Is There Really A Difference Between Beef Stew And Pot Roast?

Whether you're tucking into a delicious, slow-cooked beef stew or a melt-in-your-mouth pot roast, there's nothing like a hearty beef dish to keep you warm in the cold months. Both of these dishes have similar ingredients — beef, potatoes, and other vegetables — and both recipes are designed to utilize tougher cuts of meat. However, these two dishes are not interchangeable, and they have some key differences. Chief among them is the fact that pot roast uses one large piece of meat while beef stew uses many smaller pieces.

Exactly what cut of beef you use for pot roast depends on your personal taste, as well as what your grocery store or butcher has available. The best cut of meat to use in pot roast is generally agreed to be chuck roast, which has plenty of collagen that breaks down (becoming melty and delicious) when it is slow cooked. That being said, you can also use bottom round roast or even brisket. (Just avoid leaner cuts of meat, like eye round, otherwise you will end up with a very tough piece of meat in your final dish.) Whatever cut of meat you pick, you're going to put it in some kind of slow cooker — a Dutch oven, say — and cook it for two to four hours. You can use a red wine, like cabernet sauvignon, to add extra moisture to the braise.

Beef stew, by contrast, uses meat that has been cut into bite-sized pieces first, whether it's cut by hand or prepared in store. Again, chuck is usually the move here: It's tough to beat the mix of beefy flavor and melty collagen that this cut offers. It's also usually a good idea to toss the beef pieces in flour and seasoning, like salt and pepper, before browning them in a pan for extra flavor. (You can also do this with pot roast, but the size of the piece of meat makes it a little more difficult.)

However, the size of the beef is not the only difference between pot roast and beef stew; while pot roast will usually have liquid added during its braising period, such as beef stock or red wine, beef stew is positively brimming with liquid. For example, many pot roast recipes call for only ½ cup of liquid to be added whereas some beef stew recipes call for as much as 8 cups of liquid. When it comes to beef stew, the type of liquid used depends on personal preference, but many beef stews perform well when a little leftover booze is added to the mix. Regardless of their differences, both of these dishes are utterly delicious. In other words, you can't go wrong with either of them.