Beef Bourguignon – French Beef Stew

Julia Child’s Boeuf à la Bourguignonne

I fell in love with Julia Child after watching My Life in France. Since then, I have since been gifted with a collection of her cookbooks and cooking shows on DVD. My daughters and I love watching her, especially in the early years of filming. She was a woman after my own heart. She loved to cook, and she loved to eat!

This recipe is also known as Beef Burgundy, Boeuf à la Bourguignonne, or even French Beef Stew. What makes French stew different from a regular stew? It’s cooked in wine–long and slow. And believe me, you can taste the difference. A simple country stew becomes a meal you can serve to your most honored guests.

More Beef Dishes

Ingredients for Beef Bourguignon – French Beef Stew

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Instructions for Making This Recipe

Preheat oven to 450°F. Gather your ingredients so that you have everything close at hand on the counter or table.

Slice bacon into small pieces. With a sharp chef’s knife, cut the roast into small pieces. Pat-dry the pieces of meat with paper towels.

For this recipe you want a nice quality meat such as a rump or chuck roast. You could even use round, although it may not be as tender or juicy. 

Peel and slice the carrots. Slice the onions. Mince the garlic. Set aside in prep bowls until ready to use. If you are using beef bouillon cubes, go ahead and add 2 cups of boiling water to it, to make the beef broth.

When making soups and stews such as this recipe, I prefer to use bouillon cubes to make my broth, as it adds extra depth to the dish. Plus, it’s a less expensive option unless you have homemade stock in your pantry.

In a large Dutch oven, cook bacon pieces in olive oil over medium-high heat until browned, 8-10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a large plate.

Add prepared pieces of beef to the hot Dutch oven and sear in remaining bacon grease.

Do not crowd the pan, but cook the pieces of meat in batches, so that the meat cooks in the oil, and not in it’s own juices.

Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. As the pieces turn brown, remove them with slotted spoon and place on plate with bacon, repeating until all meat has browned.

Add the sliced carrots and diced onions to the bacon fat and cook for a few minutes until lightly browned. Return seared meat and bacon to the Dutch oven and sprinkle with all-purpose flour. Toss to coat.

Place the Dutch oven in preheated oven and cook for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and toss the meat and vegetables once more. Return to the oven for another 4 minutes.

These repeated steps for baking the roux at a high temperature in the oven may seem unnecessary. But this is one of those “meticulous steps” that really adds depth and flavor to the dish. Don’t skip this part!

Remove from oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. Add the beef stock, dry red wine, minced garlic, tomato paste, dried parsley, crushed thyme, and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Cover and return to oven to cook for 3 – 3 1/2 hours. Toward the end of the baking time, prepare the onions and mushrooms.

Sauté Onions and Mushrooms

Heat the bottom of a large skillet with butter and olive oil. Add the quartered onions and mushrooms and sauté for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until slightly browned.

If you would prefer to use pearl onions rather than the quartered onion, please do so. There IS something special about those little onions on the serving plate. Sometimes, I can find frozen pearl onions at our local grocery store, so that is an option as well!

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