Hearty and Satisfying Beef Stew with Guinness

The stout in this Beef Stew with Guinness adds a rich flavor to traditional beef stew.

The first thing I noticed about the recipe is there are no potatoes in it. Beef stew with no potatoes? Weird. If you want to leave them out, you can serve this over noodles (kind of like Boeuf Bourguignon) or with a nice thick slab of hearty bread like the One Hour Whole Wheat Bread. This time, I did not reduce the liquid and added about two cups of cut potatoes. My guys like it that way.

The only other thing I did differently was to save the fat when I was cutting up the meat. I rendered it (chop it in to small bits, put it in the pan and melt it, remove the crunchy parts when done and discard or eat – yum!) and used that in place of the oil to add some extra beefy flavor.

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Beef Stew with Guinness

Beef Stew with Guinness - hearty beef stew made with Irish stout. 

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef stew meat or chuck roast cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons oil divided use
• 2 tablespoons flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 2 onions coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic crushed
• 1 can diced tomatoes with juice 14 1/2 ounce size
• 1 bottle Guinness or other stout
• 2 cups carrots coarsely chopped
• sprig fresh thyme
• fresh parsely chopped

Instructions

1. Remove any fat or gristle from the meat before cutting into cubes. Toss the meat with 1 tablespoon of oil. Combine flour, salt, pepper and cayenne in a small bowl and dredge the meat in the mixture, covering all side of each cube. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil at high heat in large, deep cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. Brown meat on all sides.
2. Add onions, crushed garlic and tomatoes, bring to a boil; then reduce heat and simmer until the tomatoes and juice are reduced to about half. Pour the Guinness into the skillet and bring back to a boil.
3. Add carrots and thyme. Stir and adjust the seasonings. Reduce heat and simmer over low heat for about 2 ½ hours. Serve with parsley sprinkled over top.

VARIATIONS

1. Substitute 2 tablespoons tomato puree dissolved in 4 tablespoons water for the canned tomatoes. Add the Guinness at the same time and continue the cooking, skipping the process to reduce the canned tomatoes and juice.

2. May be placed in a 300° oven (no preheating required) in the skillet or an oven proof casserole for 2 to 3 hours, or cooked in a crock pot on low for 8 to 10 hours.

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Until next time, happy eating.

~Audrey