Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker)
I love slow cooker recipes and when I saw this Drunken Irish Stew on Sydney’s site, Crepes of Wrath, I knew I wanted to make a slow cooker version of it. Who doesn’t love a beef stew? And a beef stew made in a crockpot is a winner! Serve it with a small salad and some crusty bread and you have comfort food and the perfect Sunday dinner on a cold night.
I had to resist opening the slow cooker every hour…the house smelled so good, it took all I could muster to not make a bowl before the 6 or 7 hours was up.
I put all of the veggies in the my crockpot first, then add the meat after it’s browned. Next, the broth you simmered on the stove along with two bay leaves.
The result is a nice medley of tender beef, wonderfully flavored veggies and the broth is so flavorful with both beer and red wine. This is a winner and is going to make it into our regular rotation!
Do you have a slow cooker favorite or a favorite beef stew recipe?
Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) Recipe
Yield: 4-6
Prep Time: 35 min
Cook Time: 9 hours
Total Time: 9 hours 35 minutes
A slow cooker beef stew that's easy to prepare. Full of flavor from the beef broth, red wine and Irish beer; the ultimate comfort food.
Ingredients:
2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch pieces, approx. 2 cups
2 lbs baby red potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch pieces, approx. 2 cups
4 stalks celery, chopped, approx. 1 1/2 cups
4-5 carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, approx. 2 cups
1 medium yellow or white onion, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 3/4 lbs stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp butter, I used Kerrygold salted
2 cups low sodium beef broth
3/4 cup red wine
3/4 cup Guinness
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp cornstarch + 1 Tbsp water
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Place the chopped vegetables into the crockpot. Rinse the meat and pat dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper the beef.
In a large, heavy bottomed skillet, heat olive oil at medium to medium-high heat. Add beef to the pan and brown on all sides, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for one minute, do not burn the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the beef and add to the crockpot on top of the vegetables
Turn the skillet back up to medium heat. To the skillet, add butter until it's melted. Add beef broth, red wine, beer, tomato paste, sugar, soy sauce and thyme. Using a wooden spoon, stir the liquids as well as scrape the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, allow to boil for at least two minutes. Then lower heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add cornstarch and water and stir together.
Pour broth mixture into the crockpot over vegetables and beef. Add bay leaves and cook on high for 4-6 hours or 6 to 9 hours on low.
Skim the fat from the stew, if needed, before serving.
Cook's notes:
You can buy a chuck roast or round cut (except top round). I actually looked this up on this site in the store on my iPhone. But then, I opted to buy stew beef already cut up by my grocer's meat department because I needed less than 2 pounds.
Recipe modified for the slow cooker from Crepes of Wrath.
Disclosure: There are a couple of affiliate links in this post. What does this mean? If you click on the link and make a purchase, I’ll make enough to buy a cup of coffee…so thanks!
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Hi, my name is Julie and I love to share the cooking and baking adventures from my little kitchen. Cooking and baking is in my blood, thanks to my Mom! 
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We made this great recipe for a fun Irish themed book club meeting and everyone loved it. Thank you. Here’s a link. http://www.cathyhecknurseryart.com/blog/2012/03/a-lucky-st-patrick’s-day-dinner-with-friends/
JulieD replied: March 19th, 2012 @ 8:36 am
Looks like so much fun! Thank you for sharing, Cathy!
i’ve used this recipe (or variations of it) many times. it’s wonderful and since i just pinned it, i thought i’d leave you some fan mail. i get hungry just THINKING about this wonderful stew! i do leave out the soy sauce and sugar, usually. and i dredge the beef in flour as it makes the sauce a little thicker. but really, as someone else said, this is perfection. thanks!
Oh this looks great for fall! Bookmarking this one!
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Made this last night and it went over very well. Will be making this again
Made this for dinner tonight. I’m a slow kitchen prep person, so it probably took me an hour and a half to hour and 45 mins just to get everything into the crock pot. I warned my husband (the beef stew connoisseur) that, even if it sucked, he had to pretend it was delicious, but even if it really WAS delicious, he was going to have to accept the fact that he will never have it again (we have a toddler and our second baby is due in March – I am this a low maintenance recipe gal these days).
Well. It looks like I will be making it again anyway (maybe time to figure out how to use my cuisinart to chop all those veggies?), because we both think it might be the most amazing thing we’ve ever eaten. That is one damn delicious stew.
Oh – I made a couple (mostly accidental) modifications: I had a heavy hand w measuring the veggies and also did an extra onion, just because we like those a lot, so I didn’t have enough liquid in the pot. Ended up dumping an extra can of beef broth in there and an extra tablespoon or so of cornstarch (dissolved in water first).
And I wasn’t sure – when I finished searing the meat, there was a lot of liquid in the pan. Not sure if I used too much oil (didn’t measure) or what, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to drain it or dump that liquid in the crock pot or melt the butter into that liquid or what. Ended up draining most of the liquid, dumping the rest of the liquid in the crock pot with the meat, and melting the butter in the dry pot. Was that right?
Anyway – longest comment ever! But thanks for the recipe – that’s a definite keeper!
I just want to find those little crock pot how cute!
can i substitute the beer and wine for anything???
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This looks soo good! Can’t wait to try it! Thanks!