Slow Cooker Irish Stew is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or any day. Hearty and delicious!
I am going to start with a disclaimer. I realize this is not authentic Irish Stew. Real Irish Stew is made with Guinness, the national beverage of Ireland. We don’t drink alcohol at our house so I made a substitute for Guinness in this recipe by using more beef broth in it’s place. So for those of you who want an authentic Irish Stew and cook with alcohol feel free to sub out some of the beef broth for Guinness.
Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a special dinner? I never made much of a fuss over St. Patrick’s Day when my kids were little. I use to figure that since I wasn’t Irish, I didn’t need to celebrate. Then a few years ago I took a DNA test and discovered that I was 25% Irish!! Who knew! I figured I better start celebrating.
I know a lot of people like to serve a dinner of all green food for St. Patrick’s Day and if you are looking for some green foods to serve be sure and check out this list of green foods for St. Patrick’s Day. I prefer to celebrate with more “authentic” Irish Food, I am Irish after all. Last year I shared a recipe for Slow Cooker Corned Beef which is always a good option for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. A loaf of Irish Soda Bread goes perfectly with the Corned Beef or with today’s recipe for Irish Stew.
How to Make Irish Stew
I used stew meat for the stew but you could also cut up a chuck roast. I coated the meat in flour, salt and pepper and then browned it in oil. Place the meat in the slow cooker and cover it with a mixture of beef broth (and Guinness if desired), onion, garlic, tomato paste, soy sauce, sugar and some thyme, parsley and bay leaf.
Let it cook on high for four hours and then add in the carrots and potatoes and cook for an additional hour on high.
The stew smells wonderful while cooking and tastes delicious too. It has great flavor. I like putting the carrots and potatoes in for just the last hour so they don’t get too soft but if you need to put them in at the beginning that will definitely work.
Check out more fun St. Patrick’s Day recipes:
Irish Stew Recipe
Slow Cooker Irish Stew
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless beef chuck or stew meat
- 1/2 C all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/4 C canola oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 C beef broth
- 4 tsp chopped garlic
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 lb. red potatoes quartered
- 3 carrots peeled and cut into one inch pieces
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt and pepper in a large zippered plastic bag. Add in meat and toss to coat.
- Heat oil in a large pan over medium high heat and cook meat until browned on all sides.
- Place meat in slow cooker.
- Add onion into same pan that you cooked the meat in and cook until onion is golden brown. Add in beef broth and garlic. Bring to a boil. Scrape up pieces of food from bottom of pan.
- Add in parsley, thyme, bay leaves, sugar, soy sauce and tomato paste.
- Pour mixture over meat.
- Cook on high for 4 hours and then add in potatoes and carrots and cook one additional hour.
Nutrition
Can you do this recipe in an instant pot?
Yes, it should work great. I have an Instant Pot Stew recipe on the blog, you could just use the directions from that recipe.
Thank you so very much for these meal planning tips. I really need this kind of plan, because sometime i get overwhelm and this really HELPS ME. Thank you again and keep them coming.
i hope you enjoy them!
can I do half Guinness and half beef broth and I can do it in crockpot right?
Debbie, Sure you can do half and half and a crockpot is the same thing as a slow cooker.
Thank you Leigh Anne ??????
As a person who can’t have any form of alcohol, I want to assure you that using Guinness Beer will not hurt you and has no alcoholic taste but does enhance all the other flavors. I would use about 1 1/2 tsp of sea salt in place of the soy sauce. I also would cook in a slow cooker for about 6 hrs then add the vegetables to continue cooking for an additional 2-3 hrs as this will ensure the potatoes and carrots are cooked.
Do you think you could cook on low setting for 8 hours with veggies added during last 1 hour of cooking? Thanks!
That should work too
Sounds good! …but if you want to keep it “authentic Irish”, you may want to reconsider the soy sauce… it’s use really never expanded significantly from the orient until after WWII. Highly doubt that it was an Irish staple.
I wouldn’t worry about using Guinness, red wine, or any alcohol in this. It cooks for five hours so there will be zero alcohol left at the end. Besides, Guinness starts with less than 10% alcohol and wine is usually around 13% so it will easily burn off and leave a nice flavor nuance. I wouldn’t hesitate to feed it to my young grandchildren.
I also agree with Thom. Deglazing and incorporating the residue from browning will add even more flavor to it.
The recipe already says to add the broth to the pan and scrape the residue…
The alcohol burns off and leaves a sublime aroma and taste,don`t be afraid.
irish stew should be made with mutton, or pork not beef,
BTW if you heat any alcoholic bearing liquid above 170 degrees the alcohol is flashe off and your left with the essence flavor of the beverage.
The only thing I would add is to deglaze the skillet after browning the meat broth with some of that beef broth and then add it to the crock pot with the meat. If this recipe is a bit too “beefy” tasting, You could use chicken broth or even vegetable broth instead
Looks like a great recipe I will try it on St. Patty Day. Tank you
We always do an all green dinner for St. Patrick’s day. That is my kids’ favorite. This looks divine, though. Perfect for a Sunday dinner. Thanks!