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Much Ado About Stew — Slow-cooker Guinness beef and barley stew

Beef chuck, stout, bacon and root vegetables cooked on low with pearl barley. Sear the beef and deglaze with red wine before filling the slow cooker.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds beef chuck roast or beef stew meat cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
  • 1 onion large, chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic minced or grated
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 4 slice thick-cut bacon cooked and chopped
  • 4 cups reduced sodium beef stock
  • 12 oz Guinness extra stout, 1 can or bottle, or dark stout beer
  • 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 sprigs thyme or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
  • 1 8-ounce pack cremini mushrooms, optional
  • 1 ¹/₂ pounds petite Yukon gold potatoes quartered
  • 4 cups assorted root vegetables peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • ²/₃ cup pearl barley or pearled farro
  • salt to taste
  • black pepper to taste

Method
 

  1. Warm the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat.
  2. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper. Sear in the hot pan until golden on each side, about 3 to 5 minutes per side, then transfer to a large slow cooker.
  3. Add the onion and garlic to the same pan over medium heat and cook until softened and fragrant. Pour in the red wine and add the tomato paste. Scrape the browned bits into the liquid and cook for about 3 minutes, until slightly reduced. Transfer everything to the slow cooker.
  4. Add the cooked bacon, beef stock, stout, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, thyme, optional mushrooms, potatoes, root vegetables and barley or farro. Stir to combine.
  5. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, stirring every couple of hours.
  6. After 8 hours, stir and taste. Adjust the salt and pepper before serving.

Notes

Brown the seasoned beef on its sides before transferring it. Cook the onions and garlic in the same pan, then use the wine and tomato paste to lift the browned bits. Those bits belong in the stew rather than in the washing-up water. Pearl barley or pearled farro are the source’s alternatives; choose one. Cremini mushrooms are optional. Keep the potatoes and assorted root vegetables at their listed sizes so they cook alongside the beef rather than leaving a few oversized pieces firm. The method calls for eight hours on low and stirring every couple of hours. It is not a fully unattended recipe. The source supplies a twenty-minute prep estimate and an eight-hour cooking estimate, but no reliable total time or serving count. Displayed preparation and cooking times, where supplied, are source estimates rather than measured kitchen-test results. A reliable serving count is not specified in the source fields.