Foolproof Beef and Guinness Stew

Irish beef stew made with Guinness^® stout beer is perfect for St. Patrick's Day or any day!  This foolproof recipe is a stovetop recipe, but I've included adaptations for the slow cooker and the Instant Pot.

I make a vegetarian adaptation that is delicious, believe it or not! The recipe is below—give it a try and let me know what you think.

Jump to:

• 📹 Video
• ⏲️ Time needed
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 📋 Instructions
• ❄️ Freezer instructions
• ❓ Can I use a slow cooker or Instant Pot?
• 🍲 Vegetarian Guinness® stew option
• 🇮🇪 Is this an authentic Irish stew recipe?
• 📖 Recipe
• 🥗 Side dishes
• 📌 Pin this recipe

📹 Video

⏲️ Time needed

Since the flavor of this rich stew comes out as it slowly simmers, it's important to allow plenty of time for it to cook over low heat.

It takes about 20 minutes to prepare the ingredients and brown the meat, then 2-3 hours to simmer the stew.

🥘 Ingredients

Start with beef stew meat, Guinness^® beer, onions, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, flour, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

📋 Instructions

Put a tablespoon of oil on the meat and add the flour, cayenne, salt, and pepper and coat the meat well. Brown the floured meat in oil, then add the chopped onion and garlic.

Sauté until the onions are tender, then add a bottle of Guinness^®. Scrape the browned bits from the pan while stirring. Add the tomato paste and stir well to mix it in with the beer. At this point you should begin to have a nice base to the stew.

Add the carrots, thyme, and the remaining half bottle of Guinness.

Stir gently until the liquid is an even consistency, and leave to simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

That's it! Serve over mashed potatoes and enjoy one of my favorite comfort foods.

❄️ Freezer instructions

This recipe freezes quite well. I like to freeze it in smaller portions to pull out for lunches or individual meals. You can double or triple the recipe and freeze larger portions if you'd like.

Freeze the stew in a freezer-safe glass jar with at least 1" headroom for expansion (or more for large portions). Thaw in the refrigerator and reheat either in the microwave or on the stovetop.

❓ Can I use a slow cooker or Instant Pot?

Can I make Beef and Guinness^® Stew in a slow cooker?

Absolutely! You'll need to start the recipe on the stovetop to brown the beef.

For Beef and Guinness^® Stew in the slow cooker:

1. Brown the beef on the stovetop in a large skillet.
2. Follow the recipe instructions until the point where the stew needs to simmer
3. Transfer the stew to a slow cooker and cook it on low for 3-4 hours.

Be mindful of how hot your slow cooker cooks since they all heat differently. Larger volume slow cookers will cook the same amount of food much faster than a smaller volume slow cooker.

Can I make Beef and Guinness^® Stew in the Instant Pot?

Yes, but you'll have to adjust the order of cooking. You should never add flour or other thickeners before the pressure cooking cycle since it can cause food to stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. The pressure cooker needs the thinner liquid to create the steam that forces the pot to go under pressure.

I have not made this recipe in the Instant Pot, but I adapted a Mexican beef stew for the Instant Pot and it follows a similar preparation method.

For Beef and Guinness^® Stew in the Instant Pot:

1. Put the 1 Tbsp. oil in the inner pot and brown the meat in it without the flour (you can put the cayenne, salt, and pepper on it) on sauté mode.
2. Add the beer (up to the amount recommended for liquid on your model of pressure cooker), onions, garlic, thyme, and carrots to the pot.
3. Cook on manual pressure (high if you have the option) for 25 minutes.
4. NPR for 15 minutes, then release pressure and open lid.
5. Mix the flour with about ½ cup of the liquid from the pot (careful, it's hot!), whisking well to get any lumps out.
6. Add the flour mixture back to the pot and stir gently to mix.
7. Add the tomato paste and the remaining beer and heat on sauté mode for just long enough to heat through (watch carefully for burning - this won't take long).
8. Turn off the Instant Pot as soon as the stew is hot and serve the stew over mashed potatoes.

Do I have to use Guinness^® beer?

No—any stout beer will work, but I have always used Guinness^®. Some people even use red wine instead of beer, so you can experiment with various types to see what you like best.

Lighter colored beer or white wine will not have the depth of flavor needed, so stick with darker beers or dry red wines.

🍲 Vegetarian Guinness^® stew option

Believe it or not, you can make Guinness^® stew vegetarian by using our plant-based vegetarian meatball recipe and substituting the meatballs for the beef stew meat. The meatballs only need to be heated rather than browned since they are already cooked.

1. Heat the meatballs in a pan with a very little bit of oil and cook over medium heat until they are heated on the outside.
2. Add the flour and stir gently until it is evenly distributed among the meatballs.
3. Add the chopped onions and minced garlic and continue the recipe as is from there.

Since the rich broth develops from the Guinness^®, it maintains much of its original flavor when adapted to a vegetarian version.

🇮🇪 Is this an authentic Irish stew recipe?

An authentic Irish stew would have been made with lamb and potatoes because of the local availability of the products prior to the potato famine in the 19th century. As the Irish migrated to the United States during the famine years, they introduced their traditional recipes, which have evolved over time.

Rather than mashing the potatoes and serving them with the stew, the potatoes traditionally would have been added to the stew whole or chopped. Mashing the potatoes is just one of the ways Irish stew has evolved over time—because of its availability, we typically use less expensive beef in place of lamb, and more recently recipes include tomato products and alcohol for depth of flavor.

📖 Recipe

🥗 Side dishes

Served with mashed potatoes, the stew is quite filling. I usually serve it with a green salad and either Irish soda bread or Guinness bread just because it's Irish, but it really doesn't need bread on the side.

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