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 I kicked things off a little early last week with my grasshopper chocolate bark, and today I want to share with you this absolute favorite stew of mine.
This Guinness beef stew hails from Cook’s Country magazine; it’s incredibly easy 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 perfectly smooth and rich Guinness-spiked gravy. Absolutely delicious!
One of the best 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 perfectly. I have to admit that when I stirred the stew part way through cooking, I thought the sauce seemed a little on the thin side. I was completely amazed at how perfectly rich and thick it was once it was ready to serve. Magic!
I use my favorite Dutch oven to make this stew, and I’ve had some people ask if it’s possible to make it a slow cooker. While I’ve never done so, I’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.
My husband isn’t the biggest fan of stew so I sort of gave him a heads up when I made this, but he couldn’t stop eating it… he said it was the best stew he’d ever had. I, on the other hand, have always loved stew (my hearty beef stew with a nice piece of crusty bread to soak up that fabulous sauce is total comfort food for me!), and I can confidently say that this Guinness beef stew is absolutely the best, ever.
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One year ago: Cheesy Potato Casserole with Corn Flake Topping
Five years ago: Capirotada (Mexican Bread Pudding)
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Guinness Beef Stew
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
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
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Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Wow, this looks amaaaazing! Would love a bowl of this stew right now to warm me up on this cold night :)
I love this so much! And bonus, I already have some leftover Guinness in my fridge just waiting to go into this stew! :)
What is leftover Guiness? No such thing my husband in the house. :-)
Nice looking beef stew!
I am forwarding this recipe to my mom! My stepdad is from England and loves Guinness. He would absolutely love this.
I want some of this stew in my belly right now! Last night I made so me delish soda bread that would go perfectly with guinness beef stew. I might have to hold off until the weekend though.
Love this for St. Patrick’s day!! I’m sure the Guinness gives it amazing flavor…
If you love Guinness then you would love the Guinness StoreHouse in Dublin. Its amazing, you get to see the history, how its made and also taste it. at the very top of the StoreHouse is the 360 Bar where you can look at the amzing sights around Dublin. The best part, All the Guinness merchandise which includes foodie gifts, Guinness Chocolates, Guinness sauces and other Guinness delights.
I loved this stew, i had to go straight out and buy the ingredients today and we are had it for dinner, absolutely delicious.
This looks delicious! Can’t wait to make it.
Would we be able to double the recipe? I have a large family. Has anyone tried it yet. Have they doubled it?
Hi Rebecca, I have not doubled it, but I’m sure you could. Just be sure that you use a large enough pot and that it can fit in your oven!
I am cooking for two, so I like to feeze leftovers. Since potatoes don’t usually freeze well, I thought of switching them out for parsnips or something else. Do you have a suggestion?
oh my gawd, this looks wonderful! LOVE!
It’s great to see the use of the under-rated chuck in this recipe. More economical and certainly more flavorful due to marbling.
I was surprised to see the use of chicken rather than beef stock. Have to try this recipe.
For another slight flavor variation consider the use of parsnips rather than yukon golds which I love.
I used to make a similar recipe but for a thicker stew, I’d dredge the beef cubes in flour and then sear (part of the anticipated braising process) but often we’d sample (and sample) those chunks and never move on to make the stew.
I still like to throw in a bag of frozen peas near the end for more color.
This looks absolutely delicious! And so appropriate for St. Patrick’s day week!
This sounds delicious! I love a good beef stew and the guinness is so fun for St. Patrick’s day!
I’ve made this before and it is amazing, even my kids liked it and they are super picky. I will be making for St Patrick’s day since I am not a fan of lamb.
Never have I drooled for beef before 9:30am! This looks amazing!
I’m not a big fan of beef stew but this looks so delicious . . .
The stew looks so rich and warming — and just perfect to get through these continuing cold nights. Such gorgeous photos!
Wow! These photos are absolutely gorgeous! This stew sounds absolutely delicious!
Heck yes! I made a version (maybe it was the same one…) of this recipe and I loved skipping the browning step. I found it super hard to photograph but yours looks amazing :)
Wow – this sounds amazing! Great photos too!
This looks and sounds delicious! I’ve already made a corned beef, which means I need to make something like this for St. Patrick’s Day! I love all the meals I’ve seen popping up with Guinness as an ingredient!
Thank you for sharing this festive St.Patrick’s Day recipe. We can’t seem to shake the cold weather here in the ‘burgh, so this warm and hearty stew looks very tempting. I’ve seen so many recipes for St.Patty’s sweets, but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. This is definitely one recipe I’ll give a try!
What a great idea for stew! Making my mouth water–no lie!
Oh my gosh, you have me craving beef stew! This recipe looks amazing the photos, oh my gosh! I need a fork so I can dig right in!
This stew looks so rich and comforting! I wish I had a steaming hot bowl of it right now with this crazy cold weather :).
When you do a stew like this (which looks really amazing!) can you serve it to kids?
The alcohol in the initial Guiness addition is cooked for 90 min and so is reduced considerably but does not completely evaporate (contrary to popular belief). The second addition stirred in at the end really doesn’t evaporate much at all. Having said all that, you also have to consider the proportion of Guiness to other liquid, how old your kids are, your personal feelings about the matter, etc. Plus, if you’re talking about beer vs a higher proof spirit (like brandy or cognac), that’s adds another factor. If you google alcohol evaporation rate cooking, there’s a good discussion on chowhound (Truth or Fiction thread) with info from the USDA that’s quite informative. Personally, if my kids were 8+ I would probably let them eat the stew out of the oven before the final 1/2 cup addition. If someone else’s kids are involved or if I knew someone was a recovering alcoholic or was on meds where alcohol is contraindicated, I would serve something else.
Very very informative response. Thanks for all the info re alcohol evaporation rates!
You’re welcome. I started giving thought to this a few years ago when I was making something for a work potluck (alcohol consumption on premises is a fireable offense – imagine that!) and was quite shocked to learn my assumptions about cook off were totally wrong. Truthfully though, the evap rate after cooking is the least of MY problem, which has more to do with the “evap rate” after the beer is opened and before it’s incorporated into the recipe! LOL! Guess I’ll need to stock a second bottle. :) Can’t wait to try this beef stew recipe out!
Correction: the initial cooking time with the first Guiness addition is 2.5 hours (not 90 minutes) so the alcohol evap rate is even higher.
Thank you Marla! Great info-my kiddos are 7, 4, 2, and newborn (who is nursing) so I if I try this one I may serve it for all of us before the last addition of the beer.
Just read the comments after I made this several times and noticed you said cook it 2.5 hours not 90 minutes. You should make that change in the recipe.
The recipe calls for the first portion of beer along with the beef etc and then says cook at 325 for 90 minutes (1.5 hours) then it says to add the potatoes and carrots and continue to cook fo another hour – that is 2.5 hours total cooking time before removing it from the oven and adding the final amount of beer. There is no need to correct the recipe.
The perfect recipe for this never ending winter cold! It looks so good!!
Oh man I just want to dive head first into this!
Wow… This really looks great!