Irish Guinness Beef Stew: Ireland’s National Comfort Food

If there is one dish that is synonymous with Irish cuisine, it has to be Guinness beef stew.

Hearty and filling, simple yet incredibly rich, and beautifully rustic Irish Guinness beef stew is pure comfort in a bowl. So deeply flavorful and with chunks of beef so tender that a hard glare could break them apart.

It’s no wonder that it’s one of Ireland’s most popular foods.

The best part is that this classic comfort food is so easy to make. Just one pot filled with an affordable cut of beef and whatever vegetables you need to use up. Give the stove a couple hours to do what it does best. The result? Your kitchen smells like a cozy dream and your family will have a gorgeous stew to tuck into for days.

Super simple prep, a slow cook that’s no work on your part, and absolutely delicious results. This one is a must make.

Why Make Guinness Beef Stew?

It is the best of the best. I love a good stew and beef stews are my principle obsession. And believe me when I say I’ve never met a beef stew I didn’t like – beef bourguignon, Chinese beef stew with potatoes, Flemish stew, galbi jjim, the list goes on. But on a cold, rainy winter’s night, nothing beats a richly warming bowl of Guinness beef stew.

It’s that deep, rich ale flavor. Nothing beats it.

It’s surprisingly easy. Like most beef stews, the secret ingredient to this recipe is simply time. There’s not much actual work involved on your part – it mostly consists of you adding ingredients into the pot. After that, the stove does all the heavy lifting.

It will feed your family for days. It’s as easy to make a large portion of stew as it is to make a single serving. So go with the bigger options. Your family will thank you when you say there’s enough for thirds. Plus, Guinness beef stew freezes well so you can always save any leftovers for the future.

Re-purpose the leftovers. One thing I love about this stew is that if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, they can easily be re-purposed into other dishes and snacks. Cover it with a pastry topping and stick it in the oven for an easy beef pot pie. Or do what I do and use the leftovers to fill up puff pastries and make little beef puff pastry pockets. They make the perfect nutritious and delicious after-school snacks.

Guinness Beef Stew Ingredients

Bacon (or pancetta). Thin or thick, it doesn’t matter. It adds its oil and lovely flavor to the stew.

Beef. My favorite cut of beef for Guinness beef stew is beef shin (aka shank if you’re in the States). It’s affordable, flavorful, and so tender when slow cooked like we’ll be doing for this recipe. Other great cuts are chuck and short rib.

Salt & pepper. To season the beef with.

Flour. We’ll be coating the beef in flour before browning since this starchy coating speeds up caramelization and later helps to thicken the stew.

Vegetables. Some people like their Irish stew with just meat, potatoes, and onions. Others, like my husband, like carrots and potatoes but no onions. I like everything – the more, the merrier. All this is to say that add in the vegetables that you like. I’m using carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and celery here. But feel free to also add in parsnips, turnips, peas, and other veggies you have in the fridge. It’s a stew, after all. (Almost) everything goes.

Herbs. Bay leaves and thyme – either fresh or dried – are very welcome here. Some like to add in rosemary but I prefer to leave it out. It’s up to you and your preference. You’re the boss of this stew.

Guinness. This dark, complex ale lends so much robust complexity to this stew that once you’ve had it, you’ll find it hard to go back to beef stew minus the Guinness. I’m using a full 500 mL bottle.

Stock. Use beef, chicken or even combination of the two. If I have homemade stock, I’ll use it. Otherwise, I use Knorr stock pots – one beef and one chicken.

Worcestershire sauce. For the umami flavor and that welcome bit of sour. We don’t use too much but beef stew just isn’t the same without it.

Tomato paste. More umami and a bit of acidity, with a subtle taste of sweetness. It really balances out the Guinness.

Sugar. This is entirely optional. You might not need or want it at all. Taste and then add as you wish.

How to Make Guinness Beef Stew

This is a one pot stew. I’m using a heavy-bottom pot that’s going to be used to fry the bacon, brown the beef, and cook the stew. Cast iron is great. So is stainless steel.

1. Prep

The very first thing to start is to get all the ingredients prepped and ready. Because once you start cooking, it’ll go fast. So we’ll start with a little bit of mise en place – that’s French for getting your sh*t together.

• Beef. Cut the beef into small chunks, around 2″ big. Sprinkle a teaspoon each of salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons of flour and toss to coat.

• Bacon. Chop the bacon into small pieces. Set aside.

• Veggies. Chop the onions, garlic, celery, potatoes, and carrots. I’m using Chantenay carrots and baby potatoes so I don’t have to chop.

Get everything else ready – herbs, Guinness, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, stock – so you can quickly add them to the stew and then sit back and relax.

2. Brown the Meat

Heat a pot over medium-high heat and add in the chopped bacon. Stir and cook until it’s brown and crispy and the fat has rendered out into the pot.

Lift the bacon out with some tongs or a slotted spoon and set it aside. Leave the rendered fat in. We’ll be using that to brown the beef.

Note: There should be a good amount of bacon fat that’s rendered out. But that depends on the bacon. If the bacon was stingy and you don’t have enough oil in the pot, add in some cooking oil before we brown the beef. Aim for around 1/4 cup of oil to brown the beef.

Next, add the beef and brown on all sides. Don’t overcrowd the pan and do it in batches if you have to. Repeat until all the beef is browned. Set all the beef aside on a plate.

Tip: Deglaze (if you need to)

When you’re finished browning the beef, your pot may or may not look like this…

At this point, you may be asking yourself: is this ruined? Well, it depends. The brown, caramelized bits left at the bottom of the pot after browning the meat is delicious stuff called fond. It’s amazing for flavor and we definitely want to keep it in the stew.

But if it looks more black than brown, it may have gone too far to the dark side and we definitely don’t want that in the stew as the burnt taste will affect everything.

A good way to find out whether the fond is worth keeping or too burnt is to add about a half cup of water in. Scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden or silicone spoon while it sizzles and fizzes.

And then go ahead and do a taste test. Does the stuff taste savory and flavorful? Great, proceed to the next step.

Does it just taste like ashes? I’m sorry to break it to you but we’re going to have to toss it. Clean the pot of the burnt bits and let’s heat it up with oil again so we can proceed to the rest of the stew…

3. Saute Aromatics

Add onions to the pot and brown for around 3 to 4 minutes. Add in the chopped garlic and let that cook for a minute.

Pour in the Guinness and let it come to a boil for a minute while you deglaze the bottom of the pot, getting all the lovely frond into the stew (aka scape the browned bit off the bottom of the pot).

4. Cook

Add the rest of the vegetables as well as the beef and bacon back into the pot. Pour in the stock and stir in the tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, and thyme.

Don’t add sugar yet – do so after everything has had a chance to meld together. You can do a taste test in about an hour and then add sugar if you want to.

Lower the heat to a very gentle simmer, cover the pot and let it cook for two hours. In about an hour, the stew will have thickened and absorbed the ale taste. This is a good time to taste test and add in any more seasoning you want – salt, pepper, sugar, and so on.

In two hours, the beef will be tender enough to break apart with a spoon. And that means your stew is ready to eat. Serve and enjoy!

What to Serve with Guinness Stew?

Crusty bread. Sourdough, baguette, Irish soda bread – doesn’t really matter. As long as it’s warm, crusty, and covered in butter. Yum.

Mashed potatoes. If you chose to not put potatoes in this stew, ladling Guinness stew in the middle of a makeshift mashed potato “bowl” is such a delicious way to serve it. Colcannon is the best pair, if you want to go all Irish all the way – otherwise, any mashed potatoes are lovely.

Noodles. A bit of butter coated onto chewy noodles with hot beef stew on top? Delicious. Wide egg noodles were made for this.

Roasted vegetables. For a healthier option, you can also serve Guinness stew with a generous side of roasted vegetables. More root veggies work great for this – carrots! parsnips! – or even crucifers like cauliflower and broccoli.

Salad. A plate of fresh green salad is the perfect complement to a hearty beef stew. Add a couple sliced of bread and it is a simple, rustic and yet absolutely perfect meal.

Storage & Leftovers

The best thing about Guinness beef stew is how it tastes the next day…or the day after that. The longer you leave it, the more the flavors meld into perfection. The more you reheat it, the thicker and more intense the gravy. You get the picture.

To store, cool it to room temperature and then store in an airtight container for up to 3 to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.

To freeze, cool to room temperature and place in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, defrost overnight and then reheat in the microwave or stovetop.