Celebrate 🍀 St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 with this quick and easy Instant Pot Irish Stew! It’s hearty and filling for the perfect comfort food dinner.
OK, give me one more stew before we enter March, and officially need to switch to spring flavors.
I have to confess: I’ve only ever been to one St. Patrick’s Day party in my entire life, and it was on a camp site in a huge community hall and everybody was definitely drinking way too much green beer.
Needless to say, it scarred this introvert over here for life. Also, I don’t like beer. UNLESS it’s Guinness in a hearty Irish Stew!
Instant Pot Irish Stew Recipe
This is a pretty straight-forward recipe for your instant pot, not much different from my Instant Pot Beef Stew, to be honest.
The biggest difference between Irish Stew and regular beef stew is that I use Guinness instead of red wine for the gravy.
Also, I’ll often make my Irish Stew as a lamb stew, but you can absolutely use beef (I use beef in my Slow Cooker Irish Beef Stew and in my Dutch Oven braised Guinness Beef Stew!).
I’m sure my way of making this Instant Pot Irish Stew is not 100% purist and traditional, but honestly – I don’t really care. It’s delicious!
How to Make Irish Stew
How do you make stew meat tender?
Pressure cooking the stew helps a lot with tenderizing the meat without having to cook it for seventy hours.
The one thing you have to take care off when using a pressure cooker is to allow the stew a natural pressure release for 10 minutes after cooking. I know it’s annoying and we all want to rush this step – but it’s crucial to allow the meat fibers to relax.
That way, your meat will be tender and delicious.
What cut is best for stew?
For a beef stew, I prefer diced chuck roast. It gets tender and flavorful when cooked right.
For a lamb stew, I will usually go for diced shoulder.
How can I thicken my stew after cooking?
While the stew won’t thicken in the pressure cooker (the liquid cannot cook away because the lid is always closed), you can thicken the stew to your taste after cooking using one of the following methods:
- blend 1 cup of the stew and stir it back in
- make a slurry of 1-2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon cold water, set the instant pot to sauté and stir the slurry into the stew. Simmer until thickened.
The second method is my preferred one (because I don’t want to mess around with the blender etc while my family is hungry), but you can use either.
What to serve with Guinness Irish Stew:
I love stew because it’s pretty much a complete meal.
We always have some bread on the side though – Irish Soda Bread would be perfect, but a simple No Knead Bread is tasty, too!
Instant Pot Irish Stew
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Ingredients
FOR THE MEAT
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 pounds lamb OR beef stewing meat cubed
- Salt & pepper
- 2 tablespoons flour
FOR THE GRAVY
- 2 medium yellow onions cut into wedges
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 11 or 12oz bottle Guinness beer
- 1 cup beef stock
FOR THE VEGETABLES
- 1 pound potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
- 4 medium carrots cut into chunks
- 4 sticks celery sliced
TO THICKEN (OPTIONAL)
- 1-2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Brown the meat: Set the Instant Pot to sautĂ©. Heat the oil, then brown the meat (season as it cooks). Once browned, sprinkle with the flour and toss well (make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot, it’s OK if it sticks a little though).
- Start the gravy: Stir the onions and garlic into the meat and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 more minute. Pour the Guinness over the meat, scratching the browned bits off the bottom of the pot (make sure you catch them all or you’ll get the burn warning). Simmer for 5-10 minutes to cook off the alcohol.
- Cook the stew: Switch off the instant pot. Add the beef stock to the stew. Stir in the vegetables. Close the instant pot and set the valve to “sealing”. Press the “stew” button.
- Finish: Once the pot is indicating it’s done with cooking, do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes (just unplug your pot and leave it alone). Then manually release any remaining pressure and open the lid.
- If you want to thicken the stew: Set the instant pot to sauté and stir in the cornstarch slurry. Simmer until thickened. Alternatively, you can blend 1 cup of the stew and stir it back in.
