Big Batch: An Irishman’s Wife’s Irish Stew
Because what’s the good of an Irishman’s Wife, if she doesn’t have a good, simple, Irish Stew recipe up her sleeve?
A winter staple. As I write this, it’s a freezing Sunday evening. Snow is falling, and we’re all hoping it settles so we can have a snow day tomorrow!
I always serve this traditional Irish lamb stew with creamy mash potato or colcannon. Freshly baked sourdough smothered with smoked butter works a treat too. For me, slow-cooked stew is the ultimate comfort food. Yep, there is a lot of potato in this one, but if it were up to the Irishman in our house, there would be potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If I have learned anything being married to an Irishman, it’s that the Irish basically class potatoes are as a food group!

What you need to get started
- Vegetables – leek, brown onion, carrot, dutch carrots, potatoes, garlic
- Fresh Herbs – thyme, flat leaf parsley, bay leaf
- Lamb Shoulder – trimmed and cut roughly into 4cm chunks
- Beef Stock
- Pantry staples – Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, sea salt, pepper
When it comes to what to cook a traditional stew in, nothing beats cast iron. I love my cast iron pots (we have a relationship!). Most of my cookware is Le Creuset enameled cast iron, although I do own a smattering of other brands too like Chasseur, Lodge & Staub. This stuff is the bomb for slow cooking, however, it just hates high heat and so to render that fat, good and proper in the recipe, I use a frypan for this step in the recipe. If you use seasoned cast iron instead of enameled cast iron, feel free to skip this step.
The details…
- Preheat oven to 150°c.
- In a large, cast iron pot, combine olive oil, leek & onion. Cook on the stovetop on a low heat till softened (about 10 minutes). Add garlic. Cook for 1 minute and stir through. In a hot frypan, seal the lamb chunks. Turn once and seal the other side (usually about 1 minute on each side) This will need to be done in stages. Don’t overcrowd the pan. We’re sealing in all the goodness and rendering any fat on the outside!
- Combine the sealed lamb into the onion/leek pot. Add the beef stock, large carrot, and herbs. Bring to simmer point on top of stove, then pop in the oven (lid on) for 3 hours.
- Remove from oven. Remove mushy carrot (you’ve used all its good flavour) and add the baby potatoes, and dutch baby carrots.
- Pop back in the oven for a further 30 mins. Remove from the oven again. Taste test and make sure that lamb is falling apart.
- Stir through the worcestershire sauce and season with salt/pepper.
TIP: Make enough to keep you going a couple of days. Stew always tasted better on days 2 and 3.
How to serve up Irish Stew
I generally serve up my Irish stew with a side of colcannon or creamy mash and a slice of Irish brown bread, slathered with butter. This is a big batch recipe so we eat it over a few days. To mix things up, try popping any leftover stew into a pie dish and top with a layer of puff pastry. Bake and serve with steamed vegetables. In Winter, it also makes a cracking soup. Just increase the amount of stock in the recipe. Heaven on a cold day.
Love slow-cooking? Here are a few more of my slow-cooked recipes…
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An Irishman’s Wife’s Irish Stew
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 people 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Irish
Description
Because what’s the good on an Irishman’s wife if she doesn’t have a good Irish Stew recipe up her sleeve?
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil (extra virgin)
- 1 Leek (finely sliced)
- 1 Brown Onion (finely sliced)
- 3 cloves Garlic (crushed)
- 1.2 kg Lamb Shoulder (cut into 4cm cubes)
- 1 carrot (large)
- 1 l Beef Stock
- 1 bunch Dutch Carrots (trimmed)
- 6 baby potatoes (or 3 larger potatoes cut in half)
- 1 Bay Leaf
- Sprigs Thyme
- Sprigs Parsley (flat leaf )
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- Sea Salt Flakes
- Pepper (freshly ground)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150°c.
- In a large, cast iron pot, combine olive oil, leek & onion. Cook on the stovetop on a low heat till softened (about 10 minutes). Add garlic. Cook for 1 minute and stir through. In a hot frypan, seal the lamb chunks. Turn once and seal the other side (usually about 1 minute on each side) This will need to be done in stages. Don’t overcrowd the pan. We’re sealing in all the goodness and rendering any fat on the outside!
- Combine the sealed lamb into the onion/leek pot. Add the beef stock, large carrot, and herbs. Bring to simmer point on top of stove, then pop in the oven (lid on) for 2.5 hours.
- Remove from oven. Remove mushy carrot (you’ve used all its good flavour) and add the baby potatoes, and dutch baby carrots.
- Pop back in the oven for a further 30 mins. Remove from the oven again. Taste test and make sure that lamb is falling apart.
- Stir through the worcestershire sauce and season with salt/pepper.
Equipment

Notes
You may wonder why i didn’t nix the frypan and just one pot cook the whole thing. You actually can. The reason i don’t is that i love my cast iron pot (we have a relationship!). Most of my cookware is Le Creuset enameled cast iron. This stuff is the bomb for slow cooking, however it just hates high heat and i really wanted to render that fat good and proper!
If you prefer more of a sauce than a broth, try adding a potato with the large carrot. Instead of discarding like the carrot, remove the potato, mash thoroughly and stir back through. It will thicken things up a little and give you a more gravy like consistancy.
Keywords: Dinner, lamb, slow cooked, stew