Beer Beef Stew
Beer Beef Stew Recipe Video – scroll down for recipe card
It seems like we ate beer beef stew often growing up. My daddy was a beer-hound (Coors Light to point fingers) but the original recipe came from a woman named Katherine Isbell and I only know this because I found the recipe card in my great-grandmother’s collection and it was written on one of those personalized recipe cards that come pre-printed: From the kitchen of . . .
Nobody in the family can tell me now who was Katherine Isbell, but there are a few recipes from her kitchen in the same collection. I can only say they are all delicious.
The dish must be German in origin, or it is in my imagination-land anyway, given the use of beer as braising liquid and the suggestion to serve over egg noodles as is my preference. You will like — even love — this dish if you like beer. Use a mellow beer; too bitter and it overpowers. I’m positive my parents always used Coors, but something dark like Guinness would be grand. If you don’t like beer, you could just use some beef stock (1 1/2 cups) or a mixture of stock and red wine would be fantastic, I think, too.
Edit – A few people have pointed out that Belgium is more likely the land of origin, not Germany.
Serve over buttered egg noodles or rice or classic mashed potatoes. For a vegetable dish, I might suggest Winter salad, or garlic green beans.
Beer Beef Stew Recipe — printable!
Beer Beef Stew
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1” chunks
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1 large onion (about a pound) cut into 1″ chunks
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 can (12 ounce) beer
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- Cooked egg noodles for serving
Instructions
- Toss the beef cubes in the flour to coat.
- Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over high heat and brown the beef cubes on two sides. You may have to do this in two batches.
- Add all other ingredients except noodles. Cover the pot and simmer about 3 hours, stirring and checking on it occasionally.
- Remove the lid and simmer another hour uncovered or partially covered to allow the sauce to thicken.
- Serve over noodles.
66 Comments
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Hey, Hilah, this sounds wonderful! I usually make something like beef stroganoff once a week or so with a nice chuck roast, but this sounds really good and easier than the stroganoff. Good for the slow cooker too, I bet. And, being of German descent, I love the wide flat noodles. My grandmother used to make these from scratch all the time, but I use store-bought. You won my heart with this one!
Yeah, Larry, this totally reminds me of stroganoff. I’ve made those noodles once in my life and they were delicious! Really not too difficult either, but it takes quite a while from start to finish with all the resting periods.
Oh, yeah! This was an old-time fave of my wife’s and mine. I used to make this more when we still had three heavy-eater sons in the house. It’s like a Belgian carbonade flamande. The Belgians are fussy about the beer they use, but we’d use whatever, even Guinness.
We’ve put it over noodles sometimes, but more often over boiled potatoes. Marsha likes carrots, so we’d put big chunks of them in it. That would sweeten the stew up. I think the Belgians finish it off instead at the end with a little sweetener, like vinegar or jelly.
You also could put it in individual casserole dishes and top it with a crust — beef and beer pot pie. We once had it that way for lunch at an inn in the Cotswolds in the UK.
Mmm, you know I don’t think we ever had it over potatoes but I can imagine it’s great! Especially buttery boiled potatoes. Yum. Also love the idea of making a pie out of it. Thanks!
Hilah,
Stop it. Stop making so many friggin delicious recipes that I wanna make right now. JK- please continue! I’ve become obsessed with soups lately, and I love making chili (with Coors Lite, yum), but I haven’t ventured too far into stew-land. This also seems like the perfect 3rd date dinner, if you know what I mean 😉
I’ll never stop!!! Seriously, I do it all for you, Sarah. 🙂
And I think A) Coors lite is a great beer for chili or anything (including drinking; don’t judge!) and B) YES. This is total third-date material.
The kettle is simmering on the stove. Thank you for your videos! Keep it up! Best regards from Norway.
Lucky you, John! I hope you enjoy.
I have been craving beef stew all week, and sure enough you put up this recipe! You read my mind. I have a very fussy eater at home and I love that this has no big chunky veges in the stew. All of the ingredients are at home waiting for my day off tomorrow! Thanks! p.s. Loved your carnitas, Yum!
This should be perfect for your fussy no-veg-eater, Perin! I hope y’all enjoy. 🙂 Thanks for writing!
Turned out fantastic! I was recently in Bologna,Italy and your stew reminded me of the ragu/bolognese sauce there. Especially when I put it over egg pasta!
Ooh, yeah, Perin. Now I want to make some more with tomatoes added… Mmm.
Wow Hilah!I made the beer beef stew for tonight’s dinner. Clean plates all around! My nephew stayed around and chowed down. And it is so easy too. This may replace our stroganoff recipe. YUM!
Hooray! That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing, Terry!
Hey Hilah, I am making this dish for supper tonight! I have a nice 4-lb. beef chuck roast, so I am pretty much quadrupling the recipe (I feed 7+ people nightly here). Resisting the urge to complicate the recipe. It is simmering on the stove now, I will let you know how it turns out. Keep up the good work!
It’s so hard to resist tinkering with things sometimes! Hope it turned out great, Larry, and that you were glad you resisted complications. 😉
I’m making this as I speak Hilah! It smells absolutely delicious! I can’t wait until its done!
Thanks William! Hope you enjoyed it.
No doubt that it is very good. But stew? Not quite from where I come from. Stew needs a good amount of potatoes, carrots and other veggies to. Onion, Garlic always. Any other veggies that need to be used to. For every person that cooks, you might get 5 different(or more) recipes for stew.
For a faster cooking stew or other stew type meal, I like to use Chuck Roast cut into bite size pieces. In my experience, stew meat bought from the store is from a round roast or steak. Round takes a long time to get tender and is not as good as chuck meat browned and rendered fat removed.
I’ve tried using round for stew, chili, roasted and sliced thin for sandwiches and have not been pleased with the results. I’ve given up. Round is for jerky only to me.
For a bread to have with the stew, try frozen bread rolls. Let them rise to 3 times the size, rather then double. Yummy and delicious with butter melting on them as you eat them. If you get pregnant, don’t blame me. 🙂
Well the great thing about it is that you can add whatever you want! 😉 And now you have me craving fresh bread. Yum!
Wow, I am normally a terrible cook but I followed the video and it came out great. My kids thank you!
Yay! Good job, Marie! And thanks for the feedback.
Hey Hilah, how do you make Mac en Cheese with chili? I mean I cant just dump some chili over MAC en Cheese…Strouffers TV dinner makes that. But how do you really make it?
Oh man, Jason, I hate to break it to you but it really is just M&C with some chili mixed in. 🙂 Anyway that’s what it was when I was a kid; my dad made it with boxed Kraft and a can of Wolf chili and I LOVED that shit. Like, I was in love with it.
Now, though, I do it one of two ways: if I have leftover chili , I’ll just cook some short pasta, drain it, add the chili and as much grated cheese as I have (basic ratio is like 2 cups cooked pasta, 1 cup chili, 1 cup grated cheese) and stir it together over low heat in a sauce pan until the cheese is melted. Yum.
If I don’t have leftover chili, I’ll saute onion, garlic, tomatoes, meat, sometimes beans, and spices until I have a sort of chili-flavored marinara sauce, then throw that over some pasta with a shit ton of grated cheddar.
Probably you already know this, but maybe others do not. In Cincinnati, they have what is called a 5 way chili. A 5 way, is chili with beans, onions and shredded cheddar over spaghetti. I am guessing the onions are chopped and put on top of the chili. They put on a mound full of cheese on top. It is not really mac n cheese as we know it, but certainly a good dish.
I know you Texans think “if you know beans about Chili, you know Chili has no beans”. In fact, some take it further and do not want any tomato product in it either. No diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, tomato puree or sauce. Maybe some tomato paste to help thicken it up. It is all about beef and peppers.
I got a story about a guy that was invited at the last minute to be a judge at a Texas Chili Cook Off. If you are interested, send me an e-mail address to send it to. I am pretty sure you will enjoy it.
Thanks, Harold! I’d heard of 5 way chili, but wasn’t exactly sure what it was. Sounds really good.
you can email me at hilahcooking at gmail (dot com)
Hilah, I made this tonight and IT WAS OUTSTANDING. Not to mention easy as hell. I made it with Michelob Ultra and that seemed to work out. I did add a teensy bit of thyme and some mushrooms to it, but otherwise no changes at all. 😀 <3333 You have filled my belly well.
Yay!! Yep, I think any beer works fine. The thyme and shrooms sound very good together. Thank you! 🙂
Hi Hilah!
I’ve just discovered your channel and I have to say… I just love your stuff!!!!!
My daughter is moving out on her own and cooking has become more of a topic nowadays, although we’ve been cooking together for some time. I’m surely going to suggest she bookmarks your page/videos so she can learn from you.
Thank you so much! I know you’ll be a great help to her (and me too!)
Thanks, Cy! That is wonderful that your daughter is on her own and cooking now! I’m so honored to be a part of it. 🙂
Hilah, this is amazing recipe! I love beef stew dishes, my ultimate favourite was boeuf bourguignon from Julia Child’s till I made your beer beef stew. It’s so tasty and so incredibly easy! I added some mushroom last hour just as you suggested and some thyme (love thyme+garlic+mashroom combo) and the portion for 4 was gone within 15 min (just me and my boyfriend). Thank you a lot, today I am making pork tenderloin with apricot sauce!
Hooray, Veronika!!! This makes me so proud! So glad to hear y’all liked it. 😀 It is just amazing how good this is. The power of time I guess (and thyme!)
Thanks for writing!
-h
Hey Hilah!
I was wondering, do you think it would be possible to do this in a covered casserole dish in the oven? I’d love to try it out 🙂
Lane (loving your show all the way from Australia)
Hi Lane!
Sure! I think that would work fine. You might end up with more — and thinner — gravy at the end but it should work just like a slow cooker. I’d suggest 300ºF for maybe 3-4 hours. If you use this technique often, though, you probably have a better idea than I do for temperature and time. It’s so hot here most of the year I try to avoid turning on the oven at all costs!
Thanks for writing!
-hilah
Hi Hilah, I believe beer stew originally came from Belgium, the land of 2000 beers! I am currently living there. They usually use a dark beer to make it and serve it over frites…thick fries, which also originated here. My family loves it and being from Louisiana, we eat it with rice. By the way, I am Curtis Clarke’s sister. Thanks so much for highlighting his oysters contraband and Evangeline Cafe. Loved it! He is living his dream! After seeing that, I liked you page and really enjoy your recipes and videos. I love cooking and using and tweaking old family recipes too. You are awesome and funny!
Hi Susan!
It’s great to hear from you! Thank you for clearing up the origin of this recipe. Putting it over frites sounds marvelous … and dangerous. 😉 And a bit like Canadian poutine. Interesting.
We are super happy to hear that you enjoyed the episode on Evangeline. Curtis is a great guy and a fun person to interview. Plus, the food is absolutely outstanding. Everybody wins!
Thanks so much for writing. Hope to hear from you again!
-hilah
Thanks for a great recipe. I too love your show.
It’s Labor Day and the stew be a cookin’ !
Thanks again.
Alright! Perfect. Happy Labor Day, Terry!
Good comfort food, a most excellent adventure in this tour of Hilah’s kitchen.
Hope you try it, Pier!
if I want to do this in my slowcooker, should I cook it on high or low and for how long?
I never cooked meat before, because I don´t know how to do it, so I am a bit excited 😀
thank you!
Hi Malin!
I prefer to cook things on low in a slow cooker, if you have time.
For this, go ahead and use the flour on the meat, do the browning step of the meat, then put the meat and onions into the slow cooker. Use the beer to deglaze the pot you browned the meat in, then scrape all the beer and pan sauce into the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours or on high 4-5 hours. Good luck!
thank you Hilah! I just cooked pork chops (or I think it was pork chop, not really sure what it´s called here in sweden). I followed your recipe, and I loved it!! super easy to do! I don´t know why I´ve been so afraid to cook meat before. tomorrow I´m gonna do the beer stew thing.
I’m creeping up on hour one of simmering, so excited. I’ve decided to take your advice and add mushrooms for the last hour and fresh green beans were on sale so they’re joining the party too. This seriously only cost me like 14 buck, so my wallet thanks you especially after the holiday beat down it took. I love that all your recipes are salary friendl, it let’s me try new things and not break the bank. Best wishes for the New Year!
Oh it’s gonna be so good! I wish I had that for dinner instead of this juice fast dinner I’m having. 😉
Hi Hilah,
I tried to make this yesterday, and 2 hours after allowing the stew to simmer I checked on it to find that it had burned! I had the stove on very low heat, and followed the recipe. Do you know why this happened? The stew looks absolutely delicious, and I’d love to get it right 🙂
Thank you!
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that, Nicolle. I hope you were able to salvage some of it.
I’m going to add a note in the recipe to check/stir it occasionally. Not all stoves’ “low” heat is the same (do you have gas or electric? I think low electric is hotter than low gas, most of the time) and if you use too thin a pot, it can burn (aluminum pots are bad about that).
Again, sorry to hear this! Hope you do try it again.
The sauce is so luscious and deep colored, Hilah! You made this perfectly! It looks fantastic and tasty, plus it could accept the addition of other ingredients (like mushrooms) or spooned on/alongside other things like mashed potatoes.
Thanks, Connie! Yes, the stewy part is just marvelous, and quite flexible. I need to make myself a pot this weekend.
This looks amazing!! I’d love to try it but I have a really stupid question for you. We aren’t beer drinkers at all…could I possibly substitute that for something else? Beef broth, maybe?
Hey Heather!
Yep, broth or red wine would be good, or a combination of both!
Oh, great idea. Thank you!! Can’t wait to try it. 🙂
If I wanted to add potatoes, carrots, green beans, etc., when should I add them to the pot? The last hour? I love the recipe by the way! It’s my go to meal now when I want something super easy and delicious.
Hi Robby!
The last hour would be good for potatoes and carrots, maybe the last 45 minutes for green beans so they stay a little green and crisp. Happy to hear this recipe has made its way into your repertoire! 🙂
Trying this tomorrow….maybe add some red bell peppers to it. Lets see how it goes….
Hi Hilah, we tried this recipe and the meat was delicious, but my husband likes gravy (lots of it!) What would you recommend I add to make more gravy?
Hi Nancy!
You can add some beef or chicken stock if you want to increase the volume. I wouldn’t add much more beer for fear it would overpower everything else.
Thanks Hilah! I will made it again soon.
Hi, Hilah:
My mother makes this also. I think her recipe also specifies Coors. She always served it over an english muffin, but I’ll have to try it over noodles.
Thanks for the recipe
Interesting! We never had it on an English muffin but why not?! 🙂
After your YouTube video, this is my dish. Still making it to today. Thanks
I love this recipe!
Made today. Didn’t put onions in because I like to share Sunday dinner with my dog Michael. The beef was SO tender. Super easy and yummy, also inexpensive. Thanks so much.
So glad to hear, Tracey! This is a family favorite stew recipe for sure!
Looks delicious. I would like to make this in an Insta Pot. Do you have a recommendation on times.
I would use the stew setting, which is I think 30 mins on high