Slow Cooker Recipe: Irish Beef Stew Made with Guinness Stout

Beef stew is one of the true comfort foods of winter. Help warm up guests at your St. Patrick's Day party with this hearty and extremely tasty Irish stew recipe that uses Guinness Stout to give it both its original flavor and dark, rich gravy.

Here's what you'll need:

- 2 lbs beef stew meat, well trimmed and cut into 2 inch cubes

- 2 to 3 tbs flour (use Wondra if it's available to you - makes a smoother gravy)

- 2 tbs olive oil

- 1 tspn butter

- 2 large bay leaves

- 1 large onion (yellow or Spanish)

- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped fine

- 1 tspn thyme (½ tspn chopped if using fresh)

- 1 tspn rosemary (½ tspn chopped if using fresh)

- ½ cup beef stock (do not use bouillon)

- 1 cup Guinness Stout*

- 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

- 4-5 small potatoes, red or Yukon gold, cubed with the peels left on

- Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Evenly coat the meat with the flour.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil and butter - allow to melt. When a drop of water sizzles once dropped in the skillet, the pan is ready to have the meat added. Brown each side of the meat without allowing it to stick. Add the bay leaves and allow the meat to cook for another 1-2 minutes, then remove the meat from the pan, but keep the bay leaves in. Place the beef cubes in a crock pot.

Add the onion, garlic, thyme, and rosemary to the skillet and sauté until the onions just begin to soften and the edges turn slightly golden. Remove everything from this pan by pouring the contents over the meat that's been placed in the slow cooker.

Return the skillet to the stove and pour in half of the beef stock to deglaze the pan. Remove this and pour it over the contents of the crock pot along with the rest of the beef stock and then add the Guinness Stout.

Finally, layer the carrots then the potatoes over the ingredients already on the slow cooker and add salt and fresh cracked pepper to suit your taste.

Cook for 4-5 hours on high heat, or 8 hours on low.

This Irish stew recipe is best served with fresh made Colcannon as a great side dish.

*Typically Guinness Stout is found on tap at pubs and microbrew houses. It sometimes can be found at liquor or package stores, bottled in six-packs. If you have trouble locating it, or don't want to buy a whole six-pack, try your local hotel bars which will often let you buy just one bottle. It's a bit pricier this way, but the end taste is definitely worth every penny! Also, if you normally don't really like to drink rich, dark types of beer, don't worry - the addition of Guinness Stout adds so much to the flavor, and there's really no taste of "beer" in the final dish.