Guinness Beef Stew is a favorite Irish beef stew recipe in our house. We make this slow cooker beef stew for St. Patrick’s Day every year, and we just can’t get enough. It’s the best Guinness stew recipe and so easy to make in a Crockpot!
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Guinness Beef Stew
Guinness Beef Stew is always a favorite on St. Patrick’s Day. This slow cooker beef stew recipe is so simple and so tasty. The perfect Irish Beef Stew!
Every St. Patrick’s Day, we celebrate with lots of drinks and plenty of good food. This Guinness Stew is a favorite because it’s hearty, tasty, and easy! I mean, what could be easier than a slow cooker beef stew?
This Irish Beef Stew recipe is filled with potatoes, carrots, beef, celery, and plenty of seasoning. It’s absolutely delicious, the perfect blend of flavors. It warms you up and helps balance out all those beers you’re probably drinking on St. Patty’s Day…
Why You’ll Love this Irish Stew Recipe:
- COMFORT: This recipe is SO comforting. There’s noting like a hearty stew to warm you up on a chilly night!
- DEEP FLAVOR: The flavor here is deep, rich, and delicious! Everything comes together perfectly as it cooks.
- CROCKPOT RECIPE: Making Guinness stew in a slow cooker is SO easy. I love a hands-off recipe!
A delicious Irish Stew in a slow cooker, nothing can beat that! Guinness Beef Stew is the perfect dinner for St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas Eve, or any cold evening. Everyone will love this slow cooker Irish Stew!
Irish Beef Stew
I just love the flavor the Guinness stout adds to this slow cooker Irish beef stew recipe. The flavor profile is so deep and rich, which makes for one hearty, easy, and delicious dish! Doesn’t it make you want to gather around a table and enjoy some food with your loved ones? The best part is this recipe has very little prep or cleanup. Have fun with your family instead of working away in the kitchen!
Slow Cooker Guinness Beef Stew
I’m ALL about slow cooker soups and stews. They are one of my very favorite things to make and I cannot get enough! The crockpot is made for comfort food, and this Slow Cooker Guinness Beef Stew is SERIOUS comfort food.
This slow cooker cooker beef stew with onion soup mix, beef, carrots, potatoes and more is filled with flavor. It always warms me right up and makes me feel like I’m wrapped in a warm blanket. I just love the ingredients in this, and I LOVE that you can just set it and let it cook.
Ingredients
- Potatoes: Use red potatoes, cut into quarters.
- Stew Meat: Cut beef up into cubes.
- Beef Broth: This really deepens the flavor!
- Vegetables: Add sliced carrots, celery, and diced onion.
- Guinness: A bottle of Guinness adds a rich flavor to this Irish beef stew.
- Flour: Use flour to brown the meat.
- Onion Soup Mix: This is a mix of things like onion, paprika, and other seasonings. It’s a quick way to get that perfect flavor.
- Tomato Sauce: This fills out the stew, adds flavor, and adds more thickness to the texture.
- Seasoning: We add some garlic powder, dried basil, and of course salt and pepper to help season our stew.
How to Make Guinness Stew in a Slow Cooker
Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!
- Place the potatoes, carrots, and celery into the bottom of your slow cooker and turn it to low heat.
- Then pour the Guinness and beef broth on top, and add in the garlic powder, onion soup mix, basil, and salt and pepper. Stir everything together.
- Now season the beef cubes with salt and pepper, then coat them in flour.
- Heat oil in a skillet and cook the beef. Add in the onions and cook it all for about 5 minutes, so that the onions are translucent and the beef is browned.
- Add the beef and onions into the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients. Stir in the tomato sauce.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours (recommended), or high for 4 hours.
Easy as that! I like to serve this Guinness Beef Stew in large portions with hearty bread and more beer. Because that’s how it’s meant to be done!
The best stew meat is lean, with a lot of connective tissues. So chuck meat (from the shoulder) is your best option. Since it will be simmering for a long time, it will break down nicely and become tender.
Yes, it can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge then reheat to serve.
Flour actually helps to brown the meat better, and it creates a better texture.
Yes, Irish stew is often made with lamb or mutton. So you can use that instead of beef if you prefer. Just follow the same process to brown the meat and then cook everything in the Crock pot.
Flour is generally used to thick soups and stews. I recommend making a slurry first, which means mixing flour with water (or some of the broth), and then adding it into the stew.
Serving Suggestions
This slow cooker Guinness beef stew recipe is SO hearty as it is. It’s filled with beef, potatoes, and veggies, so you won’t need much in the way of side dishes. But I always love having bread on hand to scoop and soak up extra stew. Crusty, hearty slices of bread work great! Or start dinner with a salad. Either way, make sure you have a beer or glass of red wine to go with it!
If you’re looking for more food to make on St. Patrick’s Day, try this Corned Beef and Cabbage, Reuben Casserole, or Corned Beef Sliders.
Tips!
- I recommend cooking this on low heat in your Crockpot, for 8 hours. But if you don’t have time, cook on high for 4 hours.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
What is the difference between Irish Stew and Beef Stew?
Irish Stew is essentially any stew made with a mixture of meat and root vegetables, a popular native dish in Ireland. Traditional Irish Stew is made with mutton, but it’s often made with other types of meat. So this slow cooker beef stew is just another version since it’s made with beef, carrots, and potatoes (also known as Irish Beef Stew).
Do you have to cook the beef before you put it in the slow cooker?
For this Guinness Beef Stew recipe, you should brown the meat before adding it into the slow cooker. You will season the beef, cover it in flour, and then cook it in a skillet along with the onions. This is a good way to prepare it for slow cooking to hold flavor, plus the flour will help make a thicker stew.
That being said, it is not always necessary to cook meat before adding it to the slow cooker, but it’s definitely recommended!
More Crockpot Recipes We Love
Like I said, this Guinness Stew recipe is true COMFORT FOOD! Beef, carrots, potatoes, BEER. So many good flavors coming together in a meal that will warm the soul and make you think of my favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day! Be sure to wear green while eating this Irish Beef Stew!
You’ll love these other soups & stews:
- Philly Cheese Steak Soup in a Bread Bowl
- Crockpot Potato Soup
- Shepherd’s Pie Soup
- Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe
- Loaded Baked Potato Soup
- Easy Beef Tortilla Soup
- Dutch Oven Red Wine Beef Stew
Guinness Beef Stew (Slow Cooker Irish Beef Stew)
Ingredients
- 10 small red potatoes quartered
- 1 14.5 ounce can sliced carrots
- 2 full stalks celery chopped
- 3 lbs stew meat cubed
- 1/2 cup flour
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups diced onion
- 2 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
- 10 ounces beef broth about 1/3 of a large box
- 2 ounces envelope Onion Soup Mix
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 12 ounces 1 bottle Guinness Stout
Instructions
- Put potato, carrot, and celery chunks in the bottom of crock pot on low heat. Pour in beer, beef broth, garlic powder, salt and pepper, soup mix, and basil. Stir to combine.
- Season beef lightly with salt and pepper and then coat in the flour.
- Heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Cook the beef until almost browned, and then add in the onion. Continue turning and browning until the meat is fully browned and the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add meat and onions to the slow cooker.
- Stir in the tomato sauce and cover, heating on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Low is best, but if you don’t have the time, high will work!
- Serve with lots of bread and more Guinness! Enjoy!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
Can I use fresh carrots instead of canned?
Definitely!
The Guinness Beef Stew looks fantastic but I don’t eat beef or pork. Any idea how it might turn out if I substituted chicken meat and broth for the beef?
I think it will be totally fine! haven’t tried it so i’m not totally sure on the cook times but i think it would work out fine and definitely taste great.
Can i leave out the beer or sub with something else?
Sure, you can use low sodium beef or vegetable broth. Enjoy!
I made this yesterday for the school fundraiser and everyone loved it! I made it overnight and then reheated in the slow cooker during the afternoon. The flavours intensified and the meat fell apart. Thanks for my new favourite recipe!
Excited to make this tomorrow. Can I make it in my Dutch oven and then transfer to the oven? If so what temp and how long?
Thank you!
Looks Delish and perfect for a St. Patrick’s Day meal!! I will be sharing your link to this recipe with my facebook page and look forward to starting this stew tomorrow morning and definitely looking forward to tasting it tomorrow night.
Thank you!!
Just popped this in the Slow cooker…. can’t wait till tomorrow!
Although these pictures look gorgeous, I can’t say I’m a fan of this recipe. The ingredient measurement units bounce around (e.g. cups, oz, grams, cans, “envelopes”, etc.) which made it difficult to measure the ingredients properly according to this recipe. The addition of the tomato sauce was also strange- I’ve never known this stew in Ireland to use tomato sauce.
This looks fantastic and just what you need after a hard days work. I will be trying this tonight.
How many servings does this yield? Thx!!