Dutch Oven Irish Pork Stew with Stout
Here’s a moist and flavorful Dutch Oven Irish Pork Stew with stout beer and caraway for your St Patrick’s Day table. Cooked low and slow and flavored with a good gluten-free beer, this delightful stew is full of tender pork and vegetables in a rich sauce.
Servings 12
Equipment
- Dutch Oven, 6 quart
- Santoku or other good Knives
- Cutting Board
Ingredients
- 3 pounds pork shoulder or about 3 pounds of cubed meat, trimmed of fat
- ½ pound pork bones optional
- ¼ cup gluten-free flour I used Bob’s Red Mill
- 2 teaspoons pink sea salt or to taste divided
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2-3 medium or one large yellow onion chopped (about 3-4 cups)
- 4 large carrots peeled and diced
- 1 pound baby or small Yukon Gold or small red potatoes quartered
- 1 ½ teaspoons caraway seeds
- 1 ½ cups gluten-free dark beer like Green’s Gluten-Free Discovery see notes
- 1 ½ cups pork or beef broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1-2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil optional
- ½ pound of kale ribs removed, chopped
- ¼ cup Italian flat leaf parsley chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
- Trim fat from the meat (and discard), and cut the pork into 1-2 inch chunks. In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the flour over the meat chunks and stir to distribute. Sprinkle with half the salt and half the pepper. I do not find it necessary to brown the meat when using this method but you can if you wish.
- Assembling the stew: if using pork bones, add them to the Dutch oven first. Layer on the carrots and potatoes.
- Place the pork chunks and onions on that (and kale, if adding now).
- Sprinkle on the caraway seeds and tuck the bay leaves into the vegetables. Pour in the Stout (or alternative) and broth. Drizzle the top layer of vegetables with the oil (an optional step but it helps the onions to caramelize).
- Cover the Dutch oven tightly with foil, then place the lid on top of that. Place the Dutch oven into the preheated oven.
- About 15 minutes before the stew is done, blanch the kale in boiling water for just 1 minute until it's softened and bright green. Stir it into the stew right when you remove it from the oven. The residual heat will continue to cook and flavor it. Alternatively, add the kale with the other vegetables - it just won't stay bright green.
- Carefully remove the stew from the oven - it's heavy. The onions on top should be caramelized and the pork and other vegetables very tender without falling apart. Carefully remove the bones, if you used them, and discard. Stir the stew and serve.
- If you would like to remove as much pork fat as possible, you will need to make this stew the day before you plan to serve it. Once it's removed from the oven and cooled sufficiently, refrigerate it (see note) so that the fat will solidify on top and can be easily removed with a spoon. Then place the stew back in the oven at 275 for 40 minutes for the stew to warm up.
- Serve: on its own or a bed of Colcannon.
Notes
Alternative vegetables include turnips, parsnips and green beans, but the carrots are a pretty color and are really delicious in this stew.
You'll need a six-quart Dutch oven (pot with lid) that is ovenproof, and foil to cover it in addition to the lid.
Add spinach or kale toward the end for even more green and nutrition - I blanched mine and added it about 15 minutes before serving so that it would be quite green.
This amount of caraway seeds was plenty for us; though I've seen more in similar recipes, we think that would give the stew a bitter taste.
Guinness is a classic choice for an Irish stew, but as it’s made from roasted rye, is not gluten-free. An excellent alternative in the Denver area is: Green’s Gluten-Free Discovery.
Cold-weather trick: If you make this stew during cold weather (38 degrees outdoor temperature or less), rather than place the Dutch oven into your refrigerator to solidify the extra fat, just put it outdoors - make sure to keep an eye on the temperature outside so it doesn't go over 38 while your stew is getting cold!
Thanks to this recipe for inspiration and quantities.