Steak and Ale Pie! Comfort food at it's best. Tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and ale!

STEAK & ALE PIE

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons butter, divided
1.5 pounds boneless beef, chuck steak or stew meat, cut into 1″ cubes
2 medium onions chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
3 carrots sliced
3 cloves garlic
8 ounces mushrooms sliced
4 sprigs or fresh thyme
1 bottle of Guinness
¼ cup all purpose flour
1 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 refrigerated pie crusts, 1 if you’re only using a top crust
1 egg lightly beaten
deep dish pie pan or cast iron skillet

DIRECTIONS

Over medium heat in a large pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. When hot, brown half of your meat, turning occasionally. Repeat with the remaining beef. Set aside.

Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the same pan and add the onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes, until the veggies begin to soften. When soft, add 1/2 bottle of beer and your beef. Stir. Reserve the remaining beer.

Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir, cook for 1 minute. Add in the broth, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and dijon mustard. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 1 to 1.5 hours until beef is very tender. Stir occasionally. As you cook this, you may find it needs more liquid. That’s where your remaining beer comes in. Add more beer as needed. I tend to use up the entire bottle of beer, but I always use lean stew meat. You may find you don’t need any more liquid. You’ll know. You want a nice sturdy gravy and super tender meat.

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray pie pan with nonstick spray. If you’re using only one crust, you can pour it into your pie pan or cast iron skillet now and let it cool for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, place the crust over the filling, crimp the edges, and brush with the lightly beaten egg. Cut small slits in the top of the crust.

If you’re using two crusts, let your mixture rest for 20 minutes and place the bottom crust in your pan or skillet. After 20 minutes, place the beef mixture in the crust lined pan and top with the other pie crust. Crimp the edges, brush with the lightly beaten egg and cut slits in the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.


Seems like a lot of work, right?  It’s mostly passive time and it’s perfect for those cold wintery days when you’re stuck inside anyway.  I find this to be a real crowd pleaser and something you can make ahead of time.  You can put this pie together and put it in the fridge and bake when ready or you can put it together and freeze for later.  

I don’t like to have a huge pie taking up space in my freezer so what I actually like to do is either double the filling and freeze half or make a single batch and freeze half right off the bat.  It’s just me and wife.  If it’s just me and her eating off this there’s no need for a huge pie.  We’ll just make a smaller pie or make personal hand pies. 

My wife experimented with making the filling in the pressure cooker.  This is what’s different – only use 1/2 cup beef broth and 1/2 cup beer.  Remove the flour completely and instead add 2.5 tablespoons of tapioca pearls when you put everything in the cooker.  Also, she cuts the veggies a little bigger so they can withstand the pressure.  Pressure for 35 minutes on high, or use the meat setting if you have an Instant Pot.  The meat is super tender, as you can imagine, but she still has to use the simmer/sauté function to thicken just a tad, for about 10 minutes.   If you don’t have tapioca pearls, you can make a cornstarch slurry at the end of cook time and simmer it until desired thickness.

So time saver?  Yeah, but slow simmering beef in a cast iron pot…well there’s not much better than that.  

Want other beef goodies?
Best Beef Tips on the Planet
Pressure Cooker Cube Steak
Classic Roast Beef Po Boy – Slow Cooker

Steak and Ale Pie! Comfort food at it's best. Tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and ale!Steak and Ale Pie! Comfort food at it's best. Tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and ale!

Steak and Ale Pie! Comfort food at it's best. Tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and ale!

Steak and Ale Pie! Comfort food at it's best. Tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and ale!

Steak and Ale Pie! Comfort food at it's best. Tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and ale!

And what’s the best way to chop all these veggies? Still this guys. Still this.

24 thoughts on “Steak and Ale Pie”

  1. Yum. This almost sounds like a beef pot pie. I’m not familiar with beer because I don’t drink it, but do you think I can make this with regular beer?

    1. Exactly a beef pot pie! I’m gonna say I wouldn’t use “regular” beer, as in Coors, Miller, Bud, Corona. You’ll be lacking in flavor. To substitute I would use half a cup of red wine and beef broth or all beef broth. Or any dark beer, but light beer, pale ale, I wouldn’t try that. Maybe an IPA would give you something to talk about or a red ale. If you can get your hands on Rogue Double Chocolate, I don’t know, I think that would be really good! All that being said, beef broth would be fine. 🙂 Thanks for checking it out Erlene!

  2. Wow this beef pie sounds great! I do a shepherds pie that is a little similar. I like the idea of adding the Dijon mustard.

  3. This looks good. I’ll share with my husband; he loves to cook. Thanks for joining the To Grandma’s House We Go link party! Hope to see you next week.

  4. Your Steak and Ale Pie is such a great idea and looks delicious! Hope you are having a great day and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and come back to see us real soon!
    Miz Helen

  5. Oh my husband would LOVE this and his birthday is coming up! Cheers to a perfect birthday meal! Thanks for sharing to the Friday Frenzy!

  6. We love pies and when we recently visited the UK from Australia, we had a steak and guiness pie. It was delicious. Thanks for sharing with us at #BloggersPitStop

    1. Jaxx, this looks delicious! And you’re right…one of those dishes that’s perfect for a Winter’s day. That browned crust is very inviting, and I love that it’s chock full of meat…not like grocery store varieties that are all bread. I’m pinning it!

    1. Thanks Angie! Pie day? Didn’t know that was a thing…but I do think the world could use more pie!

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