Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Guinness Stew

Jump to Recipe

All of the St. Patrick’s Day flavors you love in one bowl!

Tender corned beef, perfectly cooked potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, all simmered in a rich braise of Guinness beer and beef stock…sign me up! My family has always loved a good corned beef and cabbage dinner for St. Patrick’s day. It has never been my favorite but I make it every year for them. Since soups and stews are my jam, I decided to turn my recipe into a stew and in my humble opinion, it rocked. The family agreed…it was a big hit.

fullsizeoutput_5af9

I pretty much just followed the same ingredient profile I use for my slow cooked corned beef recipe except I trimmed and cut the corned beef into pieces first. The Guinness is key to flavoring the stew, as well as good quality beef stock. You will want to add your carrots/potatoes/cabbage at the end of cooking, otherwise they will be mushy.

The flavor of this is pretty different from your typical beef stew because of the corned beef. It has that signature flavor that it gets from the pickling spices that it sits in. It cooks up so tender in this stew. You will not need to salt this until the end. Normally you would salt your meat when you brown it, but corned beef is already so salty, you skip it in the beginning and taste it at the end to see how much you need. It also depends on how salty your stock is. I added about a teaspoon which is not much at all considering the amount of stew. Just add it little by little until you think it is just right.

Corned Beef LR

This would be a great St. Patty’s day dinner…especially if you are serving a crowd. Turning the roast into stew stretches it a little further. This made dinner for the 4 of us (with seconds and thirds had by the hubs and my oldest boy) and I had 2 more servings left over. I have to say it is even better the next day so it would be great to make ahead! Serve it with some crusty bread or some Irish soda bread on the side. And some Guinness, of course!

Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Guinness Stew

All of your St. Patrick's day flavors in one bowl!
Course dinner, Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 1 3 to 3.5 pounds corned Beef Brisket in pickling spices
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced into quarter inch pieces
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 pint of Guinness Stout
  • 1 quart of good quality beef broth
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp whole grain mustard
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 sprigs of thyme OR 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 4 medium carrots, peeled & cut in to 2 inch pieces
  • 2 lbs of gold potatoes, peeled & cut into 2 inch pieces
  • 1 head of cabbage, cut into 2 inch pieces use one head if it small or 1/2 of a head if it is a large one
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup fresh chopped Italian parsley

Optional to thicken stew:

  • 1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup of water

Instructions
 

  • Pre heat oven to 300 degrees
  • Rinse the pickling spices off of your corned beef and pat dry with paper towels. Trim off any big pieces of fat from the roast and cut into large chunks about 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Season the meat with plenty of ground pepper but hold off using any salt at this point.
  • In a large dutch oven (like a Le Creuset) heat 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter over medium heat until pan is good and hot. Brown the meat on all sides in 2 – 3 batches. This should take about 5 minutes per batch. Add another tablespoon of olive oil and butter for the second batch. It is important to do this in batches or the pan will get over crowded and the meat will let off all of its juices and steam instead of brown. Once all the meat is browned, remove it from the pan and set aside.
  • Add the remaining oil and butter and sauté the onions and celery for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook one more minute. Add the flour and stir well until all of the veggies are coated and it starts to brown a little. Add the beer and stock and mix well incorporating all of the flour and scraping up all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Mix in the mustard, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce and add the meat back to the pan along with the whole thyme sprigs, and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer, cover, and put the pot in the oven for 90 minutes to 2 hours.
  • While the stew is in the oven, prep your carrots, potatoes, and cabbage. After 90 minutes check your meat to see if it is tender (you should be able to cut a piece in have with the side of a spoon). If it is still a little tough, put it back for another 30 minutes. Once your meat is tender, transfer your pot to the stove, fish out the thyme sprigs, and add the carrots, potatoes and cabbage. Bring back to a simmer, then cover and reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 more minutes or until all of the veggies are tender. Season with plenty of pepper and salt if needed. You won’t need much salt because the meat is so salty that it flavors the stew quite well. I added about a teaspoon at the end. Add the fresh parsley saving a little to garnish each bowl and serve with some good crusty bread or Irish soda bread!

To thicken the stew:

  • Whisk the 1 tbsp cornstarch with 1/4 cup water to make a slurry. Slowly add to the stew and bring back to a simmer.

One Comment

  1. Finn Lauterbach

    Wuz up peeplz. u should make asian meatloaf because its delicious. 👍

Leave a Reply