Beef stew with beer, Dutch oven or slow cooker
- Preparation 50 min
- Cooking 4 h
- Servings 6
- Freezing Absolutely
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🍂 One of the first recipes I ever put online
This one goes back to the very beginning of Le Coup de Grâce. It started as a slow cooker recipe and it turned into an oven recipe later on. Both versions are still here, because the thing is just that good. It fills the house with smell for four hours, it feeds a family, it makes lunches all week, and my kids ask for it by name. The alcohol cooks off over the long braise. Nobody has ever had an issue with it.
🍖 A Belgian-style dubbel does the heavy lifting
The beer I use is a Belgian-style dubbel: a strong dark ale around 8%, round, with caramel, clove and dark fruit. That choice matters more than people think. When you braise with beer, the dish does not end up tasting like beer. The aromas run alongside the browning on the meat and push it deeper. Skip the IPA. Four hours of reduction concentrates bitterness and it will wreck the sauce.
🥘 Dutch oven or slow cooker, pick your day
I like the oven. 350°F (175°C), lid on, three and a half to four hours, and the smell alone is worth the afternoon. But the slow cooker is a great tool when you are gone all day: LOW for eight hours and supper is waiting for you. One rule either way. Brown the beef in batches in a hot pan first, and caramelize the vegetables in the same fat. No shortcut there.
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🥩 The secret is the meat you buy
Pre-cut stew cubes at the grocery store are usually a pretty ordinary piece of beef. That is where most stews are lost, before anything even hits the pan. Buy a better cut, or ask the butcher to cut chuck fresh for you, and you start with tenderness instead of chasing it for four hours. Better meat, better stew. Season it hard too. An underseasoned stew tastes like nothing no matter how long it cooks.
🔥 Brown in small batches, hot pan, hands off
You want the beef to sear, not to boil. Crowd the bottom of the pot and the cubes release their water and turn grey. Small batches, medium-high heat, and leave them alone for three or four minutes a side. It takes a while, and it is the one step that decides whether your stew has any character at all.
🌾 The flour has two jobs
Dredging the cubes in seasoned flour is not only about the crust. That flour ends up in the sauce and thickens it over four hours of covered cooking. Which is exactly why you never lift the lid at the end to reduce it. Lid on from the first minute to the last, and the sauce lands where it should.
🍺 Which beer to grab
Look for a Belgian-style dubbel: a strong dark ale around 8%, malty, with caramel and clove. A strong amber ale gets you close. What you are avoiding is bitterness, so no IPA and no aggressive pale ale. If the Belgian style is hard to find where you shop, a Belgian-style abbey ale from just about any craft brewery does the same work.
🥘 The Dutch oven goes in the oven, the slow cooker does not
Two different pots, two different methods, and people mix them up constantly. The enameled cast iron Dutch oven with its lid is the one that goes into a 350°F (175°C) oven. The slow cooker stays on the counter, and get a big one, seven quarts. Either way you still brown the beef and caramelize the vegetables in a hot pan first.
📅 What I prep the night before
I do not cook the stew the day before. I do all the cutting the day before: carrots, parsnips, squash, potatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary. Day of, there is almost nothing left to do. Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer, in portions of about 200 to 250 g (7 to 9 oz). Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat gently in the oven.
✅ What to serve with beef stew with beer
Couscous. That is how I serve it and that is what the sauce deserves. Basmati rice works too. If you want something richer, go with Boursin mashed potatoes or aligot. A slice of no-knead focaccia on the side to mop up the sauce, or a grilled Caesar salad if you want something sharp against all that braised beef.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup (250 ml) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp (5 ml) paprika
- 2.2 lb (1 kg) beef stew cubes
- Olive oil
- 1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cups (500 ml) carrots, halved and thickly sliced
- 2 cups (500 ml) parsnips, halved and thickly sliced
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 1½ cups (375 ml) Belgian-style dubbel beer (a strong dark ale around 8%, malty and caramelly, or a strong amber ale)
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) tomato paste
- 2 cups (500 ml) baby potatoes, halved
- 2 cups (500 ml) butternut squash, cubed
- 2 cups (500 ml) beef broth
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp (5 ml) dried sage
- 1 tsp (5 ml) dried thyme
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) dried parsley
- A small handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
- Fleur de sel (a flaky finishing salt, sprinkled on at the table)
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Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- In a large bowl, pour the flour and paprika, season generously with salt and pepper, then mix. Place the beef cubes in the bowl and mix well with your hands to coat the meat. Lift the cubes out of the flour and shake off the excess. Set aside on a plate.
- In a large cast-iron Dutch oven heated over medium-high heat, add about 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil, then add the beef cubes. Cook 3 to 4 minutes per side to brown well. Work in small batches and add oil as needed. Transfer the cubes to a bowl.
- In the same Dutch oven, add the onion, garlic, carrots, parsnips and rosemary, then season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil, mix well and cook 8 to 10 minutes to caramelize.
- Return the meat to the Dutch oven. Deglaze with the beer, then add the tomato paste. Scrape the bottom well to get all the flavor! Stir to dissolve the tomato paste.
- Add the remaining ingredients and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well. Cover the Dutch oven with its lid and place in the oven. Cook for 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours, without ever taking the lid off, until the meat falls apart at the fork. Stir halfway through. Serve over couscous and garnish with fresh parsley and fleur de sel!
Slow cooker option
- Do the same prep steps (flour, browning the beef and caramelizing the vegetables) in a pan.
- Pour everything into a large slow cooker with the beer, the tomato paste and the remaining ingredients.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours. Stir halfway through. Serve over couscous and garnish with fresh parsley and fleur de sel!
It starts at the butcher counter, not in the oven. Pre-cut stew cubes are usually a pretty ordinary piece of beef, so if you raise the quality of the meat, you raise the quality of the whole stew. After that it is the browning: small batches, hot pan, hands off, so the cubes actually sear instead of steaming. Then a long covered braise does the rest, 3 hours 30 to 4 hours at 350°F (175°C). And season generously at every stage.
Both work, and I have made this one both ways for years. The Dutch oven gives you a slightly more concentrated sauce and it perfumes the whole house, which is why I usually pick it. The slow cooker wins on convenience: brown everything in a pan in the morning, transfer to a large slow cooker, LOW for 8 hours, and supper is ready when you walk in. What you cannot skip in either case is browning the beef in a pan first.
3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours at 350°F (175°C), covered the entire time. Stir once about halfway through. You are not cooking to a temperature here, you are cooking to a texture: the cubes should fall apart when you press them with a fork. If they still resist, give it another 20 or 30 minutes with the lid back on. Rushing it at a higher heat only tightens the meat.
A Belgian-style dubbel, which is a strong dark ale around 8% with caramel, clove and dark fruit. Those aromas complement the browning on the meat instead of covering it. A strong amber ale is a close second. Avoid IPAs and anything aggressively bitter, because four hours of reduction concentrates that bitterness and turns the sauce unpleasant.
Normally you do not have to. The flour you dredged the beef in ends up in the sauce and thickens it on its own over the long cook, which is why the lid stays on from start to finish instead of coming off at the end to reduce. If it still looks thin, dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in a quarter cup of cold water and stir it into the hot sauce. It sets in a couple of minutes.
Couscous is how I serve it, and it soaks up the sauce better than anything else. Basmati rice does the job too. For something richer, Boursin mashed potatoes or aligot. Add a slice of no-knead focaccia to mop the bowl, or a grilled Caesar salad alongside if you want something sharp to cut the richness.
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