Description
This Guinness Pot Roast is slow-braised in the oven until the meat is fall-apart tender and swimming in a rich stout gravy. The ultimate Sunday supper or St. Patrick’s Day centerpiece! ☘️
Made with beef chuck roast, gold potatoes, carrots, and just enough Guinness Draught to create deep, malty flavor – without any bitterness. A hands-off, one-pot recipe that brings the lively spirit of an Irish pub straight to your dinner table.
Check the Recipe Notes, below, for slow cooker and Instant Pot directions.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3-3 ½ pounds beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
- kosher salt and ground black pepper
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
- 2 stalks celery, sliced into ½-inch pieces
- ⅓ cup tomato paste (about ½ of a 6-ounce can)
- 1 cup beef stock or broth
- 6-8 cloves garlic, smashed
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar, plus more to taste
- 10-12 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with twine (or sub 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 3 large carrots, peeled as desired and sliced into chunky 2-3 inch pieces
- 5 Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
- two 12-ounce bottles Guinness Draught Stout (see Recipe Notes)
- flour slurry: 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour whisked into ½ cup of beef stock/broth
Instructions
Method Overview:
Pat beef dry, season, and brown well. Pour off excess fat, then sauté onion and celery, add tomato paste, deglaze with stock. Stir in Worcestershire, soy, mustard, sugar, thyme, and bay leaves; bring to a simmer. Add beef, carrots, and potatoes to pot and pour in Guinness. Cover and braise at 325°F for 3–3 ½ hours until tender. Transfer meat and veggies to a platter and thicken the sauce with flour slurry if desired.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Prep: If time allows, 20-30 minutes before you begin cooking, pull the beef roast from the refrigerator to allow to come up to room temperature. Just before cooking, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, ensuring a rack is positioned in the center of the oven. Use a paper towel to pat the beef as dry as possible. Season liberally with kosher salt and ground black pepper; a good rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon kosher salt per pound of meat.
- Brown the beef: Add the olive oil to a large, oven-safe pot with a tight fitting lid (I use a 5-qt Dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Once hot and shimmering, carefully add the seasoned beef. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side, until nicely browned. Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside. Carefully pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot (discard once cooled).
- Build the aromatic base: Return the pot to medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook 2-3 minutes, until slightly softened. Stir in the tomato paste and garlic and cook 1-2 minutes longer. To deglaze the pot, slowly pour in the beef stock, while scraping up any browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, light brown sugar, fresh thyme, and bay leaves. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
- Assemble the Guinness pot roast: Add the browned chuck roast to the pot, nestling the carrots and potatoes around it. Pour in the Guinness until the liquid comes about halfway up the sides of the roast (you’ll use about 1 ½ – 2 bottles). Remove from the heat (do not boil).
- Braise the pot roast: Cover and transfer to the oven. Braise for 3 – 3 ½ hours. You’ll know the pot roast is ready when it’s fall-apart tender, shredding easily with the twist of a fork. Remove from the oven.
- Finish the Guinness pot roast: Carefully transfer the roast and vegetables to a serving platter. Remove and discard the spent herbs and bay leaves. If desired, thicken the Guinness sauce into a gravy: skim off any excess fat from the top of the braising liquid, then gradually stir in the flour slurry until thickened as desired. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes to cook off the raw flour. Taste and season with additional kosher salt and ground black pepper as needed. If the gravy tastes slightly bitter, stir in an additional tablespoon or two of brown sugar to balance.
- Serve immediately: Slice the chuck roast into 6 hearty pieces and serve immediately with the braised vegetables and plenty of Guinness gravy drizzled over top. Enjoy!
Notes
- Guinness sells several different varieties – Draught, Extra Stout, and Foreign Extra. Through recipe testing, I found Guinness Draught works best here. It has the smoothest, most balanced flavor and doesn’t become overly bitter as it cooks down with the pot roast. Guinness Extra Stout also works, though it’s noticeably more bitter; if using it, you may want to add an extra tablespoon or two of brown sugar (beyond what’s suggested in Step 6) at the end of cooking to balance the sauce.
Alternate Cooking Methods:
- Crock Pot / Slow Cooker Guinness Pot Roast: Prep the recipe according to Steps 1-3, above. Once the pot is deglazed, transfer to the slow cooker and finish assembling according to Steps 3-4. Slow cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. If your slow cooker has a searing/browning feature, you can use prepare the entire recipe right in the slow cooker.
- Electric Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot Guinness Pot Roast: Use your Instant Pot’s “Sauté” setting to prepare the recipe according to Steps 1-4, above. Cover and seal the pressure cooker and cook on manual high pressure for 50 minutes. Allow the pressure cooker to naturally release pressure for 10 minutes before carefully flicking the valve to its “venting” position to vent out any residual pressure.
Make-Ahead, Storage, Reheating, and Freezing:
- Storage and Reheating: Transfer cooled leftover pot roast + veggies and Guinness gravy to separate airtight containers. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave until warmed through, adding a splash of water or beef stock as needed to thin out the gravy.
- Freezer Instructions: Transfer the pot roast, vegetables, and Guinness gravy to a freezer container (or divide between multiple freezer containers for smaller portions) and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or, for a quicker thaw, submerge the freezer container in room temperature water. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave until warmed through, thinning it out with a splash of water or beef stock as needed.