If needed, cube the stew meat into bite-size pieces.
Place stew meat into a brown paper bag (a large resealable bag will also work) with flour, salt and pepper. You should use enough flour to coat all surfaces of the stew meat but not clump up.
Place your enamel dutch oven over low heat and add the butter, bacon fat or olive oil. Bring to temperature.
Brown the stew meat. Do not overfill the dutch oven. If you need to do this step in batches, it’s fine. Place the browned meat in a separate bowl.
While the meat is browning, dice the onion and garlic.
Once all the stew meat is brown, place the onions and garlic in the dutch oven. Salt, pepper and saute for a few minutes until the onions become translucent, stirring regularly. Remove from dutch oven and place in bowl with stew meat.
Add enough red wine to the dutch oven so that you can deglaze it. Don’t know how to deglaze a pan? There’s a quick video at the end to help you.
Once the dutch oven is fully deglazed, add the stew meat, onions and garlic back into the dutch oven. Pour the beef broth over top of it. Add the bay leaves and a hefty handful of chopped parsley.
Cover and place into oven for 2 hours.
While the beef stew is simmering away, chop up your potatoes, carrots, celery and mushrooms. I usually try for equal parts of each, but feel free to experiment with what works for you.
Once the beef stew has simmered for 2 hours, remove it from the oven and add your chopped vegetables. You can also add your Italian seasoning at this point. It’s not a requirement, but I find it gives a nice little extra flavor to the dish.
Cover and return the beef stew to the oven for 3-5 hours. I find that 3 hours is enough, but 5 will work just fine as well. The flavors just melt together the longer they cook.
Remove from the oven and enjoy.
