Americans have a curious way of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. We pinch each other if we forget to wear something green, we make green foods regardless if they have anything to do with Ireland, and we adapt traditional Irish recipes to our own taste.
The last is the case with this Irish beef stew. As any Irish person will tell you, lamb is the preferred meat for a good Irish stew. But here in the states we eat a lot more beef than lamb, so when we want to make a stew to celebrate all things Irish, it’s usually done with beef.
Beef and Guinness Stew
This particular stew has all of the classic trimmings of a good Irish stew—meat, stock, plenty of root vegetables—with the addition of some Guinness extra stout, for its malty flavor and some Irish authenticity.
The recipe originally came to me through my friend Tomas, who got it from a chef friend in Europe, who had adapted a Bon Appetit recipe for Irish stew by adding Guinness and some red wine. Every time we make this recipe it gets raves!
How to make Irish Beef Stew
Irish Beef Stew Recipe
PrintPlease use beef chuck stew meat that is well marbled with fat. Lean stew meat will end up too dry.
Save prep time by prepping the onions, carrots, and potatoes while the stock with beef is simmering in step 2.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 pounds well-marbled chuck beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
- 3 teaspoons of salt (more to taste)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 6 large garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups beef stock or broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup of Guinness extra stout
- 1 cup of hearty red wine
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
- 1 large onion, chopped (1 1/2 to 2 cups)
- 2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots and/or parsnips (3 to 4 carrots or parsnips)
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Method
1 Brown the beef: Sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt over the beef pieces. Heat the olive oil in a large (6 to 8 quart), thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
Pat dry the beef with paper towels and working in batches, add the beef (do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown) and cook, without stirring, until well browned on one side, then use tongs to turn the pieces over and brown on another side.
2 Add garlic and sauté, then add stock, water, Guinness, wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme Worcestershire, bay leaves, simmer: Add garlic to the pot with the beef and sauté 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the beef stock, water, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, and bay leaves. Stir to combine.
Bring mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat to the lowest setting, then cover and cook at a bare simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
3 Sauté onions, carrots in separate pan: While the pot of meat and stock is simmering, melt the butter in another pot over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots. Sauté the onions and carrots until the onions are golden, about 15 minutes. Set aside until the beef stew in step 2 has simmered for one hour.
4 Add onions, carrots, potatoes to beef stew, simmer: Add the onions, carrots, and the potatoes to the beef stew. Add black pepper and two teaspoons of salt. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Tilt pan and spoon off any excess fat.
Transfer stew to serving bowls. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
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I’ve been using this recipe for YEARS! We LOVE IT! Thank you so much for sharing it with us! I’ve only made minor changes to it, I started adding 2 cups of garlic broth to it, I tend to add somewhere between 8-12 cloves of garlic… I don’t precook anything I just throw the whole lot in the slow cooker and let it go on low overnight, it’s ready the next day. Which means we don’t need to butter or oil in the recipe. We recently also started substituting a Jacima and rutabega combo for potatoes to lower the carbs down a little. and we substitute Erythritol for sugar…. also to help lower carbs. Anyway you can’t really go wrong with this, It’s delicious and has been a staple meal in our house during the cold winter months for many years now.
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Scrumptious! I added a small can of tomato sauce because I enjoy a more tomatoey flavor in my beef stews, subbed a bottle of Negro Modelo for the Guinness and wine as that is what I had on hand, and added stale breadcrumbs at the end to thicken. MMMMM!!
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Used sweet potatoes & russet potatoes chopped,would cut the Thyme down to half TB as was a bit much, otherwise was a great meal!
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I haven’t made this yet, but have a question. I know nothing about beer or wine. Not a fan of either. Can something milder be substituted for the strong Guinness Beer? I don’t mind the wine, as long as it’s not too bitter.
Thanks.
Great taste!
I use moose meat and any european lager instead of Guiness and beef. Thickens up fine the next day if there is any left! (I also use more potatos than called for)