Irish Guinness Beef Stew

Hearty and filling, rich and rustic 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.

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Irish

Servings 6

Calories 389 kcal

Ingredients

110 g bacon
1.2 kg beef shin or chuck, short rib, or other stewing beef
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp flour
400 g carrots
2 stalks celery chopped
400 g potatoes
2 onions chopped
4 cloves garlic
500 mL Guinness beer
3 cups stock beef, chicken or both
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme or 3 fresh sprigs
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup tomato paste
1 tsp sugar optional

Instructions

Prep

Let's start with mise en place – that’s French for getting your sh*t together. Prepare:
Bacon. Chop the bacon into small pieces. Set aside.
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
Veggies. Chop the onions, garlic, celery, potatoes, and carrots. I’m using Chantenay carrots and baby potatoes so I don’t have to chop.
Everything else. Get herbs, Guinness, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, stock ready and close by so you can quickly add them to the stew and then sit back and relax.

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: 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.
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.

Deglaze (if you need to)

If the brown bits at the bottom of the pot are looking more black than brown, you may want to deglaze and taste to make sure that the fond hasn't burned.
ONLY do this if you suspect the fond has burned. Otherwise, move onto the next step.
If you do have a lot of blacked bits at the bottom, add half a cup of water into the pot and let it sizzle while you scrape the bottom of the pot and deglaze.
Do a taste test. If it tastes burnt, continue to deglaze and then dump the remains. Dry the pot, add fresh oil and go onto the next step.
If it tastes savory and flavorful, you're good to go. Leave that delicious fond in there and proceed to the next step.

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).

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.
Note: 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 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!

Notes

What's the best cut of beef to use? You can go with any type of stewing beef. Shin (or shank) is my favorite. Chuck and short ribs are also great.

What veggies to add? It's really up to you. You can add as little or as much as you want. Onions - white, yellow, brown, pearl - as well as potatoes, carrots, peas, turnips, parsnips and so on. Go with what you like.

The only thing to be mindful of is that root veggies will hold up well to slow cooking but other veggies might not. If you don't want the veggies to fall apart in the stew, add them around half an hour before the stew is finished.