belgian beef, onion, and beer stew

I bought a cook book last summer and found this recipe in it recently and made it. I have to say it was wonderful so i wanted to share :D.

serves 6-8

1/4 lb bacon, cut into thin strips (when i made this i used almost 3 lb of bacon to get the right amount of bacon fat for cooking i saved the extra bacon for sandwiches)
3lb onions, sliced thinly (i sliced mine chunky 🙂 i like them that way)
3 lb beef chuck, cut across grain in 1/3 thick slices or cubed. ( i used cosco stew meat precut)
1cup of flour (for dusting) +2 tablespoons for later
2(12 ounces) bottles dark beer (i used guiness)
2 tablespoons of apple cider viniger
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried.
kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 bay leaves
(i found that added 1 squeezed lime greatly improves the taste)

In a large, heavy skillet, preferably cast iron, brown bacon until the fat is rendered. Remove bacon and half the fat and reserve for broth. Saute the onions in remaining bacon fat until well browned. Remove onions from pan and reserve. Add the remaining bacon fat to pan. Pat beef pieces dry otherwise it will not brown properly then dust beef with flour, shaking off excess. Brown the beef well on all sides, working in batched, if necessary. Remove beef slices from pan. Add 2 tablespoons flour to the fat remaining in the pan use a fork or whisk to mix into a paste or rue . Add beer, vinegar, brown sugar, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste,and bay leaves. bring liquid to boil. Layer the beef, onions, and liquid in a casserole dish and bring to boil on top of stove. (i skipped this last step and just combined ingredients in a dutch oven and left the lid off for the first 30 min of cook time in the oven just until i saw that the mix was simmering then i put the lid on and left in for the rest of the time.) Cover and place in a 300 F oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the beef is tender when pierced. remove and serve 😀

i added dumpling to mine to 😀

twindragonsmum 😀
they do make non alcoholic beers, i think the reason this recipe calls for beer is the yeast and hops in it 😀