Beer and wine in one recipe you say? While conventional gastronomical connoisseurs will probably cringe at the idea, this tasty, easy to make dish aims to please. Move over Beef Bourguignon, his drunkard meat-oholic younger brother can now take center stage with an ultimate beerwinemeat lover’s recipe: beer-braised beef, topped with a red wine reduction and served with a lovely Merlot.
Beer-Brasied Beef with Red Wine Reduction Recipe
Inspired by The Pioneer Woman’s Beer-Braised Beef with Onions
Braising beef is totally awesome. You can buy a cheap cut of meat, you barely have to do any proactive cooking, and it generally will come out to fork tendering perfection. Now imagine adding beer to this equation. And a red wine sauce. And a great wine pairing. Yes, it’s too good to be true.
The only requirement for braising beef is that you need to have patience, time and food in stock to snack on while you smell the intense beefybeerywiney aromas. You’ll need some fresh chuck roast beef, salt, pepper, beer, onions, garlic and rosemary. If you’re feeling extra spicy, add some chimichurri to the mix. Cheap beer is fine, you don’t need to use anything to fancy. Quilmes it is!
Slice the garlic and onion and prepare about two tablespoons of rosemary. Fresh rosemary is ideal, but dried works well too.
Generously season the meat on both sides with salt, pepper and chimichurri.
In a large pot (or even better a dutch oven), heat olive oil on high heat and sear the beef, about two minutes on both sides, so it gets a nice, brown color. Set aside on a plate.
In the same pot that you seared the beef, put heat to low and throw in the onions and garlic. Let them sweat by stirring around to give them a workout. Add in the beer and let the sizzling aromas fly. Add the rosemary and more salt and pepper. Taste the liquid to make sure it doesn’t need anymore salt.
Toss the beef in the pot, pressing it down to submerge as much as possible in the liquid. 
Pop the lid on and cook on low for about 3-4 hours (until fork tender). Or, if you are cooking in a dutch oven, it needs to go into the oven on low heat for 2-3 hours. If the meat isn’t tenderly falling apart with a miniscule fork force, it needs more time!
Pulling it with your fingers should be easy, but beware: it’s so delicious that pulling off too much will result it not enough for the actual dish.The meat should fall apart something like this.
Now it’s reduction time! Red wine reduction is just a fancy word for wine sauce. I like to use this simple recipe from Food Republic. 
Serve the meat with sauteed green beans and mashed potatoes to give it the extra calories it needs, and drizzle some red wine sauce on top. In this recipe, I had a homemade salsa criolla laying around made from a simple and colorful dice of red & green peppers, onion, tomatoes and grilled corn.
Pair with a Merlot, like the Finca Sophenia Reserve Merlot 2009, and you got one hell of a trifecta of beer, wine and more wine.
Beer-Braised Beef Ingredients
- Chuck roast (1-3 kilos)
- Salt & Pepper to tastw
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 whole Onions, Peeled And Sliced Thick
- 5 cloves Garlic, Sliced
- 3/4 liter of Beer
- 1/2 teaspoon Rosemary Leaves
- 1 teaspoon Chimichurri
- Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Salsa Criolla (optional)
- Olive oil, for coating the pan
- 1/4 cup shallots, minced
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1/2 cup beef stock
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 275 degrees (only if using dutch oven).
Heat oil in a large pot (or dutch oven) over high heat.
Season meat generously with salt and pepper. Sear meat on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove meat from pan. Lower heat to medium.
Throw in onions and garlic. Stir for 30 seconds. Pour in beer, add rosemary, and salt to taste—about 1 teaspoon. (Do not undersalt!) Add meat to pot, put to submerge, and place lid on pot.
Cook on stove top on low simmer for 3-4 hours (or inside oven for dutch oven users), or until meat is fork tender and falling apart.
Follow directions to make red wine reduction.
Serve on dinner plates and spoon sauce and onions over the top.
Serve with sides like mashed potatoes and green beans.