Beef Bourguignon is slow-simmer comfort in one pot, with a rich red wine gravy. A classic French beef stew where chunks of beef are braised low and slow in gravy with mushrooms, carrots, herbs, and bacon until melt-in-your-mouth tender.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
Don’t let the fancy name fool you; this Beef Bourguignon recipe is actually easy to make!
- Flavor: Rich and cozy with tender beef, savory mushrooms, and a deep, slow-simmered sauce that is warm and comforting.
- Technique: Searing the beef is an important step since it builds deep flavor, and cooking the flour briefly helps create a rich, velvety gravy without extra thickeners.
- Recommended Tools: A Dutch oven helps distribute heat evenly and gives you nice, reliable browning.
- Serving Suggestions: Serve with crusty homemade bread & butter for soaking up all that savory sauce.
- Freezing: Beef bourguignon is freezer-friendly and perfect for make-ahead lunches or batch cooking.
Ingredient Notes
- Beef Chuck Roast: My first choice is always beef chuck since it comes out so incredibly tender. And it’s budget-friendly, so it’s the best of both worlds. Trim and cut it into 1-inch cubes.
- Bacon: Thick-cut pieces of chopped bacon are best for this dish. The bacon fat adds flavor when browning the beef.
- Vegetables: Use red or gold baby potatoes, or potato chunks. Mushrooms, carrots, and onions provide the base for an excellent stew.
- Gravy: Red wine is the key ingredient. Choose a dry wine like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, or Burgundy. Beef broth (or stock if you have it), tomato paste, garlic, and herbs finish the job to perfection.
Variations
- For a more traditional French version (à la Julia Child), saute or braise mushrooms and pearl onions and add them at the end, so they don’t break down in the stew.
- You can also use stewing beef, round steak, or brisket. These cuts of beef will likely need more time in the oven than chuck, so make sure the beef is fork-tender before removing the beef bourguignon from the oven.
- Use pancetta in place of bacon for a milder, less smoky flavor. Taste and adjust the salt as you go, because pancetta is often a bit saltier than bacon.
- Try skipping the potatoes and serve red wine beef stew over mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or buttered noodles.
How to Make Beef Bourguignon
- Crisp the bacon, then sear the beef in batches.
- Soften onions and carrots, stir in flour. Add warm broth and deglaze the pan.
- Add remaining ingredients, cover, and bake (full recipe below).
- Adjust seasoning and garnish with bacon.
Tips for the Best Results
- Wine is an essential ingredient in this beef bourguignon recipe. If you don’t have wine, I would recommend making either beef stew or a goulash for a similar dish.
- Pat the beef dry and sear in batches without crowding the pan.
- Room temperature wine and broth will keep the stew cooking at the same temperature when added.
- Cooking low and slow ensures the most tender meat. If the meat is not tender, it needs more time.
- Thicken beef bourguignon further with a cornstarch slurry. Combine 2 tablespoons each of cornstarch and cold water. Drizzle into the simmering stew while whisking to thicken—you may not need all the mixture.
Storing and Reheating
This dish is perfect for making ahead since flavors marry and it tastes even better the next day!
- Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freeze for up to 3 months, and thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
- Reheat gently either on the stovetop or in the microwave with a splash of broth to loosen the sauce.
Cozy Cold Weather Favorites
Did you make this Beef Bourguignon? Leave a rating and comment below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 ounces bacon chopped, thick sliced preferred
- 3 pounds beef chuck roast trimmed and cubed, or stewing beef*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 large yellow onion chopped
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups beef broth or beef stock, heated
- 2 cups dry red wine
- 12 ounces mushrooms halved
- 1 pound baby potatoes halved, optional
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 whole bay leaf
- chopped fresh parsley for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- In a Dutch oven or a large oven-safe pot, cook the bacon over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it's crisp. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the fat in the pot.
- Gently dab the beef dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Increase the heat to medium-high and sear the beef in small batches until browned. Transfer to a plate.
- In the same pot, add the onions and carrots. You can add a bit of oil if needed. Cook over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until the onions soften slightly.
- Add the browned beef back to the pot and sprinkle with flour, stirring to coat. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the broth all at once and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot.
- Add wine, mushrooms, potatoes (if using), tomato paste, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf. Cover the pot with a lid and transfer it to the oven. Bake the stew for 2½ to 3 hours or until the beef is fork-tender.
- Remove the bay leaf and stir in ¾ of the bacon. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired. Garnish with remaining bacon and chopped fresh parsley.
Notes
*If using stewing beef, you may need a little bit of extra time for it to become tender.
- Potatoes can be added to this stew or leave them out and serve the stew over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. Use baby potatoes, red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes.
- Choose a dry red wine, such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet, or Merlot. Wine is needed to flavor this recipe.
- To Thicken stew further after baking, combine equal parts cornstarch and water. Add to simmering stew a little bit at a time while whisking to reach desired consistency.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 582 | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 47g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 145mg | Sodium: 1416mg | Potassium: 1293mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 2694IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 64mg | Iron: 5mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Dinner, Entree, Main Course
Cuisine American, French© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I’m positive your recipe is the one I used the first I attempted this dish and it was absolutely FANTASTIC! I’m so glad I found it again and I am definitely going to make it again. Pined now so I won’t lose it again.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Thank you so much,
Susan
Vancouver, WA
This was a great recipe- thank you for making it so easy and delicious! My family loved it! Do you think I could add less broth/wine next time since I didn’t add the potatoes? I felt like I had a LOT of liquid left over. Will definitely make this again! Thank you. :)
The potatoes do soak up some liquid while cooking so you could reduce it a bit if you prefer. You could also serve this dish with pasta instead of potatoes and use the extra sauce to pour over top! It is so yummy!
The recipe was FANTASTIC! Thank you….
You’re welcome Phyllis! So happy to hear that you love this beef bourguignon!
I made this for our Sunday dinner last night, it was amazing! I did add more carrots and mushrooms, but everything else was exactly as written. I am not a big fan of pearl onions, it was so great finding a recipe that didn’t call for them.
Thank you for all the great recipes you post, I have made so many!
Great simple recipe, wholesome, very tasty. Used a bold “ripe” red. Not very expensive. 14.5% which gave great flavour
What brand of Wine do you suggest for the beef stew? Dry or sweet?
As mentioned in the post Roxie, I suggest that you use full-bodied red wine like burgundy or a Cabernet to add the savory flavor that makes this recipe so famous! Wine doesn’t need to be expensive to be great in this recipe (but I do suggest cooking with a wine you wouldn’t mind drinking). Enjoy the bourguignon! I just may need to make it again myself!
This was a terrific recipe! I think it will be my go-to from now on. I had bacon grease in the fridge, so I browned the beef in that instead of cooking bacon. I also left out mushrooms as we don’t care for them and just did more carrots and added a few cut up Yukon golds the last hour. It was really tasty and made great leftovers! Thanks for a great recipe!!
You’re very welcome Ashley! So glad you love this beef bourguignon!
Quick question: my mother can’t have tomato paste. Is there anything I could substitute as I’d be a bit wary of just leaving it out entirely?
You could leave it out or try a very little bit of tomato sauce to add a similar flavor.
Made this at the cottage last weekend. Cozy fall comfort food. This recipe is SPECTACULAR!!!! I’m making it again this weekend for my family. Love it!
This recipe is excellent! I do have to say it took me an hour or a little more to prep it. I highly recommend this and it is so worth the effort.
EXCELLENT!
The beef bourguignon was fantastic. The recipe took a while, but it was worth every minute. Everyone in my family loved it, even the picky eaters. The instructions in the recipe were spot on, no surprises, and the time was accurate. Let it cook that long, it turns out fantastic! I was working from home, so I took a break from meetings, did all the cutting and prepping, stuck it in the oven and went back to work for 3 hours. Aldi has a cheap wine – Winking Owl Cabernet, $2.95 in our area, feel like I was wasting money using a full bottle of wine in the recipe. It was great for the recipe, I will certainly make it again!
Looking forward to trying it!
This was a huge disappointment! Wasted two cups of a nice red wine. I dont know what was missing. Tasteless
This looks absolutely delicious and I cannot wait to make this! Thank you, Holly.
Enjoy Deborah, can’t wait to hear how you like it!
I made this tonight for dinner and it was glorious. I used a Pinot Noir for the wine (Kendell Jackson, 2019), dried herbs per the alternatives you showed, but I accidentally grabbed baby portobello mushrooms. (It didn’t do any harm.) Followed the directions and it didn’t need any thickening. The beef was beautifully rendered and the stew was downright silky. This one goes into my rotation.
I’m so glad you loved it, thank you for sharing your wine choice!
What kind of red wine do you use?
Use full-bodied red wine like burgundy or a Cabernet to add the savory flavor that makes this recipe so famous! Wine doesn’t need to be expensive to be great in this recipe (but I do suggest cooking with a wine you wouldn’t mind drinking).
Just a quico question about the Beed bourguignon recipe (for 8) … can this recipe be made in advance? I want to serve it as a Christmas Day buffet dish and would like to do as much as possible the day (or 2) before. Thanks
Like most Beef Stew recipes, this can be made in advance and reheats well. Enjoy!
Hi, do you think this can be made in a 6qt crock-pot ? I’m a very inexperienced cook and it’s hot in my apartment so I’m trying to find things to make in a slow cooker but this recipe sounds divine. Thank you.
While I haven’t tried it, I do think it would work in a slow cooker. I would suggest preparing the recipe as directed and following the cook times on our Crock Pot Beef Stew. Let us know how it goes for you!
One more question, Holly. You said to reheat it… stove top or oven?
Either would work. I usually reheat on the stove because it’s a bit quicker.
Thanks. I think this will be perfect for Christmas Day. I have a gluten-free daughter (will use GF flour), a diabetic son, and a grandson that is allergic to shell fish, BB should please everyone.
Sounds like the perfect choice!
If I use 4 lbs. Chuck cubes, should I bake it more than 3 hours as stated in recipe?
As long as you have enough broth to cover the meat 3 hours should be enough time. Check the beef and if it isn’t quite tender, you can leave it a little bit longer.
How would I cook this either totally stovetop or crockpot? If so, can you give directions?
This could be simmered on a stovetop at a very low heat. Follow the preparation directions and instead of baking, place on a stovetop and bring to a very low simmer. Cook covered for about 90 minutes or until beef and veggies are tender. Thicken as directed. Let us know how it goes for you!
Yum! I love beef bourguignon! Definitely going to try this on an upcoming fall weekend!
It’s perfect for fall, so cozy! Enjoy the recipe Amanda.