Beef & Guinness Stew
This Beef & Guinness Stew is a stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal that’s perfect for any day of the week. It’s hearty, flavorful, and full of protein and lots of vegetables.
Typical stews are made with meat, potatoes, and sometimes onions and carrots too, and we’ve added cabbage for extra nutrients and bite. The stew is rounded out with Guinness (or another dry stout) and just a touch of Worcestershire sauce for added umami flavor.
What’s in a Stew?
If you scour the internet for Irish stew recipes, you’re likely to run across many different variations. Some use lamb, others use beef, some include tomato paste while others stick to using stout beer to deepen the flavor. You’ll find that some cooks oppose adding the potatoes immediately, while others let them cook for hours with the meat in order to have them thicken the stew. Some recipes have you add additional vegetables while others keep it simple and sparse. The point is that stews are a great place to play around with whatever you like.
Traditionally, you’ll find stews to be full of some type of hardy protein and potatoes. Beyond that, it’s really up to you and what you want to add. In ours, we wanted to amp up the richness by adding a low ABV (alcohol-by-volume) dry stout. We were inspired by Irish stews (which often use lamb instead of beef), so we opted for Guinness. We like our stews to have a medium thickness, so we cooked the potatoes for a long time and added a cornstarch slurry as well.
Ingredients in the Beef & Guinness Stew
We like our stew hearty and full of flavor and veggies, so we’ve taken the base ingredients of beef and potatoes and added a few extra ingredients. Here’s everything you’ll need for the stew:
- Beef stew meat – stew meat can be tough, so it’ll need to cook a while to become tender. If your meat is fatty, you may want to trim the extra fat off before using it.
- Carrots – we aren’t big fans of biting into cooked carrots, so we kept our slices pretty thin. If you like chunkier carrots, you do you.
- Yukon gold potatoes – since we cook our potatoes for a long time with the beef, we use these less starchy potatoes. They’ll hold up and keep their shape for longer than high-starch potatoes like russets.
- Pearl onions – we use fresh pearl onions, but frozen would also work here.
- Green cabbage – make sure to remove the core before chopping. We kept our chopped pieces about the same size as the potatoes.
- Beef broth – along with the beer, this makes up the stew liquid. Be sure to use flavorful/good quality broth.
- Guinness – we don’t actually drink much Guinness, but it brings a perfect level of bitterness to the dish.
- Worcestershire – beef loves Worcestershire. A little of this goes a long way in this recipe.
- Brown sugar – with the beer and Worcestershire, there is a lot of bitter tang in this stew, so the brown sugar helps round it all out.
- Herbs – fresh thyme and bay leaves are great with stews and meat, and provide some earthiness to the stew. Just be sure to fish these out before eating.
- Flour – this coats the meat so that the moisture is locked in when it sears.
- Salt and pepper – if your beef broth is really salty, you can hold some of this back. You’ll need about 2 tsp for the meat and 1/2 tsp for the vegetables. Beyond that, you’ll need enough to season the stew. We also use a generous amount of cracked black pepper.
- Optional: cornstarch slurry – we prefer our stew with an added cornstarch slurry to make it thicker. If you want yours to be thinner, you can omit this. To make the slurry, whisk together 1 tbsp cornstarch with 2 tbsp water.
- Parsley – we like to garnish this stew with chopped parsley.
Making the Beef & Guinness Stew
Cooking the stew takes time, but it comes together relatively easily.
Browning the Beef
To cook the stew, you first want to brown the meat in order to get even more flavor from it. Before adding it to the pot, put your cut beef into a bowl or zip top bag. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, and 2 tablespoons of flour to the beef. Coat the meat by tossing everything together.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Working in batches so that you don’t overcrowd the pan (which won’t allow for as much browning), brown the meat by cooking it for a few minutes on each side. Note: the meat won’t be cooked through, so don’t be tempted to snack on it first! Remove the browned beef from the pot and place it on a plate while browning the next batch until all the meat is browned. Set aside the browned meat. You may need to add 1 tablespoon of oil for each batch of meat that you cook.
Cooking the Veggies
In the same pot, add the pearl onions and carrots, a 1/2 tsp of salt, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until they’re starting to soften. If you’re using frozen pearl onions, you may need to adjust the cook time since they may carry extra water.
Add the pearl onions to the pot. Add in the carrots to the pot with the onions.
Adding the Beef, Beer, Broth, Potatoes & Herbs
Add the meat back to the pot and then deglaze the pot with the beer and broth. Add the herbs, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and potatoes and cover the pot with a lid.
Add the browned meat back to the pot. Deglaze with the beer and broth and add the potatoes. Look at that happy potato! Add in the thyme sprigs and bay leaves.
Cooking the Cabbage & Finishing Touches for the Beef & Guinness Stew
Cook for about an hour, then add the cabbage. Taste the stew for seasoning, cover the pot again, and cook for another hour.
Note: cooking the potatoes this way will cause them to thicken the stew a little. If you’d rather have your potatoes less done, you can add them to the stew with the cabbage.
After 2 hours, it’s time to eat! If you want the stew thinner, add more broth. Thicker? Add the optional cornstarch slurry and bring it to a boil, which will cause the stew to thicken up.
Serve the stew with fresh parsley and crusty bread for dipping.
Beef & Guinness Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef stew meat, chopped into 1 ½ inch pieces
- 2 carrots, peeled & sliced
- 5 large Yukon gold potatoes, peeled & cut into large cubes
- 8 oz 1 ½ cups pearl onions, peeled & halved
- ¼ green cabbage head, chopped
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 cup Guinness beer, or other dry stout
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2-4 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp flour
- Few thyme sprigs
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 ½ tsp salt, plus more if needed, (divided)
- 1 tsp pepper
- Optional: cornstarch slurry, (1 tbsp cornstarch whisked with 2 tbsp water)
- Chopped parsley, for garnish
Instructions
- In a bowl or zip top bag, toss beef with 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, and 2 tbsp flour.2 pounds beef stew meat, 2 tbsp flour, 2 ½ tsp salt, plus more if needed, 1 tsp pepper
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Working in batches, brown the meat, cooking for a few minutes on each side (note: meat won’t be cooked through). Once browned, remove from pot and place on plate while browning next batch (may need to add 1 tbsp oil for each batch) until all the meat is browned, removed from the pot, and set aside.2-4 tbsp oil
- In the same pot, add onions and carrots, ½ tsp of salt, and cook for 5-10 min or until starting to soften.2 carrots, 8 oz 1 ½ cups pearl onions, peeled & halved
- Add the meat back to the pot and then deglaze with the Guinness beer and beef broth.4 cups beef broth, 1 cup Guinness beer
- Add the herbs, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and potatoes and cover the pot. Note: cooking the potatoes this way will cause them to thicken the stew a little. If you’d rather have your potatoes less done, you can add them to the stew with the cabbage.1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar, Few thyme sprigs, 2 bay leaves, 5 large Yukon gold potatoes
- Cook for an hour, then add cabbage.¼ green cabbage head
- Taste for seasoning, cover, and cook for another hour.
- After 2 hours, it’s time to eat! If you want the stew thinner, add more broth. Thicker? Add the cornstarch slurry, which will cause the stew to thicken up once it comes to a boil.Optional: cornstarch slurry
- Garnish the stew with fresh parsley and serve with crusty bread, if desired.Chopped parsley
