Authentic Dutch Hachee: Grandma’s Slow Cooker Beef and Onion Stew Recipe
Step back in time with this incredibly delicious and easy-to-make Grandma’s Hachee recipe. This traditional Dutch Beef and Onion Stew is a true culinary hug, brought to life with the convenience of a slow cooker. The magic lies in the slow, gentle simmering, which allows all the rich flavors to meld together, transforming humble beef into wonderfully tender morsels. Infused with dark beer and the unique sweetness of gingerbread, this recipe effortlessly revives the beloved taste of the past, proving that the best comfort food is often the simplest.
The Story of Hachee: A Beloved Dutch Classic
For many, Hachee isn’t just a dish; it’s a cherished memory. Who doesn’t recall the delicious aroma of this traditional stew simmering for hours? At my grandmother’s house, it would gently bubble away on a small hotplate or the gas stove’s simmering plate, filling the entire home with its comforting scent. Then, in the evening, the pan would be proudly placed on the table, its rich contents served alongside fluffy mashed potatoes, sweet apple butter, and tangy red cabbage, creating a truly delightful and hearty main course.
Did you know that Hachee is a uniquely Dutch recipe with roots stretching back to the Middle Ages? It’s a culinary gem that has graced tables for centuries. Initially, this stew was a resourceful way to utilize leftover cooked meat, a common practice in medieval kitchens. To make the meat wonderfully tender and flavorful, it was simmered for extended periods with stock, a generous amount of onions, flour for thickening, and an acidic component. While our modern recipe uses dark beer for its depth, historical versions also incorporated vinegar or wine. The resulting gravy, thick and intensely flavored with aromatic cloves and bay leaves, would have been a highlight at any grand buffet (source: Wikipedia). It’s a testament to timeless cooking that a dish born of necessity has become such a celebrated part of Dutch culinary heritage.
Why Choose the Slow Cooker for Dutch Hachee?
While traditional Hachee involves hours of stovetop simmering, the slow cooker offers a modern, convenient, and equally delicious approach. This method excels at breaking down tougher cuts of meat, ensuring every bite is unbelievably tender. The long, low-temperature cooking allows the flavors from the onions, beer, and spices to deeply penetrate the beef, creating a richer, more complex taste profile than quicker methods. It’s also incredibly hands-off, requiring minimal supervision after initial browning, making it perfect for busy weekdays or relaxed weekend cooking.
Essential Ingredients for Your Slow Cooker Dutch Beef Stew
To recreate this authentic Hachee recipe with its rich beef and sweet onions, you’ll need a few key ingredients. Precision is important for the best flavor, so you can find the exact measurements in the printable recipe card located at the very bottom of this article. Here’s a detailed look at what you’ll need and why each component is crucial:
- Butter: Opt for unsalted butter to control the seasoning of your stew. It’s essential for browning the meat and softening the onions, contributing to a rich base flavor.
- Beef: The star of the show! For this recipe, chuck roast is highly recommended due to its marbling and ability to become incredibly tender when slow-cooked. Other excellent choices include a round roast (either top or bottom round) or a tri-tip roast. These cuts are perfect for stewing because they require extended cooking times, allowing them to thoroughly absorb all the aromatic flavors while breaking down into melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.
- Flour: All-purpose flour works perfectly. It’s used to coat the beef, aiding in the browning process to create a delicious crust and, more importantly, acting as a thickener for the gravy, giving Hachee its characteristic rich consistency.
- Onions: Yellow onions are indispensable. You’ll need a significant amount (around 3 cups), as they are a primary flavor component, caramelizing beautifully to add sweetness and depth to the stew. The name “Hachee” itself is believed to derive from the French word “hacher,” meaning “to chop,” often referring to chopped meat and onions.
- Sugar: Just a touch of regular granulated sugar helps to caramelize the onions further, enhancing their natural sweetness and contributing to the overall rich flavor profile of the stew.
- Beef Stock: This forms the liquid base of your stew. While beef stock made from bouillon cubes is acceptable, homemade beef stock will undeniably elevate the depth of flavor, making your Hachee even more outstanding.
- Beer: A crucial ingredient! It’s best to use a dark, brown beer for Hachee. These beers are typically brewed with a pure brown malt, imparting a sweet, slightly malty flavor that perfectly complements the beef and onions. Beyond flavor, the beer acts as the acidic component, which is vital for tenderizing the tough meat fibers over a long cooking period.
- Beer Substitute: If you prefer not to use beer, you have alternatives. You can replace it with 1 â…“ cup (300 ml) of red wine, or use three tablespoons of white wine vinegar combined with a cup (250 ml) of water. Ensure you still include an acidic element for tenderization.
- Bay Leaves and Cloves: These aromatic spices are essential for infusing the stew with classic, warm flavors. They are added during the simmering process and then discarded before serving.
- Pro Tip: To make removal easier, I often prick the cloves directly into the bay leaves before adding them to the slow cooker. This way, you can easily retrieve them without fishing around.
- Gingerbread: This might seem like an unusual addition, but in Dutch cuisine, Dutch gingerbread (known as “Peperkoek” or “Kruidkoek”) is a traditional secret ingredient for Hachee. It serves a dual purpose: it thickens the stew, creating that luscious gravy, and it adds a wonderful complex sweetness and warm spice blend that is characteristic of authentic Hachee.
How to Prepare Old-Fashioned Dutch Hachee in Your Slow Cooker
Creating this deeply flavorful and tender Hachee is simpler than you might think, especially with the help of a slow cooker. The hands-on time is minimal, allowing the appliance to do most of the work. You can find a detailed, printable recipe card with a step-by-step description at the bottom of this blog post, but here’s an overview of the process:
The Cooking Process:
- Brown the Beef: Begin by melting the butter in a sturdy pan or skillet over medium heat. Season your beef chuck roast generously with salt and pepper, then toss it with flour. Add the floured beef to the hot pan and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until it’s nicely golden brown on all sides. This crucial step not only adds flavor but also helps to create that delicious, thick gravy later on.
- Caramelize the Onions: Next, add the sliced onion rings and sugar to the pan with the browned beef. Stir well and increase the heat to high. Cook for another 3 minutes, allowing the onions to soften and lightly caramelize, sweetening them and building another layer of flavor for your stew.
- Transfer to Slow Cooker & Deglaze: Carefully transfer the beef and onion mixture from the pan into your slow cooker. Return the frying pan to the stovetop. Pour about half of the beef stock into the empty pan. Use a wooden spatula to scrape up all the flavorful browned bits (fond) stuck to the bottom of the pan – this process, known as deglazing, adds immense depth to your gravy.
- Assemble the Stew: Pour the deglazed stock from the frying pan into the slow cooker, along with the remaining beef stock and the dark beer. Give everything a good stir to combine.
- Add Aromatics & Thickeners: Place the slices of gingerbread on top of the meat mixture. Remember to stick the cloves into the bay leaves before adding them; this simple trick makes them much easier to find and remove later.
- Slow Cook to Perfection: Secure the lid on your slow cooker. Set it to a low setting for 8 hours, or a high setting for 5 hours. Let the slow cooker work its magic, transforming the ingredients into a rich, tender, and deeply satisfying Hachee.
- Serve: Once cooking is complete, carefully remove the bay leaves (with the cloves attached). Give the stew a final stir, and your grandmother’s Hachee is ready to be savored!
Important Tips for the Best Hachee:
- Why Bake the Flour? Baking the flour with the meat in the initial steps is key. This process cooks out the raw “flour taste,” ensuring your gravy is smooth and flavorful. Furthermore, the flour coats the meat, which not only helps with browning but also acts as the primary thickening agent for that wonderfully rich and delicious gravy that is a hallmark of Hachee.
- Cloves in Bay Leaf: This little trick is a game-changer! Sticking the cloves directly into the bay leaves before adding them to the stew prevents you from having to search for tiny cloves among the tender beef and onions later. It makes cleanup and serving much easier.
- Slow Cooker Settings: For optimal tenderness and flavor development, set your slow cooker on a low setting for 8 hours. If you’re pressed for time, a high setting for 5 hours will also yield delicious Dutch Hachee, though the lower setting often results in slightly more tender meat.
Serving Suggestions for Hachee
Authentic Dutch Hachee is traditionally served with classic accompaniments that perfectly balance its rich flavors. The most common pairing is with creamy mashed potatoes, which are ideal for soaking up every last drop of the delicious gravy. Another popular side is red cabbage, often prepared sweet and sour, offering a delightful tangy contrast to the savory stew. Don’t forget a dollop of apple butter or a side of pickled gherkins (Dutch: ‘augurken’) for an extra layer of flavor and texture. For a truly hearty meal, serve with crusty bread to scoop up the hearty sauce.
Did you make this delicious recipe? Tag #byandreajanssen via Instagram! I love to see what your creation looks like and regularly share the most beautiful photos of you! Did you like this recipe? Then leave a rating on the recipe card! Your feedback helps other home cooks and me enormously.
Need more inspiration?
- You can find video recipes on my YouTube channel.
- And don’t forget to save the recipes on Pinterest, so you can easily find them again next time!
📖 Recipe
VIDEO
RECIPE CARD
Andréa
Pin Recipe
Equipment
-
frying pan
-
Chef’s knife
-
slow cooker
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter, unsalted
- 1 ¼ pound chuck roast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 3 cups onions, peeled and sliced
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup beef stock, 1 beef stock cube dissolved in ½ cup hot water
- 1¼ cup dark beer
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cloves
- 2 slices gingerbread, peperkoek of ontbijtkoek
All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.
Instructions
-
Melt the butter in the skillet over medium heat.1 stick butter
-
Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper.1 ¼ pound chuck roast, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
-
Place the meat in the frying pan and add the flour. Mix everything well.2 tablespoon flour
-
Bake for 5 minutes while mixing regularly.
-
Add the onions and sugar and mix well again. Raise the heat to high and cook for 3 minutes.3 cups onions, 2 teaspoon sugar
-
Place the contents of the pan in the slow cooker.
-
Pour stock into the pan and scrape up any bits and pieces with a wooden spatula. Pour the contents of the pan into the slow cooker.½ cup beef stock
-
Add the beer to the slow cooker. Mix everything well.1¼ cup dark beer
-
Stick a clove into the bay leaf.2 bay leaves, 2 cloves
-
Place the gingerbread slices, and bay leaves on top of the meat mixture.2 slices gingerbread
-
Put a lid on the pan and turn the slow cooker on Low for 8 hours.
-
Remove the bay leaf, stir well and serve.
Notes
2. Cloves in Bay Leaf – Stick the cloves into the bay leaf. This way, you can easily find and remove it after baking.
3. Beef – Chuck roast is used in this recipe. But you can also use a round roast (top or bottom) or tri-tip roast for this Hachee. This meat needs a lot of stewing time, so it has time to absorb all the flavors well and, at the same time, become wonderfully tender.
4. – Beer – It is best to use a dark, brown beer. This beer is brewed with a pure brown malt, which gives it a sweet taste. Perfect for hash. The beer is the acid that ensures that the meat becomes tender. If you prefer not to use beer, you can replace it with 1 â…“ cup (300 ml) of red wine or three tablespoons of white wine vinegar and a cup (250 ml) of water.
5. Larger portion? With almost all recipes, you can then press the 2 × button, but not with a slow cooker recipe. If you double the weight in meat, add ¼ – â…“ cup (50 to 100 ml) of extra liquid.
6. – Slow Cooker – Turn on the crockpot on low setting for 8 hours or on high setting for 5 hours to get delicious Dutch Beef Stew.
7. – Storage
- Refrigerator – Cool the hachee quickly. You can keep the Dutch beef and onion stew covered in the fridge for up to two days.
- Freezer – Allow the meat to cool quickly and place it in an airtight freezer box or bag and freeze. This keeps it good for up to 3 months. Then, let thaw in the refrigerator.
Reheat – Heat the hachee over medium heat while stirring until hot.
8.- The nutritional values shown are per person, without side dishes.
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Dutch Hachee
- What is Hachee?
- Hachee is a traditional Dutch beef and onion stew, renowned for its tender meat and rich, thick gravy. It’s often flavored with dark beer and gingerbread, which provides a unique sweet and savory depth.
- What makes Hachee different from other beef stews?
- The distinctive characteristics of Hachee include the generous use of caramelized onions, the inclusion of an acidic ingredient like dark beer (or vinegar/wine) to tenderize the meat, and the traditional addition of gingerbread (peperkoek) which both thickens the stew and imparts a unique spiced sweetness.
- Can I make Hachee without a slow cooker?
- Absolutely! While the slow cooker makes it incredibly easy and hands-off, Hachee can be made on the stovetop. After the initial browning and deglazing, transfer all ingredients to a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, bring it to a simmer, then cover and cook on very low heat for 3-4 hours, or until the beef is fork-tender. Check periodically and stir to prevent sticking, adding more liquid if needed.
- What can I substitute for dark beer in Hachee?
- If you prefer not to use beer, you can substitute it with 1 â…“ cup (300 ml) of red wine. Another option is three tablespoons of white wine vinegar mixed with 1 cup (250 ml) of water. The key is to include an acidic component to help tenderize the beef.
- Why is gingerbread used in Hachee?
- Gingerbread (peperkoek or ontbijtkoek) serves two main purposes in Hachee. First, its bread-like texture helps to naturally thicken the stew, creating that luscious, rich gravy. Second, its unique blend of sweet spices (like cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg) adds a complex layer of traditional Dutch flavor that is essential to authentic Hachee.
More Delicious Slow Cooker Recipes You’ll Love
If you enjoyed this comforting Hachee, you’ll surely appreciate these other hearty and easy slow cooker recipes. They offer the same convenience and mouth-watering results, perfect for any day of the week.
- Crock Pot Beef Goulash Soup
- Slow Cooker Semur Daging
- Crock-Pot Red Cabbage {German-Style}
- Dutch sour meat (zoervleisj, zuurvlees)