Irish Steak and Guinness Pie

Last Updated on January 16, 2024 by Carne Diem

Protein:

Origin: Irish, European

Method: Stovetop, Oven

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This Irish steak and ale pie with puff pastry in loaded with tender steak, mushrooms, and a savory Guinness gravy. These steak and Guinness pot pies make for a great St. Patrick's Day meal, or can be enjoyed anytime of the year.

Along with staples like corned beef and cabbage, soda bread, and colcannon, this Irish Steak and Guinness Pie has become one of our favorite St. Patrick's Day recipes. Tender morsels of steak are combined with sautéed root veggies and mushrooms in an Irish stout and beef sauce before being sealed up and baked with a flaky and buttery puff pastry crust.

Making the Irish Beef and Stout Pie

To make this steak and Guinness pie with mushrooms you just need to prep your ingredients, make the filling, and then make the puff pastry pies.

Gather your ingredients

To make the Beef and Guinness pie you will need the following ingredients:

Cubed Stew Meat- We typically use meats that are ideal for stewing and hold up well to the long simmer time used in the recipe, such as chuck, sirloin, or round. Tender cuts like tenderloin will be prone to drying out during the long cook so try to avoid those tender cuts.

Guinness Stout- You will need roughly 2 bottles of Guinness for the beef and ale pies. You can substitute other stouts if desired.

Beef Broth-Use a high quality or homemade beef broth for the gravy.

Carrot, parsnip, and celery stalk- You will need 1 each of these assorted veggies to make the filling for this beef and ale pie recipe.

Garlic and onions- You will need 2 Garlic cloves and one red and white onion for the Steak and Guinness pot pies.

Fresh herbs: We use fresh thyme and rosemary. We highly recommend using fresh herbs, but if substituting dried herbs use about ⅓ of the amount called for in the recipe.

Flour and spices- You will need flour for thickening the gravy and salt, paprika, mustard powder and black pepper for seasoning.

Worcestershire Sauce- The Worcestershire sauce helps add a little umami flavor to the Guinness pot pies.

Irish Cheddar- We recommend a high quality Irish cheddar such as Kerrygold for the steak pies. If you are unable to find Irish style cheddar, use a high quality white cheddar.

Mushrooms- You will need about 4 ounces of fresh mushrooms. We typically use button mushrooms or porcini mushrooms, as their flavor and size work well with the Beef and Guinness pot pies.

Puff Pastry- Finally you will need about 1 sheet of puff pastry to make the Steak and Guinness pies.

Prep and combine ingredients

First you will want to prep all of your ingredients. Prep your veggies by dicing the onion, carrots, celery, and parsnip. Mince the garlic. Remove the thyme leaves and rosemary leaves from their stems and coarsely chop. For the root veggies we find that dicing into about ¼-1/2-inch pieces tends to work best. Use a finer dice for the onions.

When you are done prepping the veggies, add the carrots, onions, celery, parsnip, and garlic to a medium sized bowl and mix with the tablespoon of olive oil.

Next, combine the flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl, preferably with a lid. Mix well to combine.

Prepare your meat by cubing the steak into about ½-inch cubes. Add the cubed steak to the bowl with the flour and mix to combine.

For more great recipes using cubed steak, be sure to try our Tenderloin Tip Beef Stroganoff and our Peruvian Lomo Saltado: Stir-fried sirloin steak and fries.

Cook the filling for the Irish Steak and Guinness Pie

Brown the beef and cook the veggies

Heat a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the butter and heat until melted and foamy. Add the cubed steak and brown, about 2-4 minutes per side. If needed, work in batches. Remove the meat from the Dutch oven place in a bowl or plate.

Next, add the diced veggies to the pot and cook until softened, stirring frequently. You just want to sweat the veggies at this point to release some of their sweetness, so take care not to overcook them.

Deglaze the pan and simmer

Once the veggies are softened, deglaze the pan with the Guinness stout, making sure to scrape up all of the baked-on bits from the bottom of the pan. Add in the Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, thyme and rosemary leaves and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Love cooking with beer? Give our Beer Braised Beef Cheek Barbacoa, Smoked German Beer Cheese Sauce, or Guinness Beer Battered Cod a try.

Simmer for 5 minutes then add the browned steak back to the pot along with the shredded Irish cheddar, mushrooms, and beef broth. We really like button mushrooms for this recipe as they provide the perfect bite sized mushrooms. Diced porcini mushrooms work really well also.

Once you have all of the ingredients added to the pot bring the liquid back to a simmer. Continue to simmer the stew, uncovered, for about 2 hours or until the sauce has thickened and the beef is tender. Stir frequently to prevent anything from burning to the bottom of the pot.

Once your stew has reached your desired consistency, remove the pot from the heat and allow to cool. Ideally, you should have a thick, gravy like consistency. Cover the stew and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Bake the Irish Steak and Guinness Stew

When you are ready to bake your beef and ale pies, remove the stew from the refrigerator. Add the stew to 2 pie pans if you wish to make larger pies, or to 6 ramekins or cocottes if you wish to make Steak and Guinness Pot Pies.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. If using frozen puff pastry remove the sheets from the freezer about 40 minutes before you are ready to start cooking. If you have a favorite homemade puff pastry recipe you can certainly use it as well.

Cut and top with puff pastry

Cut the puff pastry into circles slightly bigger than the pie pan or cocottes that you are using. Place over the pie pans and crimp the edges to seal. Cut a few small slits to allow the Guinness meat pies to vent during cooking.

Brush the top of the puff pastry with an egg wash to help with browning. We prefer to use a whole beaten egg with a little milk added to it to give the puff pastry a nice golden-brown color with a little shine.

Bake the Beef and Guinness Pies

Place the Irish Guinness and Beef Pies into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. At 30 minutes check the beef and stout pies. Remove when the puff pastry is golden brown.

Remove and eat while warm. Enjoy with a nice Irish stout or Whipped Irish Coffee. For more great Irish recipes try our Creamy Irish Colcannon with Bacon, Simple Guinness Beer Bread and Homemade Corned Beef: From Packer to the Table.

If you are in the mood for more great meat pies be sure to check out our Kiwi Mince and Cheese Pies: Beef and Cheddar Hand-Pies, Keshi Yena: Aruban Meat Stuffed Cheese, and Grilled Jamaican Beef Patties.

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