This Irish Beef Stew with Guinness is a hearty, delicious dinner and is so easy to do! Tender beef, carrots and potatoes simmer slowly on the stove in a delicious broth that includes Guinness Beer.
This rich Irish Beef Stew with Guinness is delicious comfort food at its best. It’s a hearty meal that’s full of delicious flavor and also easy to make!
This beef stew is comprised of tender cuts of beef, carrots, and potatoes in a delicious, thick gravy. The gravy gets its deep, rich flavor from Guinness and there is nothing like it!
While it does take time to make as it simmers slowly on the stove, it doesn’t require a lot of effort on your part. It’s the slow simmer on the stove that draws out the best flavor from the ingredients and makes for the most tender, flavorful beef and broth.
Whether you are making this to warm up to on a cold day or to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, this stew is always a winner. If you are adding this to your St. Patty’s Day menu, make sure to follow it up with Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes for the perfect meal.
I love to serve this stew up as it is with a hunk of crusty bread to soak up all that delicious gravy. Another great option is to ladle this over Creamy Whipped Potatoes (if you do that, you can omit the potatoes in the stew itself).
Ingredients in Irish Beef Stew with Guinness
- Olive oil: used to brown the beef and saute the onions.
- Beef meat: chuck roast, round roast, or any other slow cooking beef cut, trimmed of excess fat and chopped into bite-sized cubes.
- Onion: diced.
- Flour: all purpose flour is used to make a roux with the oil to thicken the broth and make it a thick, gravy.
- Guinness stout: Adds flavor to the broth. You can also substitute a different stout if you wish to.
- Beef stock: Use a good quality beef stock or beef broth to give good flavor to the soup.
- Carrots: peeled and cut into bite size pieces.
- Yellow potatoes: cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Tomato puree: You can substitute tomato passata or tomato paste that has been thinned out with water.
- Seasoning: Dried thyme, bay leaf, fresh parsley (for garnish), salt, and black pepper.
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to Make Irish Beef Stew
- Season the beef. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
- Brown the beef. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat. You will need to batch cook the beef, so add only half of the beef to the pot (or less depending on the size of your pot). Cook, flipping the beef cubes to brown all sides. Remove the beef and set aside. Add more oil if needed and repeat with the remaining beef. Remove beef.
- Saute onions and create a roux. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and heat it over medium heat in the dutch oven or soup pot. Add the onions and saute for 2 minute to soften. Stir in the flour to coat the onions, adding more oil if needed.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Add the beef stock, Guinness, and tomato puree to the pot. Carefully return the beef to the pot as well as the carrots and potatoes. Ensure that everything is submerged in the liquid. If it is not, add more stock of water.
- Simmer slowly. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low to simmer. Cover with a lid and let simmer on the stove for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Serve. Remove the bay leaf and adjust seasonings if needed. Spoon into bowls and garnish with chopped parsley.
Possible Variations
While I love this Irish stew as it is, there are a few things you can do to tweak the recipe and change things up!
- Make it gluten-free. If you wish to make this stew gluten-free, you can replace the flour roux with a cornstarch slurry instead. Simply omit the flour in the recipe. Then, when the stew is almost finished, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with a small amount of water to make a slurry. Then stir the slurry into the stew. As it heats up, continue stirring until the broth thickens. Depending on how thick you want your stew, you can add more cornstarch slurry to reach your desired consistency.
- Make it thicker. Depending on how thick you want your stew, you can use the idea of a cornstarch slurry in the variation above to make your stew even thicker.
- Add more vegetables. Feel free to add your favorite veggies to the stew if you like. Celery, peas, and mushrooms are good options but you can certainly make it your own with personal favorites.
- Add more flavor. Fry up some bacon or adding a splash of Worcestershire sauce can add a deeper flavor to the stew.
Storing leftovers and reheating
Once cooled completely, this Guinness beef stew can be transferred to an airtight container and stored in the fridge. To reheat it, place it back in a soup pot and heat it over medium-low heat until warmed through.
Can you freeze this Irish stew?
If you plan on making this with the thought of freezing portions of it, I would make a tweak to the recipe for the best results.
If possible, I would omit the potatoes from the stew itself as potatoes don’t freeze well (they become grainy). Instead, you can ladle the soup over mashed potatoes when you serve it.
To freeze the stew, place it in a freezer safe container. It will keep in the freezer for a couple of months. When you want to enjoy it, thaw the stew in the fridge overnight. Then transfer it to a soup pot to heat through over medium-low heat.
Whether you are enjoying this Irish Beef Stew with Guinness for St. Patty’s day or to warm up to on a cold day, I hope you enjoy this comforting stew! I highly recommend following up this delicious meal with a Guinness flavored dessert too. My Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are always a hit!
I hope you enjoy this meal!
-Cathy
Looking for more hearty stews to enjoy? Be sure to check out:
Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Stew
Greek Okra Stew Recipe (Bamies Latheres)
Irish Beef Stew with Guinness
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 lbs beef chuck roast, round roast, or any other slow cooking beef cut, trimmed of excess fat and chopped into bite-sized cubes
- salt and pepper
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 bottle Guinness stout
- 4 cups beef stock
- 4 large carrots peeled and cut into bite size pieces
- 1 1/2 lbs yellow potatoes cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup tomato puree
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Season the beef with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat. You will need to batch cook the beef, so add only half of the beef to the pot (or less depending on the size of your pot). Cook, flipping the beef cubes to brown all sides. Remove the beef and set aside. Add more oil if needed and repeat with the remaining beef. Remove beef.
- Add 1 tablespoon of oil and heat it over medium heat in the dutch oven or soup pot. Add the onions and saute for 2 minute to soften. Stir in the flour to coat the onions, adding more oil if needed.
- Add the beef stock, Guinness, and tomato puree to the pot. Carefully return the beef to the pot as well as the carrots and potatoes. Ensure that everything is submerged in the liquid. If it is not, add more stock of water.
- Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low to simmer. Cover with a lid and let simmer on the stove for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the bay leaf and adjust seasonings if needed. Spoon into bowls and garnish with chopped parsley.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
