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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
Please 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 extra virgin 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.
Irish Beef Stew
Wayyyy to much thyme. Put 1 TEAspoon instead. Trust me the thyme is way too overbearing. But i can see the potential of this recipe if next time i don’t put as much or no thyme at all.
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Hi Karl,
Very true, 1 tablespoon is a lot of dried thyme! I’ve not made this, but that amount would give me pause. I’m glad you made the call to reduce the amount to 1 teaspoon. It’s always possible to add more later on, anyway–but you can’t take it out!
This was so yummy! I added a bit of potato starch to thicken it just a bit, but otherwise my family loved it and we are adding this to our favorites list. Thank you for sharing it with the world!
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My family raved about this stew. I did make a few minor changes to suit our taste. I coated the beef (which I tripled) with flour first before browning. And at the end I added some corn starch as a thickener as we prefer our stews a little more hearty.
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Can you finish in a slow cooker?
Lisa, you probably can! Try looking over this Guinness Slow Cooker Beef Stew recipe first. It might give you an idea if you’ll need to reduce the amount of liquid you add, for instance. Good luck!
I’m making this recipe right now. I’ve never made beef stew without coating the beef in flour to thicken it the gravy. . Does it thicken on its own?
Hi Amber, if you want, you can coat the beef in flour. That will make a thicker stew. There are potatoes in the stew whose starch will naturally thicken the stew as well.
I agree with Elise. The starch in the potatoes will definetly thicken the stew. My grandmothers and mother mostly used this method for thickening. Potato water makers a great thickening agent. If you want to cheat, you could thicken the gravy with ‘instant mashed potatoes.’ Did I really say that? Oh well, it is a non-culinary thought.