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Quick and easy recipes you can make for your family and friends. Published by Julie Tran Deily

Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker)

Julie Deily · 77 Comments

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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?

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Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) from thelittlekitchen.net
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Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) Recipe

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.
Prep Time 35 minutes
Cook Time 9 hours
Total Time 9 hours 35 minutes
Servings 4 -6

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 salted butter
  • 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

Instructions

  • 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.

Notes

Recipe modified for the slow cooker from Crepes of Wrath.
Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) from thelittlekitchen.net
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Julie of The Little Kitchen

Hi, I'm Julie!

Welcome to The Little Kitchen! I'm Julie and I love to cook, bake, eat and share (not necessarily in that order). I share easy recipes, stories about my family (which includes my pets) and my travels. And I actually do have a little kitchen.

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    1. Vicki Humphries says

      I made this last weekend and we enjoyed every bite.  This smells so good cooking and has an even better flavor!  A perfect beef stew.  Thank you!

      Reply

    4. Claudia Sutherland says

      Made this stew for pre-St. Patrick’s Day dinner and everyone loved it. Had no wine, so added a little more Guinness and broth.  I also added some diced tomatoes and peas during last hour of cooking.  I did drain meat after browning because I was afraid there would be too much fat.  Also forgot bay leaf, but flavor was really good.  Next time will not add as many Russet potatoes.  A really successful stew!

      Reply

    6. Rizzie says

      Do you think substituting venison for beef would work? My boyfriend hunts every year and with me as a vegetarian, the meat doesn’t get used up fast. He loves stews but doesn’t eat too much beef because he also likes sustainable resources. Either way, this sounds delicious!

      Reply

    7. Alyssa says

      Made this for my husband’s late birthday dinner last night and he’s still going on about how delicious it was. Definitely tops my mom’s Irish beef stew!

      Reply

    9. John Dusek says

      I am making this right now, I can’t wait to eat it! I have to really use my will power to not lift the lid. It smells amazing!

      Reply

    11. Ginger stark says

      Thanks for a great recipe. The only issue I had was that I had to skim off almost a whole ramikin-full of fat off the top of the stew once it was cooked. I’ve made many braised dishes and don’t know why this had so much excess fat? I cut up a few beef filets for the meat. Thank you for any input you can provide,

      Reply

    14. Aislinn says

      I have this cooking in my crockpot as we speak and it already smells delicious! Think this will definitely be a repeat – thank you for publishing it!

      Reply

    15. Stella says

      I’ve been really getting away from slow cooker cooking as it seemed to leave everything I tried tasting the same…mushy and flavorless. THIS is the exception! Oh. My. Goodness. My husband even joked (half-joked) that I should make it for Christmas dinner. I even used (gasp) frozen stew vegetables, as I am unreasonably resistant to chopping things up. And I used flour to coat the beef before sauteing, as some suggested. It made the stew really thick and next time I will probably add a dab more wine as it’s cooking. A ten out of ten! Thank you for this recipe.

      Reply

    17. Lcmazzit says

      Wow was this incredible!
      Only thing I did differently was to shake the beef in a bag of flour with salt and pepper, then browned in oil before putting in slow cooker. I also ended up adding more broth-beer-wine as the sauce got very thick. The flavors all melded so well together and we had plenty for leftovers!

      Reply

    21. Ali says

      This is the BEST!!! Followed the recipe to a T. This is the best thing I have ever made. I am very new to cooking so it takes me a long time doing the prep, but it’s always worth it. WONDERFULLY YUMMY!!

      Reply

      • Sherri says

        If it is the alcohol content you are worried about no need….the alcohol itself cooks off….it is safe for alcoholics and children and pregnant women…..enjoy!

        Reply

    25. Lara says

      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!

      Reply

    28. laura says

      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!

      Reply

    30. Paula says

      I made this entirely in my new Cuisinart Multi-Cooker, making it a true one-pot dish. Didn’t have any Guinness, but regular beer worked just fine (I’m sure it’s even better with dark beer, but really, lager still turns out a tasty stew!) Also, I skipped the cornstarch and instead tossed the beef with a couple tablespoons of white whole wheat flour before browning. This was the best stew I have ever made, and I never would have thought to use both wine and beer, or butter. I copied the recipe into my hand-written kitchen journal, which holds my very favorite recipes! Thanks!

      Reply

    32. Jamie says

      I have never made Irish beef stew but I have actually been collecting recipes from all over the place in the hopes of making one. Yours look scrumptious and love the little cocottes…

      Reply

    37. Ashley - Embracing Beauty says

      I spent a few months in Ireland and I wish I had kept more of the recipes I learned there. This looks divine, thank you for sharing!

      Reply

    42. Barbara | Creative Culinary says

      I’m freezing right now and only wish I had some of this in front of me. I don’t care that it’s breakfast time. I want it.

      My slow cooker has become a good friend after a breakup for a couple of years. My recent favorite…cooking a whole bag of onions overnight with butter and having those amazing onions on hand for everything. Eggs for breakfast, on sandwiches, topping steak…so many uses and so easy to do!

      Reply

    50. Carolyn says

      This is so weird, because I swear I commented on this already. But I can’t see my comment. Likely I meant to, and then was distracted by a small child. But this looks so good, I love hearty, flavourful stews like this!

      Reply

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