This Steak and Ale Pie is a traditional Irish dish that is found in every home and pub! Slow-cooked beef is tender, with a rich, flavorful stout gravy and then topped with flaky pastry. Comfort food at its finest!
The Irish love their savory pies! This pie is made with richly flavored meat and stout, usually Guinness. The Irish claim that Guinness is the only dark ale suitable for cooking beef!
What makes a Perfect Steak and Ale Pie?
Steak and Ale pie should have incredibly tender beef, cooked for hours and hours in a richly flavored gravy. Vegetables are often added and can vary depending on your preferences and what you have on hand.
Onions add plenty of flavor and feature in most steak and ale pies. Other vegetables that can be included are carrots, mushrooms, peas, or potatoes. Add all of them or none of them – completely up to you!
What kind of meat should I use?
Chuck roast, stew meat or eye of round can all be used in Steak and Ale Pie.
They will become extremely tender as they simmer in the gravy and will melt in your mouth as you enjoy this pie.
Flaky Pastry Topping
Store-bought pastry will work perfectly in this recipe and will provide a delicious, flaky buttery contrast to the rich meat-filled gravy.
You can also make your own pastry if you choose. I like to make large batches of puff pastry and keep them in the freezer for meals like this.
On the day that I prepared this Steak and Ale Pie for this post, I had run out of homemade puff pastry and I planned to use a box of frozen store-bought pastry that I thought was in the freezer.
But when I went to thaw the pastry, I had NONE!
So I had to throw together a quick Rough Puff Pastry which takes a fraction of the time of homemade puff pastry but still has all of the flake and the flavor!
As a side note, I have been working without a refrigerator of freezer in my kitchen for the last week. Our refrigerator died but we are lucky that we have a refrigerator and freezer in the garage PLUS, with the polar vortex keeping outside temperatures around 0 degrees fahrenheit, my insulated garage is staying below 35F. So I can keep food cold but, man, it’s annoying to run to the garage for every little thing!
So here is how I chilled my rough puff…in the snow by the back door!
Making this Steak and Ale Pie
The meat filling in this pie should simmer on the stove for at least an hour to thicken the gravy and tenderize the meat so it may not be a a weeknight meal unless you have extra time.
This pie is the perfect comfort food to serve for Sunday lunch or supper or for a traditional Irish dinner with family or friends! Served with Traditional Irish Soda Bread and Ginger Whiskey Carrots, this will impress and satisfy!
Steps to making this recipe:
- First make your pastry, if you are making it homemade. If you are using frozen puff pastry or even frozen pie crust, thaw it in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
- Cut the meat up into 1-inch pieces and dredge in the flour, salt & pepper.
- Brown the meat in the hot oil. It doesn’t need to cook all the way through, just brown and create a bit of crust on the pieces.
- Deglaze the bottom of the pan with some beef stock by scraping up the yummy goodness in the pan! Don’t waste a bit of that flavor!
- Cook the vegetables until softened a bit.
- Add the ingredients that will make up the gravy and stir together well.
- Add the meat back into the pot and simmer for an hour to an hour and a half.
- Cool the filling (you don’t want to put cold pastry on hot filling because you will loose the butter in the pastry that creates the flakiness).
- Roll your pastry and cut to fit. Cut decorations if you are using them. Brush it all in egg yolk wash. And now bake!
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Steak and Ale Pie
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 pounds boneless chuck or eye of round steak cut into 1-inch cubes
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 1 1/4 cups beef stock
- 1 onion coarsely chopped
- 3 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 cup stout I use Guinness
- 1 pound store-bought or homemade puff pastry or homemade rough puff pastry
- 1 egg yolk lightly beaten
Instructions
- If you are making homemade puff or rough puff pastry, make it first and refrigerate until needed.
- Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl, then toss the beef cubes in the mixture until coated.
- Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the beef, in batches if needed, and transfer to a plate. Deglaze the skillet with 1/4 cup of the beef stock, scraping off pieces that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add this to the plate with the beef.
- Heat another 1-2 tablespoons of oil in the skillet and cook the onion and carrots for 5 to 6 minutes, until softened. Add the tomato paste, rosemary, stout and remaining stock. Add the meat back into the skillet or dutch oven. Heat to a boil, then simmer for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes with a lid on the pot. Check the season and season to taste.
- With a slotted spoon, remove the meat and vegetables to an oven-proof dish that you want to serve in. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Roll your pre-made pastry to about 1/4 inch thick and cut 1/2 inch larger than the oven dish you are baking in. Cut small decorations for the top, if using. Place the pastry on top of the meat mixture and tuck the extra bit around the edges down into the meat filling. Brush with the egg yolk and then place the decorations. Brush the top of the decorations with the remaining egg yolk. Poke several slashes through the top so that the steam can vent.
- Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until your pastry is done.