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Guinness beef stew is a hearty, cozy, and easy recipe to make in the Crock pot. This slow cooker Irish Stew is filled with beef, Guinness stout beer, potatoes, veggies, beef broth, and more. It’s a simple dinner to make for St. Patrick’s Day or any winter night that calls for a comforting meal!
What’s in Guinness Stew
This hearty beef stew is made with Guinness, potatoes, onion soup mix, and some other simple ingredients. It all comes together so easily in a Crock pot for a comforting and cozy meal.
- Beef Stew Meat: The best stew meat is lean beef, 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.
- Guinness: A bottle of Guinness adds a rich flavor to this Irish beef stew. You can use another dry stout beer.
- Potatoes: Use small red potatoes, cut into quarters.
- Beef Broth: This really deepens the beefy flavor!
- Vegetables: Add sliced carrots, celery, and diced onion.
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour while browning 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.
Can I make Irish stew with lamb instead of beef?
I love this Guinness stew with beef, but you can absolutely use lamb instead. Traditional Irish stew is often made with lamb or mutton anyways, so it’s a great option. Just follow the same process to brown the meat and then cook everything in the slow cooker.
Flour actually helps to brown the meat better, and it creates a better texture.
Flour is generally used to thicken 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.
Irish Stew is essentially any stew made with a mixture of meat and root vegetables, a popular 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).
For this Guinness Beef Stew recipe, you should brown the meat before adding it into the slow cooker. You will season the beef, coat it with 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.
Guinness is a dry stout beer, which is quite dark and bitter. It tastes great in this stew, but if it’s too intense for your liking, try mixing in a small amount of brown sugar while it simmers in the slow cooker.
How to Store and Reheat
Store leftover Guinness stew in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. It keeps well, and that time in the fridge actually enhances the flavor. So feel free to make this cozy stew ahead of time if needed.
To reheat, you can gently warm it on the stove until fully heated through.
How to Freeze Slow Cooker Irish Stew
Let it cool to room temperature, then pour Irish beef stew into freezer-safe containers. It can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then reheat to serve.
What to Serve with Guinness Beef Stew
This flavorful Crock pot Guinness stew is certainly a full meal on its own, but I never serve it without some hearty bread. It goes well with this beer bread or beer bread muffins, and tastes great with cornbread too. And of course, grab another Guinness to sip on while you eat!
If you make this recipe be sure to upload a photo in the comment section below or leave a rating. Enjoy! You can also jump to recipe.
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.10 small red potatoes, 1 14.5 ounce can sliced carrots, 2 full stalks celery, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 10 ounces beef broth, 2 ounces envelope Onion Soup Mix, 1 teaspoon dried basil, 12 ounces 1 bottle Guinness Stout, salt and pepper to taste
- Season beef lightly with salt and pepper and then coat in the flour.3 lbs stew meat, 1/2 cup flour, salt and pepper to taste
- 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.1 1/2 cups diced onion, 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 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!2 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
- Serve with lots of bread and more Guinness! Enjoy!
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this? Leave a comment!
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!!