Guinness Beef Stew
This Guinness Beef Stew recipe is rich and hearty, with a robust gravy-like sauce that is flavored by Guinness. A must for St. Patrick’s Day!
We have a couple of weeks until St. Patrick’s Day and we kicked things off a little early last week with our grasshopper chocolate bark, and today we want to share with you this absolute favorite stew of ours.
This Guinness beef stew hails from Cook’s Country magazine; it’s incredibly straightforward to prepare, and nearly all of the cooking time is hands-off. The meat is exceptionally tender, there are tons of potatoes and carrots, and it’s all drowning in a evenly smooth and rich Guinness-spiked gravy. Absolutely rich!
One of a standby parts of this stew is that, unlike most stew recipes, you don’t have to brown the meat first – WIN! Instead of browning the meat, it is stirred into the sauce and then the whole pot is transferred to the oven and cooked, uncovered. By using this method, the uncovered meat browns and caramelizes, and the sauce thickens up evenly. We have to admit that when we stirred the stew part way through cooking, we thought the sauce seemed a little on the thin side. We were completely amazed at how evenly rich and thick it was once it was ready to serve. Magic!
We use our favorite Dutch oven to make this stew, and we've had some people ask if it’s possible to make it a slow cooker. While we've never done so, we've received feedback from some who have, and their assessment is that the stew is fine in a slow cooker, but nowhere close to as good as it is in a Dutch oven made as directed.
Our husband isn’t the biggest fan of stew so we sort of gave him a heads up when we made this, but he couldn’t stop eating it… he said it was a standby stew he’d ever had. We, on the other hand, have always loved stew (our hearty beef stew with a nice piece of crusty bread to soak up that fabulous sauce is total comfort food for us!), and we can confidently say that this Guinness beef stew is absolutely a standby, ever.
One year ago: Cheesy Potato Casserole with Corn Flake Topping
Five years ago: Capirotada (Mexican Bread Pudding)
Six years ago: Fig, Date & Almond Granola Bars
- Yield: 6 to 8 servings
- Prep: 30 minutes
- Cook: 3 hours
- Total: 3 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 3.5 to 4 pound ( 1.6 to 1.8 kg ) boneless beef chuck-eye roast, pulled apart at seams, trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon ( 0.25 teaspoon ) salt
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup ( 31.25 g ) all-purpose flour
- 3 cups ( 720 ml ) chicken stock
- 1¼ cups ( 287.5 ml ) Guinness Draught, divided
- 4½ teaspoons ( 4.5 teaspoons ) dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
- 1½ pounds ( 680.39 g ) Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 pound ( 453.59 g ) carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Method
- Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat to 325 degrees F.
- Season the beef with salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, add the onions and salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for an additional 1 minute.
- Whisk in the chicken stock, ¾ cup of the Guinness, brown sugar and thyme, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the beef and return to a simmer.
- Transfer the pot to the oven and cook, uncovered, for 90 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking.
- Stir in the potatoes and carrots and continue cooking until the beef and vegetables are tender, about 1 hour, stirring halfway through cooking. Remove the pot from the oven and stir in the remaining ½ cup of Guinness and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
