A broth spiked with a porter ale, a beer whose flavors reminds one of a good quality strong coffee, serves as a rich flavor platform for a robust bowl of vegetable bison stew.
Check out this award winning Bison Chili recipe. With black beans and lime crema, you’ll understand why it’s so popular. If you’re looking for more stew recipes, take a look at my Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Mushrooms. It gets rave reviews.
A long simmer in a rich flavorful broth infused with fresh rosemary and garlic, bison top round sirloin steak partners with potatoes and chunky vegetables for this bison stew recipe. The result is a flat out savory rich flavored Winter stew.
The best stew recipes are “best” because they incorporate layers of flavor. And one way to easily add these layers, is to use beer, wine or even coffee. A good example is my recipe for Pumpkin Bread made with Pumpkin Ale.
For this bison stew recipe, I’m using a rich porter beer to enhance beef stock. And adding a tablespoon of Dijon mustard for a hint of pungency and tangy notes.
Plan ahead, this bison stew recipe requires two hours of simmer time, which is why the favors are so rich and robust. The stew is then thickened with a roux of flour and cornmeal for a thick and rich stew experience.
Bison is a healthier meat than beef, lower in fat, calories and cholesterol. It’s also richer in protein. Source: National Bison Association.
So if you’re looking for bison stew recipes, I hope you give this one a try. This recipe brings beef stew to a new rich and savory level.
Table of contents
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Beef Stock
- Porter Beer
- Bison Sirloin Steak
- Vegetable Oil
- Vegetables: Onion, carrots, celery, potatoes
- Seasonings: Bay leaves, garlic, rosemary, Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, Dijon mustard.
- Thickener: Butter, flour, cornmeal
Ingredient Substitutions
- Broth: This bison stew’s rich flavor benefits from a good beef stock. I would suggest no substitutions here. But if you have to, you can substitute vegetable broth, or chicken broth.
- Beer: You can substitute a Stout Beer for the Porter Beer. The flavor will vary slightly however. If you don’t want to add beer at all, substitute equal amounts of Beef Stock.
- Bison Steak: Substitute a bison chuck roast for the sirloin steak. Your local market may also sell pre-cut bison stew meat. You can also substitute a top round beef sirloin steak for the bison steak. But then it won’t be a Bison Stew.
- Cornmeal: Substitute Masa Harina
Step by Step Instructions
- Step 1: In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until tender. About 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper and rosemary and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. About 30 seconds. Remove to a 6 – 7 quart Dutch oven or soup pot.
- Step 2: Add the remaining oil to the skillet. Reheat to medium high and brown meat well on all sides. Work in two batches so the meat isn’t over crowded.
- Step 3: Add the seared bison meat and the onion mixture to a 6 – 7 quart Dutch oven.
- Step 4: Add the beef broth and beer. Bring to a low boil and let cook for two minutes. Cover the soup and let simmer on low for one hour.
- Step 5: Add carrots, celery, potatoes, Dijon mustard and bay leaves to the soup pot. Simmer on low, uncovered for one more hour.
- Step 6: Add roux and simmer for 30 minutes, and it’s ready to serve.
Note: While Bison is the correct term, lots of people still use “buffalo”. So please feel free to call this a Buffalo Stew.
Common Questions About Bison Stew
What makes a beer a “porter”? Porter is a dark style of beer originating in London in the 18th Century, A well hopped beer made from brown or black malt. The name came about as a result of its popularity with street and river porters. The flavor of porter is that of coffee, mixed with a bite of dark berry.
Substitute a gluten free beer for the Porter beer. And use cornmeal for the thickener, omitting the flour.
Tips for Success
- Don’t skip searing the stew meat. This is a crucial step in getting the most flavor out of this meal. Searing creates what is technically called Maillard reaction. Maillard reaction is the process where a crust is created. Simply stated, it’s responsible for the complex flavors and aroma that makes bread taste toasty, and a grilled or seared burger taste charred. It’s a technique that brings science to your cooking skills.
- Purchase small Yukon Gold potatoes. Their skin is tender, so there’s no need to peel the potatoes and with they’re small size, they’re easy to cube.
- This recipe is a good chance to practice your knife skills. Cutting the bison meat in uniform pieces, and the vegetables in even chunks will insure even cooking.
- Add a tablespoon of Tomato Paste when you add the vegetables. An MVP ingredient in the kitchen, it’s concentrated almost meaty flavor adds another nuance of flavor to this Bison Stew.
What to Serve with Bison Stew
- This thick rich Bison Stew will hold up if served over mashed potatoes. But the classic way to serve it is with some crusty rustic bread for dipping.
Storage
- Make sure the stew is completely cooled before storing it. Transfer the stew to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the stew for up to three months.
- To reheat from frozen, let the stew thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Re-heat in the microwave or in a saucepan stove-top.
Recipe for Bison Stew with Porter Ale
If you’ve been considering cooking with Bison meat, this is a great recipe to try. Stew is the ultimate cold weather comfort food and using Porter beer is a fun way to jazz up a classic recipe.
More Popular Bison Recipes
Aside from this bison stew recipe, this Bison Chili recipe is one of our favorite Winter comfort food recipes. More bison recipes to try:
If you enjoy cooking with bison, don’t miss my Bison Recipes category.
More Hearty Stew Recipes
Recommended: The quintessential beef stew, Jacques Pepin’s Red Wine Beef Stew is a very special recipe. This red wine beef stew creates a luscious sauce that you simply won’t believe.
And if you’re looking for more stew recipes, don’t miss my category for Soup Recipes. You’ll find lots of great recipes including the most popular on my site for Anthony Boudain’s New Mexico Style Chili.
Tip: Serve this bison stew with my Cornbread with Creamed Corn. A great pairing.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below and leave a comment. I always appreciate your feedback and hearing how everything went.
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Stove-top Porter Beer Bison Stew
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons Vegetable oil divided
- 1 large sweet onion chopped
- ½ Tablespoon salt
- ½ Tablespoon black pepper coarse grind
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ pounds Bison Top Sirloin Steak cut into 1-inch cubes
- 24 ounces Boulder Beer Planet Porter 2 bottles
- 32 ounces beef stock 4 cups
- 4 carrots peeled and sliced ½ inch thick
- 2 cups celery sliced ½ inch thick
- 6 – 8 small red potatoes washed and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Roux:
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 Tablespoon cornmeal
- 3 Tablespoon flour
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until tender. About 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper and rosemary and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. About 30 seconds. Transfer these ingredients to a 6 – 7 quart soup pot or Dutch oven.
- Add the remaining oil to the skillet. Reheat to medium high and brown meat well on all sides. Work in two batches so the meat isn't over crowded.
- Remove meat from skillet and add to the soup pot along with the onions. Deglaze the skillet with ½ bottle (or can) of the Porter beer.
- Pour the deglazed liquid from the skillet into the soup pot. Add the beef broth and the remaining beer. Bring to a low boil and let cook for two minutes. Cover the soup and let simmer on low for one hour.
- Add carrots, celery, potatoes, Dijon mustard and bay leaf to the soup pot. Simmer on low, uncovered for one more hour.
- Melt butter stove top and mix in cornmeal and flour to make a roux. Cook until roux is starting to turn golden. Add to stew and simmer for 30 more minutes.
- Remove bay leaves and serve.
Notes
- Don’t skip searing the stew meat. This is a crucial step in getting the most flavor out of this meal. Searing creates what is technically called Maillard reaction. Maillard reaction is the process where a crust is created. Simply stated, it’s responsible for the complex flavors and aroma that makes bread taste toasty, and a grilled or seared burger taste charred. It’s a technique that brings science to your cooking skills.
- Purchase small Yukon Gold potatoes. Their skin is tender, so there’s no need to peel the potatoes and with they’re small size, they’re easy to cube.
- This recipe is a good chance to practice your knife skills. Cutting the bison meat in uniform pieces, and the vegetables in even chunks will insure even cooking.
- Add a tablespoon of Tomato Paste when you add the vegetables. An MVP ingredient in the kitchen, it’s concentrated almost meaty flavor adds another nuance of flavor to this Bison Stew.
Nutrition
Porter Beer Bison Stew with Potatoes …It’s What’s for Dinner.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Oh this looks amazing, rich and hearty. thanks for sharing and giving us some info on porter beer.
It was a learning experience for me too Vianney. This stew was really good.
This does look really rich and savory and I want to try that beer too. 😉 Thanks for sharing it with Souper Sundays this week. It’s always nice to have you join in.
Thanks Deb. Always glad to join in.
First, can’t believe it is that ridiculously cold there! Yikes.
I really like this recipe. I can imagine the porter bringing a great base flavor to the stew. The way you describe the beer reminds me of Yazoo Sue, made from cherry wood smoked hops. I will try this as soon as I get my hands on some more of it.
We had another day just like it this past Saturday. At this altitude, cold things happen. 🙂
Oh, I love a good stew – this looks wonderful. I like to use beer in things like this, too.
This is one of those “good stews”. Thanks Karen.
The Boulder beer is a great ingredient. Does Elway drink it? I am wondering about the buffalo. I have not had buffalo sirloin but I know it is very lean. Was it tender? Raider Fans want to know.
It was very tender. And yes, I was worried about that. This piece of meat was one big chunk of red. Not a single marble in sight. I had no idea what a long simmer would do to the meat. The recipe called for a 30 minute simmer. My psyche just couldn’t put the words “stew” and “30 minutes” together, so I cooked it like I would normally cook a stew. I don’t know if it was the beer or the buffalo, but that meat sure seemed to gather the flavors better than beef.
Your site looks great! I’m loving the header…I have a real fondness for tree images. The stew also looks great. Since having a baby, I make a lot of soups and stews (because they freeze so well).
Thank you Sara! So good to hear from you. Sorry I missed the gathering at Barb’s, would have loved to have met that darling little “dipper”. 🙂
This looks and sounds amazing!!
Thanks Jenn! 🙂
Porter and beef go really well, I love it! Great photos Lea Ann!
Marina, I’m just finding that out. I’ve never cooked with porter. So savory.
Beer, like bacon just makes food taste better! Love the photo, I’m really digging your spoon and bowl.
I like your beer/bacon comparison. I agree! That spoon is something I brought home from my in-laws when we cleaned out their house. The bowl is Frankoma pottery.
The stew looks delicious and I like the look of the larger pieces. I can imagine the improvement of adding the porter to it.
I like my stew chunky … real chunky! 🙂
This looks flavourful and mouthwatering! Love your serving bowl.
Thanks Angie! That serving bowl is pottery called Frankoma.
I am NOT a beer drinker, but do love using those deep flavors in stews and even in baking. Great recipe, Lea Ann. (Loved that bowl from your last post!)
I really really really don’t like beer, but put it in a savory stewed beef dish and I’m a fan.
First of all, thanks for the beer lesson – I have a few beer enthusiasts in my life, and I would love to learn more about that. This stew sounds like it would have a crazy good flavor. I always love the flavor that wine or beer adds to a dish. It’s that taste that makes me go mmmm when I take that first bite and then stop to try and figure out what I’m tasting. Also, the cornmeal in the roux has really got me interested in trying this.
What a great recipe! (and gorgeous picture)
I am not a beer enthusiast, but do find it interesting what it does to the flavor of food. Plus the recipe called for 32 ounces of beer … yikes, lots of flavor and I thought it would be incredibly thin. I cut it back to one bottle. That stew was crazy good and as you can imagine it got better with each left over serving. The cornmeal was an improv. It called for corn flour. I wasn’t going to make a special trip to find that, so used corn meal. Seemed to work fine.
I have so much to learn when it comes to beers and micro brews. But I do know beer brings incredible flavor to stews. This reminds me of a French dish, Beef Carbonade. Yep, even the French use beer in their stews. This sounds perfect for your crisp weather Lea Ann. We came back home for summer and found fall like temperatures here as well.
Sam
Sam, I know nothing about microbrews, but agree about the interesting flavors to food. I just made beef carbonade and lOVED it. The recipe I had did not use beer. Darnit. As always Sam, thanks for stopping by and the comment.
Looks good, but mostly, since I couldn’t taste it, Great photo!
Thanks Dan!