Insanely tender, fall-apart beef, carrots and peas smothered in rich gravy made with Jameson whiskey and Guinness beer. This stew packs incredible flavor and is served over creamy garlic mashed potatoes, making it the ultimate comfort food. Slow cooked in the crockpot, it's easy to make and perfect for feeding a crowd on St. Patrick's Day!
It's almost the freakin' weekend! That also means it's almost St. Patrick's Day! And, you know what goes perfectly with St. Patrick's Day? Slow Cooker Jameson Beef Stew. Ugh, it's so good. The best comfort food to fill your stomach and prepare you for a night of drinking. Who's with me?
The beer and whiskey are what makes this stew so great. They give it a much richer flavor than you would get with just beef or chicken broth. But, you can't just use any beer; it definitely has to be Guinness. It's deep color and smooth texture is the key to delicious stew.
When cooking with alcohol, keep in mind that after it simmers all day, all of the actual alcohol will have cooked out, but it still leaves behind incredible flavor.
I feel like stew is just one of those things that everyone (well most everyone) loves, and for good reason. Who can pass up spoon tender beef bathing in gravy? Not this girl. And I really do mean spoon tender.
Even better, it's simple to make. But, it does require some legwork before it goes into the crockpot - nothing excess though.
It takes less than 20 minutes to trim the fat off the beef and cube it, chop your carrots, celery, and onion, and make the roux - which is how you get that thicker gravy texture. I use ⅓ cup of flour in my recipe to thicken the stew, but you're welcome to use more if it's not thick enough to your liking. I've explained this in the recipe below, but for reference, I wouldn't add any more than 3 additional tablespoons.
After everything is in the crockpot, it's hands off until about 30 minutes before serving. That's when it's time to add the peas to the stew, remove the bay leaves, and make the delicious garlic mashed potatoes.
Stew can be made with cubed potatoes added right in or served with mashed potatoes. I like both, but I really liked the idea of garlic mashed potatoes for this recipe. They add another layer of flavor, more texture, and an extra heartiness.
Who's got big plans for St. Patrick's Day?? Let me in on what you're up to in the comments! And, I sure hope your plans include this Slow Cooker Jameson Beef Stew and my Ginger Whiskey Mojitos! You do NOT want to miss out this amazing cocktail! I promise you. We're talking only four ingredients. I have directions for making single drinks or a whole pitcher - which might be the way to go 🙂
I won't be doing a whole lot of celebrating because I'll be out in Wisconsin for my brother and sister-in-law's gender reveal party. But, I had my fair share of fun this past weekend.
Two of my brothers and I went out to Door County, WI for the weekend for an Organic Valley Generation-Organic (Gen-O) event.
Since October 1994, my family has sold their milk to Organic Valley, and we have always been active members. The Gen-O events are specifically for young farmers to learn more about organics, how other people farm, and to connect with fellow farmers.
The event was a blast, to say the least. We toured 3 farms, made new farmer friends, and explored Lake Michigan. We definitely want to make a trip back up there this summer to go salmon fishing!
P.S. Lake Michigan is beautiful even in the winter.
Anyways, cheers, friends! Hope you all have a fun weekend!
More of my favorite soup recipes:
And, don't forget to serve your stew with my favorite Ginger Whiskey Mojitos 🙂
Slow Cooker Jameson Beef Stew
Ingredients
Beef stew:
- 2 ½ - 3 lbs boneless chuck roast, fat trimmed and cut into 1 ½" cubes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves pressed
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups chicken broth
- ⅓ cup tomato paste
- 5 carrots, cut into thick slices
- 3 celery sticks, cut into thin slices
- 1 Guinness beer (12 ounces)
- ½ cup Jameson Whiskey
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning beef
- ½ teaspoon pepper, plus more for seasoning beef
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 ½ cups peas
Mashed potatoes:
- 3 pounds russet potatoes
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic pressed
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Beef stew
- Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper, and cook in two batches until browned all over, turning as the meat cooks, about 4-5 minutes per batch. Once done, transfer to crockpot.
- Reduce heat to medium, and add butter and diced onion to skillet. Cook for 2-3 minutes until onion becomes translucent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Sprinkle in flour and whisk into butter and onions until combined; cook 1 minute longer. Pour in 2 cup of broth and whisk together until thickened. Whisk in tomato paste, and add mixture to crockpot.
- Add carrots, celery, remaining broth, beer, whiskey, soy sauce, Worcestershire, sugar, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and bay leaves to crockpot. Mix everything together. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5-6 hours.
- About 30 minutes before serving, stir in peas, adjust salt and pepper to taste, and remove bay leaves. During this time, you can also make the mashed potatoes.
Garlic mashed potatoes
- Peel and cut potatoes into about 2" cubes.
- Fill a large pot with water and add potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain potatoes and set aside.
- Add butter to the empty pot and melt over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add heavy cream, potatoes, salt, and pepper. Mash well with a potato masher (or an electric hand mixer) until no lumps remain.
- To serve, scoop mashed potatoes in a bowl and top with stew! Enjoy!
Notes
- I prefer to use chicken broth because it has a milder flavor, but you can also use beef broth if that's all you have on hand.
- Guinness beer adds a rich flavor to the stew, but if you can substitute Guinness for beef broth.
- If you would like your stew thicker, you can add more flour, but I wouldn't add more than an additional 2-3 tablespoons. Try adding a tablespoon at a time. You can do so by scooping about a cup of the liquid from the crockpot into a bowl and quickly whisking in the flour until smooth (the roux will become thick quick). Transfer flour mixture back to crockpot and stir together. Allow the flour mixture about 30 minutes to 1 hour to cook into the rest of the stew.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated by a third party software and is only an estimate, not a guarantee. This information is provided as a courtesy, and you are solely responsible for all decisions related to your health.
Lauren says
The flavor was good, but it wasn't thick like I expect a stew to be 8 tried thickening, first with roux then a cornstarch slurry but didn't want to tamper more with it after that.. Next time I make this I'll try 2 1/2 cups stock, I had appx 1 cup cooked butternut squash in the fridge... Added that and it helped thicken it up. Mushrooms in the last 30min and frozen peas when the cooker went to "warm" so they wouldn't overcook. The peas surprised me in how much they added to the recipe. Do NOT remove them. Guinness & whiskey did add a lot of interesting flavor. Like like! .