I’ve said it before, and it should come as no surprise, that I love preparing recipes that call for booze. The best ones ask for one cup of wine, or ½ bottle of beer, practically insisting that I pour myself a drink while I cook.

This Crock Pot Beef and Beer Stew with Bacon is one such recipe, but it’s not as fun when the beer is opened at 9 am on a Crock Pot Thursday, because I’m not in college anymore, and the other half of that beer just got thrown away. Despite the beer-wasting aspect of this recipe (Sarah found a workaround for that problem – see her comments at the bottom), almost everyone loved this tasty fall dish!

Now I may have passed on the extra beer, but I didn’t turn my nose up at the excess bacon. I don’t know if I can call it excess, since I made an entire pound of bacon when the recipe calls for 8 slices, but that’s the way things go around here. When reading recipes, I always automatically double any bacon, knowing that bacon stealing is a serious problem in our house. My family is a band of bacon thieves, and we are relentless.

Sometimes I balk at having to pre-cook any slow cooker ingredients, but sometimes it’s worth the extra effort. This is one of those times. Stew meat browned in the bacon grease? Yes, please.

If you are trying to throw this together before leaving the house in the morning, you can save some time by cooking the bacon the night before, and saving the drippings to brown the beef in the morning. Hide the bacon so your family doesn’t eat it all before you can get it in the Crock Pot.

I wrote this version of the recipe with regular onions, which are great and perfectly acceptable in this dish, but I used pearl onions, partially because they are adorable, and partially because they remind me of my grandma. She use to make this yummy pea and onion casserole thing, and now that I’m thinking of it, I need to make it.

I miss my grandma.

Crock Pot Beef and Beer Stew is hearty and rich, and a great way to kick off fall. We served ours over mashed potatoes, and my mother-in-law says it’s incredible over rice.

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Crock Pot Thursday: Beef and Beer Stew with Bacon

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Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 6 hours

Total Time 6 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 strips bacon
• 2 pounds stew beef, chuck or round, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
• 3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
• 4 teaspoons beef base or beef flavor granules
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 1/2 beer

Instructions

1. Cook bacon in a large frying pan, until crispy.
2. Remove bacon to drain on paper towels, but leave drippings in pan.
3. Brown beef on all sides in bacon grease, and place in slow cooker.
4. Crumble bacon and dump on top of beef.
5. Add all remaining ingredients, and stir well to combine.
6. Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours, or high 4-5 hours.

Notes

Linda

We loved this very easy version of beef burgundy. It went together fairly quickly, and had great flavor. We serve ours over mashed potatoes. It was a perfect fall supper!!

Sarah

Yum yum yum! This was easy and tasty. I used a medium onion, and I also used a whole can of beer because the thought of throwing out the rest at 9 in the morning made me cringe, and I knew I couldn't pound it down before driving my daughter to preschool. It was yummy with mashed potatoes. A family pleaser and would make again for sure!

Me

I forgot the tapioca and beef granules, so to thicken it up and add the needed flavor, I added a packet of brown gravy mix at the end, and let it cook for about 15 more minutes. The consistency was great and the flavor was nice and beefy.

As it is with many recipes that call for beer or wine, the kids didn't care for it, I would have liked it more with the booze on the side, and my husband really dug it. If you like beef and beer stew or beef burgundy, you'll love this.

[Tweet “Beef? Good. Beer? Good. Bacon? Gooood. You’re going to like this Beef and Beer Stew!”]