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
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Hey there,
Just wanted to comment on my completed stew. The beef never did brown like the photo. It is a little tougher than I was hoping for, and didn’t get the flavor I was hoping for. I will probably brown the beef in the future. I also ended up cooking it for an hour longer, because the veggies were still pretty crunchy.
On the plus side, the flavor of the sauce is better than anything we have made in the past, so I will keep the recipe and make some modifications! Thank you.
Last year I had delicious Guinness Beef Stew at a local Irish pub and have been looking for a recipe that closely matched it. This one comes so close it is imperceptible — fantastic! The first time I made it the potatoes and carrots were still somewhat crunchy, so last night I added them 30 minutes earlier and they were still a bit crisp. I just took the pot from the oven and cooked it on high on the stove burner for 5-8 additional minutes and the veggies were perfect. For additional flavor and eye candy, I included 20-25 pearl onions when adding the potatoes and carrots. The raving reviews of our guests were quite numerous … thanks again for the recipe!
Hi there, currently in the process of baking this in the oven. I am a little worried. The meat does not look as brown as yours dies in the photo. I would like to know how covered the meat is when first stirring it in.
Thanks!
Hi Cyndy, If you just stirred it for the first time, it still has a LONG way to go. The meat won’t be totally submerged, but will continue to get darker as it cooks. Stirring in the Guinness towards the end also makes it look darker.
Can this be made with regular beer? Would like to make today but have no guiness beer.
Hi Roxanne, I have not tried it with any other beer, but I would imagine that another dark, lager-style beer would work.
Just finished eating a big bowl and I’m thinking about having some more. This is very good and I’m sure it will be even better in a day or two once the flavors have melded in beefy love…….
I’ve made this twice now. One of my favorite recipes. I love it!
I make a mean stew but am always looking for something new to try. This stew was fantastic, rich and hearty. Might never make mine again! Only thing I did different was use venison instead of beef. You would never know. Family requested I put peas in next time since I always make mine with peas. Also next time I think I’ll buy two Guinness instead of one. One to cook with and one to drink!
I made this earlier this week for my husband and me, and it lasted for several days! It came out good, but I had to cook it a lot longer. I don’t know if it’s because my apartment has an old gas oven that looks like it’s from the 70s, but it took a good two extra hours to get the meat and vegetables tender. The end result was pretty tasty, and paired very nicely with the cheddar bay biscuits recipe from this site too. My flu shot had me feeling under the weather for a couple days and this was the perfect hearty comfort food.
Fantastic recipe! I tossed the beef in the flour before hand and browned it very well. I think it was worth it. Also added a bay leaf and used beef broth instead of chicken. SO good. Thank you!
I made this recipe a few weeks ago while my husband and Iwere laid up with some child/flu action. It tasted heavenly. I find myself adding a little more chicken broth halfway through and I added the rest of the recipe’s guinness half an hour before it was really done.It needs a lot more turning than halfway through the cooking process. It created a strange film that I had to break up more than a few times, and if I didn’t turn it regularly, the meat would burn. But even still, it was moist, tender, and absolutely delicious. It lasted us the entire day before my husband finally finished it of. Can’twaitto make again!
Don’t use Guinness Original which comes in 440 millilitre aluminium can. “all the taste of Guinnesss with a refershingly crisp bite” leaves a bitter aftertaste in the stew.
I’m making this right now! It’s already smelling so good in the oven. I’ll give an update when it’s done cooking! Thanks, Michelle!
Can I substitue mushrooms for the potatoes or would that affect the sauce? I don’t like potatoes in my stew. Thank you!
Hi Dana, That substitution shouldn’t have any effect on the sauce.
Yum! This was delicious beef stew and so easy! Unfortunately, I ate too much, which is keeping me from eating the Limoncello cupcakes I made for dessert!
I tried this recipe on St Patrick’s Day this week. It was really delicious. I LOVED that i didn’t have to brown the meat before putting into the oven (brilliant idea to leave the lid off for browning in the oven!) Also I added all the beer earlier in the cooking process to maximize the evaporation, due to my audience.
this stew looks and sounds absolutely amazing!!!!
This stew was amazing….Everyone loved it. We didn’t have Guinness so we substituted Penn Brewery’s red label. Thanks for all your great recipes.
I made this for St. Patrick’s Day, and it was excellent! It took awhile and was a little messy to prepare (I didn’t have one ovenproof dish that was big enough for all of it, so I had it in two casseroles in the oven), but it was SO worth it! My husband and I ate way more than usual. Just delicious. Thank you!
My husband made this for us last night, and it was amazing. Thank you for the recipe! :)
Made this to rave reviews last night. We loved the way the liquid cooked down to a nice rich sauce. Very tasty. Thanks!
Can you make this in the crockpot?
Hi Becky, I would not recommend making this in a crockpot if you have the ability to make it in the oven – you won’t get the same caramelized flavor, browning of the beef, or sauce reduction as you will in the oven.
Just made this today and will save to enjoy tomorrow so everything in here has some more time to get to know each other more. ;-) Looking forward to how the flavors will develop overnight!
I’ll be making this for my family tomorrow! My kids will not likely eat it, my sensory sensitive kids cannot tolerate all the food in one pot. More for the grownups!
What if I don’t have a dutch oven? What would be the best why to cook it? Crockpot, stew pot on stove?
Hi Heather, If you have another heavy-bottomed pot, use that. If you don’t cook it in the oven, you may need to actually sear the meat on the stove. It would alter the texture of the meat.
I made this stew today and it came out incredible! Definitely a recipe to bookmark!
This looks and sounds so good! I’ve never had Guinness Beef Stew, but I’d really like to give it a try sometime.
I cooked this recipe tonight for my family. It is a keeper!
This recipe is very easy to follow and the meat browns so beautifully. I was a bit afraid that there would be a strong beer taste but the Guinness helps makes a hearty gravy that we “sipped up” with homemade crusty bread. THANKS for this recipe. I’m so glad I found it!
This sounds/looks so good, we’ll definitely be making this for our St. Patty’s party Saturday night!
This looks good!! Great idea to use Guinness in it. Irish stew is always a good comfort food.
I made beef stew this week and now I wish I had made this recipe! Pinned it to try later on.