Irish Guinness Beef Stew

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

6 Comments

5 from 1 vote
8 Servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
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Irish Guinness Beef Stew is a traditional Irish pub food made with chuck roast, potatoes, vegetables, and a warm broth flavored with Guinness beer.

This easy Dinner Recipe is just as hearty and comforting as Classic Beef Stew, but the beer base makes it even richer and helps to tenderize the beef as it cooks.

Irish Beef Stew in pot with ladle

IRISH GUINNESS BEEF STEW

Irish Beef Stew really is the ultimate winter stew recipe. It’s perfect to serve for family dinner with a piece of crusty bread or Dinner Rolls for dipping. My personal favorite way to enjoy this stew is heating up leftovers a day or two after and enjoying a bowl while curled up in a blanket on the couch. There’s nothing cozier!

Irish Beef Stew is also the perfect recipe to make for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s an iconic Irish recipe and everyone is sure to love the tender meat, potatoes, and flavorful broth. The alcohol cooks right out of the beer so Guinness Stew is great for the whole family to enjoy.

The stew is also easy to make in one dutch oven. Most of the cooking time is just a matter of letting the hearty ingredients simmer together. It makes an easy holiday dish for St. Patrick’s Day that you don’t have to spend too much time worrying about or prepping. This is an easy one-pot meal that’s sure to become a go-to comfort food recipe. Of course, if you’d rather, you can also find slow cooker and instant pot instructions for this stew recipe below.

MORE SOUP AND STEW RECIPES

WHY COOK WITH BEER?

There are lots of recipes apart from Irish Beef Stew that use beer to prepare the meat. Some great ones to give a try are Beer-Braised Pot Roast and Beef and Beer Chili.

Cooking meat, specifically beef, with Guinness or other beers makes wonderfully tender, rich, and flavorful dishes.

The meat absorbs some of the liquid around it while it cooks. The Guinness seeps into the meat to make it fork tender and adds an earthy, rich taste that goes perfect with the other ingredients.

Guinness is a classic Irish beer that tastes great in stew, but you don’t have to use Guinness. Other stout beers will work well in Irish Stew. You just want to use a dark beer to get the right deep and rich flavor in the broth and meat.

Irish Beef Stew ingredients in pot

VARIATIONS ON IRISH GUINNESS BEEF STEW

  • Guinness replacements: If you want to experiment with the flavor or just don’t have beer you can replace the Guinness in the Irish Stew with other ingredients. Use red wine, chicken broth, mushroom stock, apple juice, coke, root beer, or just extra beef broth in the Guinness Stew. If you need a gluten-free Beef Stew recipe you’ll need to replace the stout.
  • Add-ins: For some add-ins to the stew try red onion, flat-leaf parsley, or parsnips. To make the Guinness Beef Stew recipe slightly sweet try mixing in some brown sugar with the stew.

SLOW COOKER IRISH GUINNESS BEEF STEW

  • Start by adding vegetable or olive oil to a large skillet over high heat.
  • Season your beef with salt and pepper and cook it on all sides until the beef is browned.
  • Add the chopped onion and celery to the skillet.
  • Once the onion is fragrant move the browned meat and onions to your crock pot.
  • Add in the chopped carrots, potatoes, broth, Worcestershire sauce, and Guinness to the crock pot.
  • Set the slow cooker to high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours before serving slow-cooked Irish Beef Stew.

INSTANT POT IRISH GUINNESS BEEF STEW

  • Add oil to the base of your instant pot and set it to sauté mode.
  • Brown the beef on all sides. You may need to do this in batches.
  • Add the onions to the beef and sauté until fragrant.
  • Pour in the broth, Worcestershire sauce, Guinness beer, carrots, and potatoes into the instantpot.
  • Seal the instant pot and pressure cook for 25 minutes.
  • Allow to naturally release for 10 minutes before manually releasing the rest of the pressure.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH IRISH GUINNESS BEEF STEW

HOW TO STORE IRISH GUINNESS BEEF STEW

  • Serve: Don’t leave this Guinness Stew Recipe at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
  • Store: You can store Irish Beef Stew recipe in the fridge for 3-4 days. Be sure to let it cool to room temperature and seal it in an airtight container.
  • Freeze: Keep Beef Stew in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can put it in a freezer bag or other airtight container. Let the stew thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating it.

Irish Beef Stew in bowl

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Dinner, then Dessert

Irish Guinness Beef Stew

Irish Guinness Beef Stew is a traditional Irish pub food made with chuck roast, potatoes, vegetables, and a warm broth flavored with Guinness beer.
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine Irish
Author Sabrina Snyder
Irish Beef Stew in bowl
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Ingredients
 

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 pounds chuck roast , cut into 1" chunks
  • 1 yellow onion , cut into 1/2" chunks
  • 3 stalks celery , sliced
  • 2 carrots , sliced
  • 2 pounds russet potatoes , cut into 1" cubes
  • 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 4 cups beef broth
  • 12 ounces Guinness Beer
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons dried thyme

Instructions

  • Add oil to a large pot or dutch oven on high heat.
  • Season beef with salt and pepper and cook until slightly browned about 6-8 minutes.
  • Add in the onion, celery, and carrots and stir well.
  • Add broth, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce to low heat and cook for 30 minutes, then add in the potatoes and cook an additional 30-40 minutes until beef is tender.

Nutrition

Calories: 366kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 78mg | Sodium: 1190mg | Potassium: 1056mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 2639IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 4mg

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Irish Guinness Beef Stew collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I know you said you prefer crock-pot over instapot for this meal but have you cooked it in the Dutch oven as listed above or would you still prefer crockpot? Thanks so much! Looks delicious.

    Reply

    1. Oops, sorry for the confusion. This recipe actually calls for a Dutch oven but I did give crock pot and instapot recipes for those who didn’t wish to use their Dutch oven.

      Reply

  2. Hi Sabrina,

    For the Instant Pot version, is it pressure cook on “HIGH”? Also, do you find it just as good in the Instant Pot or should I do the slow cooker instead? Lastly, which one do you recommend for St Patrick’s Day, this recipe or your Slow Cooker Guiness Beef Stew recipe?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    1. I’m slightly obsessed with the slow cooker so I usually go that route just because that’s what I’m used to. You really can’t go wrong with either recipe.

      Reply

  3. I made the instant pot version. I have an 8 quart so added a little extra of everything to get more servings. It was delicious! My family gobbled it right up. I will definitely make this again.

    Reply