Slow Cooker Easy Irish Pot Roast
This flavorful and easy Irish Pot Roast recipe made with boneless Beef Shoulder Roast, vegetables, prunes, and Irish Stout Beer is a slow cooker pot roast recipe that cooks away while you go about your day! This St. Patrick’s Day meal is delicious comfort food the whole family will love! This post is a collaboration with Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. on behalf of the Beef Checkoff. I received compensation, but all opinions are my own.
This hearty and delicious pot roast made with Irish Stout beer is the perfect meal to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! This recipe has an incredible flavor profile from the stout beer, fresh herbs, and prunes. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a very old Irish cookbook, A Taste of Ireland by Theodora Fitzgibbon, in my personal cookbook collection. I was intrigued by the addition of prunes stuffed with grilled hazelnuts in beer-braised roasts in this old vintage Irish cookbook. Most of the recipes in this book date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. I adore the combination of the umami from beef with the stout and prunes for a unique sweet and savory palate experience. I’ve made the prunes an optional add-in, but I highly encourage the addition, because it’s absolutely delicious. I found myself searching the pot for more prunes, so I could get a little bit of prune in each and every bite.
Recipe Ingredients
- Beef Shoulder Roast– this lean beef cut is affordable, flavorful, and perfect for roasting or baking. You can also use a Chuck Roast for this recipe.
- Extra virgin olive oil– for browning the roast before slow cooking.
- All-purpose flour– for dredging the roast before searing.
- Fresh garlic
- Carrots
- Baby Red Potatoes
- Onion– a yellow or sweet onion works well for this recipe.
- Stout beer– Most grocery stores have single bottles of stout for sale, so you don’t have to buy a whole pack of beer for one recipe.
- Beef stock– Beef broth or beef stock work great here. The beef stock just tends to be a tad thicker, so it will result in a richer sauce.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Prunes– optional, but HIGHLY recommended
- Spices: garlic salt, bay leaf, and pepper
- Herbs: fresh thyme and parsley
Recipe Instructions
Follow these simple steps to make the roast.
- Dredge the Roast. First, start by dredging the roast in the flour, coating all sides, and shaking off any excess.
- Brown the Roast. This step creates more depth of flavor and creates a caramelized roast exterior that you wouldn’t otherwise get in a slow-cooker recipe. You don’t want to skip this step. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the roast on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer the roast to a slow cooker sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Cut two small slits into the top of the roast and insert the smashed garlic cloves.
- Add the Veggies. I prefer to use the small baby red potatoes in this recipe to save time since they can be left whole. The carrots are peeled and cut into thirds and the onion is cut into 8 wedges. Place the chopped carrots, potatoes, and onion around the roast and season with garlic salt, and pepper.
- Add the liquid, prunes, and fresh herbs. In a separate bowl, combine the stout, beef broth, and Worcestershire sauce, and pour it over the roast. Add the bay leaf, prunes (if using), and sprigs of thyme.
Cook on low for 8 hours or 4 hours on high then switch to low for one more hour. The roast is ready when it is easily shredded with two forks. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.
Recipe Tip
If you don’t have garlic salt on hand you can make your own by combining 3 tablespoons of salt with 1 tablespoon of garlic powder. I usually make my own since it’s super easy and I always have salt and garlic powder in my pantry.
Recipe FAQ
Yes! They actually do make non-alcoholic stout beer, so you can easily make that swap for this recipe.
Yes, this roast can be made without carrots and potatoes for a lower carb option. You can also add mushrooms since they are a great low-carb vegetable (mushrooms are actually fungi but nutritionally classified as a vegetable) to add to roasts. It’s delicious served over cauliflower mashed potatoes.
Yes, gluten-free all-purpose flour will work well for this recipe. However, there is gluten in the beer, so unless a gluten-free beer is used (and I haven’t recipe tested this option) there would still be gluten in this recipe.
More Delicious Beef Recipes
Mediterranean Beef Vegetable Stew
Instant Pot Mediterranean Beef
Easy Oven-Baked Beef Skillet Nachos
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Easy Irish Pot Roast
Equipment
- slow cooker
Ingredients
- 2 lb Beef Shoulder Roast boneless
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour you can substitute with an all-purpose gluten-free flour, if needed
- 2 garlic cloves mashed
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 4 large carrots peeled and chopped into thirds
- 1 lb baby red potatoes washed and patted dry
- 1 onion peeled and sliced into 8 wedges
- 1 bay leaf
- 11.2 oz Stout beer
- 1 cup beef stock
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 cup dried prunes optional but highly recommended
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Dredge the roast in the flour, coating all sides and shaking off any excess.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
- Brown the roast on all sides, about 2 minutes per side.
- Transfer the roast to a slow cooker sprayed with olive oil cooking spray.
- Cut two small slits into the top of the roast and insert the mashed garlic cloves.
- Place the chopped carrots, potatoes, and onion around the roast and season with garlic salt and pepper.
- In a separate bowl, combine the stout, beef broth, and Worcestershire sauce,and pour it over the roast.
- Add the bay leaf, prunes (if using), and sprigs of thyme.
- Cook on Low for 8 hours or 4 hours on High then switch to Low for one more hour.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.
Nutrition
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Great meal! Will make often!
Thank you RoseAnne!
It was amazingly delicious! I added more Worcestershire sauce as it seemed a bit weak on flavor. I goofed and added one pound of prunes, not one cup. It made it sweeter, but hope it doesn’t make me run to the bathroom faster LOL.
Lol, that’s a LOT of prunes! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it!
Do the potatoes get mushy cooking that long?
Hi Janet! They will be soft, but not mushy. If you like a more firm bite, you can always add them halfway through the cook time.