How To Make The Best Irish Stew With Beef And Guinness

Warm and hearty, our Irish stew is made with melt in the mouth beef cooked with vegetables in a rich Guinness gravy. Total comfort food.

Why You'll LOVE This Comfort Food Stew

Rich And Warming Comfort Food - Irish stew is proper old-school, belly warming comfort food. Perfect for feeding the family on a cold day.

Easy To Make - our recipe for Beef and Guinness stew is simple to make, and once it's prepped, and in the oven, you've got no hands-on cooking to do.

St Patricks Day Classic - celebrate St Patricks Day with a bowl of our rich traditional Irish Stew with Beef And Guinness, alongside some rustic Irish soda bread for dipping and dunking.

Irish Stew Recipe

Serves – 4

Prep Time – 30 minutes 

Cook Time – approx 3 hours 30 minutes

Total Time – 4 hours

Our Most Popular Alternative – Sausage And Cider Casserole With Colcannon

Equipment Needed

• Chopping Board
• Vegetable Knife
• Tablespoon
• Teaspoon
• Large Dutch Oven style casserole pan
• Cooking spoon
• Plate
• Mixing bowl

Irish Stew Ingredients 

Everything you need to make the most delicious, rich and warming Irish stew with beef and Guinness

• 2 tablespoon butter
• 2lb beef stewing steak (900g)
• 2 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 2 brown onions - chunkily chopped
• 3 large carrots - chunkily chopped
• 4 waxy potatoes - chunkily chopped (we usually use russet potatoes)
• 2 sticks celery - sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 10oz Guinness (approx 300ml)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 beef stock pots - we use the Knorr Rich Beef Stockpots
• 2 cups boiling water
• Pinch salt
• Pinch black pepper

How To Make Irish Stew With Beef And Guinness

Our Irish stew is easy to prepare and once the stew is in the oven, there's no hands-on cooking to do!

Step One - preheat the oven

• Preheat the oven to 300F/150C - you're going to cook this stew long and slow.

Step Two - season and seal the beef steak

• Toss the diced beef stew meat in the flour with a good pinch of salt and cracked black pepper.
• Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the casserole pan, and fry the meat in batches to brown the outside. Then scoop it out of the pan using a slotted spoon and place on a plate at the side.

Step Three - make up the Irish stew

• Next melt the other tablespoon of butter and tip in the onions, carrots and celery. Fry for around 3 minutes in the butter.

• Add the browned meat back in the pan, and stir in the dried thyme, beef stock pots and a tablespoon of brown sugar.

• Then add the chopped potatoes, next pour in the Guinness and add 2 cups of boiling water.

Step Four - cook the stew in the oven

• Give everything a good mix together and bake in the oven for around 3 to 3 ½ hours or until the meat is falling apart and super tender.

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Recipe Tips And Variations

Use Lamb Instead Of Beef - you can swap the beef steak to stewing lamb if you prefer.

Add In More Vegetables - add in some extra veggies if you need to bulk this Irish stew up to feed more. You can add in chopped rutabaga (swede), diced parsnips or even just more potatoes and carrots.

Add In Some Pearl Barley - pearl barley is lovely cooked in a stew - add in around half a cup when you add the stock.

Slow Cooker Irish Stew

Wondering if you can make Irish stew in the slow cooker? Well, yes, you absolutely can! And it's delicious! Here's how...

Okay so, when I'm doing this in the slow cooker it's usually because I'm short on time, and don't want to spend any time on food-prep. So it's quite literally a dump and go recipe.

So, you'll need to adjust the ingredients slightly. You won't need any butter as you don't need to brown the meat. Also it's a good ideas to reduce the liquid and just add in half a cup of boiling water.

Give everything a good mix together and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until the meat is fall-apart tender.

If you need to thicken the Irish stew before serving, make a cornflour slurry and stir it though, cook until the stew thickens a little.

Find All Our Beef Recipes Here

How To Store Leftover Beef Stew

Leftover beef stew can be cooled within 2 hours of making and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Or in a freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before reheating.

Try Our St Patrick's Day Fruit Cups Here

How to Reheat Leftover Irish Beef Stew

To reheat the stew, simply put into a large saucepan on the hob and reheat over a medium heat until the stew is boiling hot and the meat and vegetables reheated through properly right to the centre.

And if you're looking for ideas for things to make with leftover stew - we've got you covered! Check out our favourite ways to use up leftover stew here.

What To Serve With Irish Stew

We like to keep this simple and just serve with lots of crusty bread, thickly buttered! It's delicious dipped in the juices.

But, this Irish stew also tastes great with colcannon, mustard mashed potatoes, cheesy mashed potatoes, proper homemade chips or carrot and swede mash

Get All Our St Patrick's Day Celebration Ideas Here

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More Delicious Stew Recipes To Make 

• Easy Sausage Casserole
• Crockpot Beef Stew
• Chicken And Chorizo Stew
• Beef And Ale Stew
• Pork And Cider Casserole