sage and such that is sometimes in a turkey gravy packet. I also use the turkey gravy packet from the Pioneer Brand (found at Dollar tree and most stores) because it makes TWO cups of gravy.
You may want to add more water and two packets of gravy if you like a lot of gravy.
Potato and Beef Quick Cooking Skillet Stew Recipe
If you want to feed a family quickly on a budget while still giving them a meal packed with flavor and meaty potato goodness, this is the recipe for you.
Ingredients
- 1 to 1.5 lbs of lean ground beef
- 1 packet of any flavor gravy mix *I use turkey **see the post for more gravy info
- 2 to 3 large russet potatoes
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 to 2 cups of frozen peas or any frozen vegetables of your choice
- 1 heaping tablespoon of beef flavor Better Than Bouillon
- 2 cups of water *3 cups of water if you want a thinner gravy
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, you can substitute soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of ketchup
- 1 tablespoon of onion powder
- 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons of paprika
- 1 tablespoon of dried parsley
- 1 can of refrigerated biscuit dough *optional
- 3 tablespoons of butter
- Salt and pepper to taste *I do not use salt since there is salt in the gravy, and some of the other ingredients
Instructions
- In a deep sided skillet, add your butter and dice your onion. Add the onion to the skillet and let this sauté and soften the onions.
- When the onions are softer, add the ground beef and cook this beef fully, crumbling it up as you cook it.
- While the beef and onions cook, peel and dice your potatoes. You will want to dice the potatoes smaller so that they will cook quickly.
- When the beef is cooked, you may need to drain some of the fat off. Once you do this, add your onion and garlic powders, the paprika, any salt and pepper you will use, the ketchup and the Worcestershire, plus the dried parsley. Sauté this all together for about five minutes.
- Add your diced potatoes and sauté them with the meat for a few minutes.
- Add the Better Than Bouillon and then the water. I usually use 3 cups of water, but I eyeball this sometimes and use 2 and then add more if it needs it when I add the gravy.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer, reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Stir this occasionally.
- At the 30 minute mark test the potatoes to make sure they are soft. If they are, add the frozen vegetables. Simmer for 7 minutes or until the veggies are warm.
- Add your gravy packet and, if needed, a little more water. Bring this to a simmer and simmer until the gravy is thickened. About 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- If you are using the biscuits, after the gravy is thickened, heat your oven to 350 degrees. While the oven heats, place your biscuits on the top of the stew and place the lid back on. Simmer on low for 20 minutes. Then remove the lid and place the whole pan in the oven for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown on top. **if you do not have an oven safe skillet, you can make the biscuits two other ways. Bake the biscuits according to package directions and serve with stew. You can also add the biscuits to the top of the stew, cover and steam/simmer on top for 15 minutes, then flip them and repeat. They will be more like a dumpling texture.
1 Comments
Kate Ward
January 11, 2025 at 7:38 pm
I just found your blog on Facebook and there are so many recipes I can’t wait to try! I have a request…do you remember the five cheese lasagna from the Leona’s chain in Chicago? My husband loved it, but we moved away from Chicago and I’ve never been able to find a similar recipe online. In my memory, it was almost a white lasagna with garlic and cheese. Any chance you might consider creating one? ðŸ˜
Thanks for all the great recipes!