This Slow Cooker Irish Beef Stew, featuring tender beef, potatoes, and carrots simmered slowly in a hearty stout broth, is ideal for early spring when the days retain a lingering chill and you need a comforting meal. Plus, it's an essential addition to any St. Patrick's Day menu.
A truly hearty dinner, this Slow Cooker Irish Stew showcases stout-braised tender beef in a rich and savory gravy, slowly cooked up all day with potatoes and carrots. This stew is perfect for St. Patrick's Day (along with these Honey and Cumin Roasted Carrots and From-Scratch Pistachio Muffins).
While this recipe does require the bacon and beef to be browned up first on the stove, once that step is complete, the stew goes into the slow cooker to do its thing for half the day, resulting in a pretty simple and full-flavored dinner.
Ingredients Needed and Substitutions
Here is a brief overview of the ingredients needed for this recipe. The full recipe with quantities is listed below this text in the recipe card.
- brisket or boneless chuck roast (see note below for other meat options)
- bacon (this can be omitted if need be)
- onion + garlic
- Irish stout (Guinness is perfect here!)
- baby potatoes (standard yellow potatoes can be substituted by cutting them in quarters)
- carrots
- flour
- tomato paste
- fresh thyme leaves (in a pinch dried thyme can be used)
- beef broth
- honey (regular sugar or brown sugar can be substituted here)
- coarse kosher salt (this recipe was tested using Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt. If you use Morton's kosher salt or fine salt, decrease by about half for volume, or use the same amount by weight.)
The Best Cut of Meat for Irish Stew
The best cut of meat for this slow cooker Irish stew is one that can withstand a long cooking time. Generally speaking, this means a tough cut of meat that will tenderize once braised. Here are my top choices in order:
- brisket
- chuck roast
- rump roast
- bottom round roast
Why Browning the Meat Matters
Browning the meat is key to the flavor of this dish. While I love streamlining steps, skipping this one isn’t worth it. I recommend following the recipe as written for three important reasons.
- Browning the bacon and meat adds deep, rich flavor. As the flour-coated meat cooks, it undergoes chemical changes that enhance the stew’s taste.
- The flour helps thicken the stew, so skipping this step would leave it too thin.
- Adding the Guinness early allows the alcohol to fully evaporate, making the stew safe for everyone to enjoy. Skipping this step may leave residual alcohol, which is fine for grown-ups who are ok consuming it, but obviously not for anybody else (see more on this below).
Step-By-Step Recipe Overview
This is a quick visual overview of the steps needed to make this recipe. If you are looking for the full recipe, keep scrolling!
Step 1: Toss the beef with flour and seasoning.
Step 2: Cook the bacon and then brown the beef.
Step 3: Sweat down onions and deglaze the pan.
Step 4: Transfer all the ingredients to a slow cooker, and cook on low for 7-9 hours.
Is it Okay to Feed this to Kids?
I mean, ultimately whether or not to give your children this Guinness Beef Stew is a personal decision. However, there should be very little (to no) alcohol remaining in the stew since it mostly cooked out. So it's "safe" to give to kids.
You can also temper the amount of Guinness you add to the stew. My kids were not crazy about this stew when I added a full can of stout, so the next time I made it, I added only 1 cup of stout, which still gave it that flavor I was looking for but didn't overwhelm the stew with a Guinness taste. So, adjust accordingly. If you really wanted to, you could replace the stout with beef broth and not add it at all, though the stew won't be as flavorful.
Freezing Instructions
Soups and stews (see Broccoli Cheddar and Bacon Soup and Italian Sausage and Lentil Soup) freeze really well, and this Irish beef stew is no exception!
To freeze this stew, let it cool down completely (first at room temperature, and then in the refrigerator). Then, transfer the beef stew to an air-tight container or plastic bag and freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, let it defrost overnight in the refrigerator and then place the defrosted stew in a pot on the stovetop to heat up.
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Making the recipe? Be sure to leave a comment with a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on your experience! Have a question? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can!
PrintFull Recipe
Slow Cooker Irish Beef Stew
- Prep Time: 00:15
- Cook Time: 07:00
- Total Time: 7 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow-Cooker
- Cuisine: Irish-American
Description
Tender chunks of beef braise all day with potatoes and carrots in a rich stout broth. This Slow Cooker Irish Beef Stew is perfect for early spring, when the days are still chilly, and is a must-make on St. Patrick's Day.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef brisket or boneless chuck roast, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt, plus more for seasoning (see note)
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, plus more for serving
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 cup Guinness or other stout beer (see note)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 12 ounces mini potatoes, halved
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
Instructions
- Add the diced beef to a large bowl. Sprinkle the beef with a big pinch of salt, then add the flour. Toss to coat until the flour is evenly distributed on the meat. Set aside.
- Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy, about 7 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large slow cooker.
- Working in batches, brown the meat on all sides in the leftover bacon fat. Once browned, transfer the beef to the slow cooker with the bacon.
- Lower the heat to medium. Add in the onions and cook until they are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add in the tomato paste, thyme, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper and cook for 30 seconds until the tomato paste has turned a rusty color.
- Deglaze the pot with the beef broth, stout, and honey, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Bring the mixture up to a boil, then shut off the heat.
- Carefully pour the mixture into the slow cooker. Add in the potatoes and carrots and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it’s well combined.
- Cook in the slow cooker on low for 7-9 hours, or until the meat is tender and falling apart.
- Taste and adjust seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.
- Serve warm with extra fresh thyme leaves.
Notes
This recipe was tested using Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt. If you use Morton's kosher salt or fine salt, decrease the volume by half.
Adjust the amount of Guinness in the stew to your taste. Use one cup instead of a can for a less overpowering flavor. You could also replace the stout with beef broth but the stew won't be as flavorful.
Denise Tierney
followed directions. The beef was dry. how to avoid that?
Kelli Avila
Hi Denise. I'm sorry it didn't turn out as expected. How long did you cook it for and what cut of meat did you use? It's pretty tricky to achieve dry tasting meat in the slow cooker until the cut of meat you used was particularly tough without a lot of marbling throughout. Or, if your slow cooker runs very hot. Let me know the answers to those questions and I can help you troubleshoot. -Kelli