To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I have made simple and delicious Ballymaloe Irish Stew for Two (or Four). I think you’ll really love it, so let’s get to it!
Another stew recipe you might like is my southern chicken and dumplings.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my stew recipes in one place. Thanks for stopping by!
Ballymaloe House
Ballymaloe Irish Stew is named for the Ballymaloe Country House Hotel in County Cork, Ireland. The Allen family has lovingly run the inn, restaurant, and cooking school since 1964, and their guiding principal is use what you have on hand, get the rest locally, and let the ingredients shine.
I’m not sure if they’re the original farm to fork restaurant, but they certainly could have helped pioneer the idea.
Ballymaloe Irish Stew: Simple Goodness
Look up recipes for Irish Stew or lamb stew, you’re apt to find ones with hugely long ingredient lists that might include tomato paste, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Guinness Stout, wine, bay leaves, celery and more. While these versions of Irish stew are no doubt very tasty, they are rather complicated.
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There’s nothing wrong with complicated recipes–I am often a fan of complicated. But there is also beauty in simplicity and in letting ingredients shine with a minimum of enhancements.
Carrots, onions, potatoes, and simple seasoning combined with a long cooking process yield a sweet, complex and very approachable stew welcome on cold nights.
What Makes This Irish Stew So Delicious?
As with any recipe with a limited list of ingredients, the deliciousness is dependent on the quality of your ingredients and how you cook them.
The Ingredients You Need:
- lamb loin
- salt and pepper
- baby carrots
- pearl onions or cippolini onions
- chicken stock (homemade is always best, especially with a simple dish)
- thyme
- white potatoes
- good Irish butter (get the salted kind here for the additional flavor)
Cooking the lamb loin chops in lamb fat intensifies the overall lamby goodness of this dish.
Note that the overall flavor profile of this stew is lamby/herbal/sweet. The sweetness comes from caramelizing the carrots and onions and from the long, slow cooking process.
The time is mostly hands off, and the flavor is more than worth it.
More Irish-Inspired Recipes
The Ballymaloe Irish Stew is really a meal all to itself, so it’s perfect for serving as the main part of your St. Patrick’s Day meal.
Consider making my easy (super easy) chocolate mint shamrock hand pies for dessert. If you have a bit more time on your hands, you really cannot go wrong with my chocolate stout cake with burnt caramel buttercream. So very good!
Ballymaloe Irish Stew Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound bone-in lamb loin chops
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper , to taste
- 6 oz baby carrots , peeled (or larger carrots, peeled and cut into chunks)
- 8 oz pearl or cippolini onions , peeled (you can also use 1 large white onion cut into chunks)
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2-4 medium white potatoes (one per serving)
- sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley and thyme
- Irish butter
Instructions
- Cut off any fat on the loin chops. Set the meat aside.
- In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, render the lamb fat over medium low heat. Discard “cracklin’s.” Set aside half the fat (maybe 1 tablespoon or so) Increase the heat to medium high.
- Season the lamb with salt and pepper and brown well in the lamb fat. Remove from the pan.
- Add the reserved lamb fat, and cook the onions and carrots with a bit of salt and pepper until caramelized in spots and somewhat softened, about ten minutes.
- Pour in the chicken stock and add the thyme sprigs.
- Peel the potatoes and nestle them into the liquid.
- Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are cooked through, about an hour. Carefully turn the potatoes after half an hour.
- Remove the potatoes from the liquid and set aside to cool.
- Continue to simmer the lamb and vegetables for another hour.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, remove the bones from the chops and discard. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and return to the pot.
- Cool and refrigerate the stew and the potatoes overnight or up to three days.
- When you’re ready to assemble and serve the stew, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Divide the stew evenly between two two-cup oven-safe cups or bowls or four one-cup oven-safe cups or bowls.
- Slice the potatoes into thick discs and arrange them on top of the stew in each bowl. Try to completely cover the stew with the potato slices. It’s fine if you have two layers of potatoes.
- Top each serving with a sprig or two each of parsley and thyme, a couple of thin pats of Irish butter, salt and pepper.
- Cover each bowl with parchment and then foil. Place on a try to catch any spills, and bake for an hour.
- Take off parchment and foil and broil until the potatoes brown in spots, about 3-5 minutes.
- Allow stew to cool for ten minutes before serving.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day, and enjoy the Irish Stew, friends!
Thanks so much for spending some time with me today. Take care, and have a lovely day.
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Oddly enough, I have been on the lookout for a great stew recipe for years – and lamb even better than beef! This looks perfect and the quantities look like they’d indeed do for me and JP. Delicious and comforting, I guess that’s why I love stew.
You guys will love it. A long cooking process, but so easy!