Best Beef Bourguignon Recipe from The Food Charlatan (2024)

Honestly if I had a dollar for every time Eric has said to me, “Well that’s the way my mom always did it,” I’d be a very rich lady. Childhood habits tend to achieve a sort of godlike, noble status. Sometimes it’s kind of terrifying to think about what kind of impact I’m having on my own children’s psyche.

Another time recently Eric’s mom Kris was visiting. She was searching the fridge for the Worcestershire sauce and finally gave up and asked me where it was. I said, it’s in the pantry of course! Isn’t that where you store it? No, she said, her mom always put it in the fridge, so that’s what she does too. I said, well, my mom always put it in the pantry, so that’s what I do.

We ended up checking the label, because who knows! We both were just doing what our moms did! (It’s shelf-stable, turns out.) But isn’t it so funny how sometimes you just do something because that’s the way your mom did it? What other way even IS there? Kris, I will show you the proper way to fold Eric’s underwear the next time you’re in town.

Speaking of dyed in the wool traditions…

What is Beef Bourguignon? (Also known as Beef Burgundy or Boeuf Bourguignon)

BEEF BOURGUIGNON. The sultan of swat. The king of crash. The colossus of clout! Or maybe the T-Rex of Stews? Does anyone else feel a wee bit intimidated by this iconic dish?? (Also, if you can name that movie, hat’s off to you.)

There sure is a lot of hullabaloo about this recipe. Julia Child taught Americans how to make it 60 years ago, and we’ve all been tripped up on her version ever since. (Kind of like how your mom folds your underwear a certain way??)

I recently read a book about an American mom raising her kids in France. Most French children eat on what she calls “the national feeding schedule:” 8am, noon, 4pm, and 8pm. Her French pediatrician didn’t tell her about the schedule (she found out when she enrolled her kid in preschool). She asked him why he hadn’t mentioned it, and he said that he knew she would take the schedule too literally instead of finding her baby’s rhythm.

Sometimes we Americans get a little obsessed with rules. But simmer down you guys. It’s just a thick beef stew with some wine in it. If you want to make it a little different than Julia, I will still sit with you at lunch. She even says in the preface to the recipe in her book: “As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon.” Let’s go wild my friends.

Beef Bourguignon vs Beef Stew

Beef bourguignon is really just a type of beef stew–a thicker, richer beef stew with a wine sauce. Regular beef stew doesn’t include wine, but beef bourguignon always does.

Beef Bourguignon Ingredients

Here’s a quick shopping list to help you gather your ingredients. See the recipe card below for the full ingredients and instructions!

The Bacon (or is it Salt Pork?)

A good Beef Bourguignon starts out with pork. In France, they use lardon, which is kind of like thick bacon, except it’s not smoked. Most of the bacon and lardon here in the US is smoked, so Julia Child recommends blanching the bacon in boiling water for 10 minutes, to reduce the smokey flavor.

I tried it and felt like I was committing an actual crime. The resulting bacon (after draining and frying for a few minutes) is pale and flavorless. I kept trying to steal bites, like I do whenever there is bacon in my kitchen. I would eat it and think “why did I just put this flavorless fat into my mouth” and then spit it in the sink.

I’m sure it’s fine in a stew. You will still get lots of fatty flavor. But I just couldn’t do it.

Instead, I used salt pork in my stew. This was my first time buying salt pork; it is cut from the same part of the pig as bacon (the belly) but is not smoked. Instead it is cured with salt, hence the name. It will give you that crispy, fatty flavor you want, minus the smokiness, which is closer to the flavor you would get in France. It’s delicious when fried and I couldn’t stop stealing bites.

Fair warning: it is indeed quite salty. I didn’t add any other salt to my beef bourguignon besides what I sprinkled on my beef before searing.

Can you just fry regular bacon and skip the blanching step? Absolutely! Your stew will have a smokey notes which is not traditional, but it will still be delicious! Who’s going to say no to bacon?

The Beef: what is the best cut of meat for Beef Burgundy?

Next up: the beef! We are cooking this meat low and slow. I love to use a simple chuck roast. It’s cheap, it’s reliable. Here are some other cuts:

• Chuck roast
• Brisket
• Round. Either a rump roast or bottom round. Top round works too.

“But all these cuts of meat are cheap and lean and tough! Isn’t Beef Bourguignon supposed to be special??”

Here’s why tough cuts of beef are best for slow cooking and braising: all these cuts come from well-exercised muscles of the cow. They are lower in fat. But they are higher in connective muscle tissue called collagen. Collagen, when cooked low and slow, turns into gelatin, which tenderizes the meat and gives it that melt-in-your-mouth texture.

I like chuck roast best, because it has plenty of connective tissue but also a decent amount of fat. Best of both worlds! My next choice would be brisket.

Be careful with the packages marked “stew beef” at your store. I have used them successfully in the past, but just be aware that sometimes butchers throw in random scraps from other cuts. What cuts of meat end up in your pre-chopped stew beef really depends on your butcher. Ask them! MOST of the time, if cooked slow, stew beef will turn out fine. But if you have big plans for your beef bourguignon, just buy the cut of meat you know you want and chop it yourself. (Or ask your butcher to chop it!)

The Beef Stock

The better your beef stock, the better your beef bourguignon. Today I’m partnering with Zoup! Good, Really Good® Broth to tell you about their AMAZING broth selections! I love Zoup! Broth products and use them in my soups and stews all the time (like this Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup I made last year!)

Zoup! Good, Really Good® Beef Bone Broth is the perfect ingredient for this beef bourguignon. It is kettle cooked in small batches and you can tell, because the flavor is way more complex than what you get from mass-produced beef broth. It really is good enough to drink. It’s also low calorie, paleo-friendly, and free of artificial ingredients, preservatives, hormones, gluten, GMO’s, fat, trans fat, and saturated fat.

Their broths were developed by a 20+ year soup veteran and the team behind Zoup Eatery, a restaurant that specializes in soup. How cool is that? Soup is so underrated. If there is anyone I would trust with making a good broth, it’s a bunch of soup experts. Which is why they’ve taken their broths to the masses. You can find Zoup! Broth just about anywhere these days (I found it at my local Savemart), or you can always buy it online at ZoupBroth.com and Amazon.

In addition to Beef Bone Broth, they now offer new seafood broth, new spicy chicken bone broth, plus all the usual suspects like chicken broth, low-sodium chicken broth, veggie broth, and chicken bone broth, plus organic chicken and veggie broth. Head over to ZoupBroth.com to learn more, and follow @ZoupGoodReallyGood on Facebook and Instagram, and @ZoupGoodReallyGoodBroth on Pinterest.

Best Wine for Beef Bourguignon

Do you see the little sticker here where it says, “BEST Pinot Noir!” I feel like this is that part on Elf where Buddy sees the sign that says “Best Cup of Coffee in New York” and congratulates all the employees for achieving such a feat. No, it’s NOT the best coffee in New York, and no, this is NOT the best Pinot Noir.

I know because I went to the wine aisle in the store. Found the section for Pinot Noir. On the top shelf there was a bottle marked for $30. I thought to myself, H to the no. The next shelf had one for $18. Then I looked allll the way down on the bottom shelf where I saw this “Best Pinot Noir” for a whopping 5 dollars. I will take that one thankyouverymuch! Only the BEST for me!

Now listen. If you are a wine person, then buy your fancy wine and put it in your stew. Drop $30 on the top shelf. The rest of us will buy the cheap or moderate wine and still get a really amazing beef bourguignon. Usually I just use cooking wine, because hello cheap. But I felt like Beef Bourguignon deserved at least a little step up. (plus cooking wine has salt in it and I was worried about the salt level from the salt pork.)

Full disclosure: I do not drink alcohol. Obviously I’m not qualified to talk about wine selections. Use your best judgment! Here’s what Julia Child says: “Use a full-bodied, young red wine such as one of those suggested for serving.” Any red wine that you enjoy will be great in this recipe.

What if you want to skip the wine entirely? Now that’s when you start messing with the recipe in a real way. It’s a key ingredient. Can you replace the wine with beef broth? Absolutely! It will just be a regular beef stew though. The wine is crucial to the flavor of beef bourguignon.

What can I use instead of red wine in beef bourguignon?

If you really, really don’t want to use wine in your beef bourguignon, you can substitute beef broth. Your beef stew will be tasty, but it’ll be just that–beef stew. Making beef bourguignon without the red wine is kind of like a tofu burger–sure, it’s a burger, but it better come with a disclaimer. If you don’t have red wine on hand, save this recipe for another day when you do!

The Vegetables

And lastly, the vegetables. Traditionally in beef bourguignon you see carrots, two kinds of onions for maximum flavor, and mushrooms. I’ve also seen recipes use potatoes, but that’s not as common.

The reason that this recipe gets fussy with extra steps is because of these darn vegetables. We want to give them as much flavor as possible (this means sautéing) but not cook them to death. Nobody wants mushy veggies. The beef needs to cook for 2-3 hours, and if you cook mushrooms and carrots that long, you will have a sad result indeed.

So this recipe calls for sauteing most of the vegetables individually, then setting aside on a plate to add back into the stew later. I know, I know, so annoying! It’s part of the reason beef bourguignon has a reputation for being fussy.

But the result is worth it. You end up with a stew that has the most amazingly rich creamy sauce (that is able to thicken much more because of a lack of vegetables, which release tons of liquid). And of course, the carrots are perfectly tender and not mushy. The pearl onions are soft, but firm enough to give you these amazing bursts of flavor when you bite into them. The mushrooms are not reduced to a slimy mess, but instead are perfectly plump and textured; they rival the meat itself.

How to make Beef Bourguignon

I’ll walk you through the steps!

Slice your salt pork into strips, then add them to the pan.

Look at how gloriously crispy and fatty it is. Hello flavor! Set the salt pork aside. Leave all that grease in the pan.

Now take some beef and fry it in the fat from the pork. Yum.

Be sure to dry your beef with a paper towel before adding salt and pepper. It won’t brown when you try to sear it.

Add the salt pork back to the pot, coat with flour, and saute it for a minute or two. Set aside off heat.

Meanwhile, chop up some onions, carrots, and garlic, and saute in a 12 inch skillet. Set aside on a plate.

In the same pan that you cooked the carrots, reduce the wine. This step is optional. Most recipes call for adding the wine straight to the beef, but I find that wine in stew can sometimes be sour, astringent, and overpowering if it’s not reduced a bit first. This is personal preference! Skip it if you like!

Add the wine and beef broth to the meat coated with flour. Add the tomato paste, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, and add in the salt pork rind, if you have it. Bring it all to a boil. Then cover and cook at 300 in the oven for about 3 hours.

Halfway through cooking, add the carrots and onions to the stew.

When your beef bourguignon is almost finished cooking (you will know because the aroma is enough to knock you out), prepare your pearl onions and mushrooms.

Poach the pearl onions for a few minutes to make them nice and tender, then when the water evaporates, brown them in the remaining butter. You can add the frozen pearl onions to the stew (without sautéing) along with the carrots; but you would be giving up this beautiful browning.

Same goes for the mushrooms. They are so perfect and tender when you brown them by themselves; but if you like, you can add them in raw halfway through the cook time.

You can see in the photo on the right how your beef bourguignon sauce should look. If it is too thin to coat the back of a spoon when you take it out of the oven, then strain all the meat and veggies from the sauce and cook it down until the sauce is thick. Beef bourguignon is not soup.

Once you have your sauce nice and thick, add all the vegetables into the pot and stir it together.

What to serve with Beef Bourguignon

I love to serve beef bourguignon with either these mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles. Traditionally it is served over boiled potatoes.

As for side dishes, I love to serve it with a nice big green salad! It’s nice to have something light to go with such a heavy dish. Try this Apple Gorgonzola Salad, or this Fancy No Chop Salad. You could also serve buttered peas (Julia’s suggestion) or anything else green. Brussels Sprouts, green beans, broccoli, etc.

It’s also nice to serve beef bourguignon with some crusty bread to mop up all the sauce. Try this One Hour French Bread!

One of my favorite things about Zoup! Broth is reusing the recyclable jars they come in. Every time I use Zoup, I immediately store some of whatever I’m making in the very convenient quart-size jars that the broth comes in. I either give some away to a friend or toss it in the freezer for a rainy day. Beef bourguignon is such a labor of love, it would be a shame not to share it with someone! Even if it’s just sharing it with your future self!

More beef recipes you will love!

• Classic Beef Stroganoff >> very similar to beef bourguignon and way easier.
• Easy Fall-Apart Pot Roast with Carrots >> one of the top recipes on my site!
• How to Cook Ribeye Steak >> this is the most tender steak of your life.
• How to Cook Tri Tip >> if you have never had this cut of meat you are missing out!
• How to Cook Flank Steak >> so good with chimichurri.
• The Best Chili Recipe I’ve Ever Made >> still true. So good.
• Classic Shepherd’s Pie with Crispy Cheddar Topping >> a classic for a reason.
• Ultimate Slow Cooker Beef Stew from Dinner Then Dessert
• The Best Instant Pot Beef Stew from Family Fresh Meals
• Pressure Cooker Irish Stew from Noshtastic

Is it even Beef Bourguignon if you don’t follow Julia Child’s recipe?? Turns out, yes. This fabulous French beef stew featuring burgundy wine is famous for a reason! It is different from a regular beef stew because the wine sauce is richer and thicker, and great care is taken to ensure the vegetables are not overcooked. The result is truly transcendent!

Nutrition

Calories: 1013kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 59g | Fat: 65g | Saturated Fat: 27g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 29g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 227mg | Sodium: 900mg | Potassium: 1724mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 12775IU | Vitamin C: 21mg | Calcium: 126mg | Iron: 8mg