Beef Stifado (Greek beef onion stew)

Beef Stifado with meltingly tender beef chunks, aromatic, warmly spiced broth, and sweet, silky pearl onions. It's the coziest Greek beef stew with an unforgettable flavor!

Table Of Contents

• What's Stifado?
• Ingredients
• How To Make
• Preparing Onions
• Serve With
• Recipe

What's Stifado?

This traditional Greek beef stew, called Stifado, is deeply flavorful and aromatic. Its taste is mostly sweet. It's loaded with sweet flavors of sweet red wine, caramelized onions, sweet spices, with just a touch of sour from the tomato paste and red wine vinegar.

The word Stifado refers to a meat slowly cooked in a tomato and red wine sauce infused with warm spices (cinnamon, allspice, cloves), and loaded with pearl onions.

Therefore, Stifado can be made with any kind of meat. In Greece, the most popular ones are Beef Stifado and Rabbit Stifado. You can also make it with lamb (see my Lamb Stifado recipe), chicken, duck, and even pork (best with wild boar).

Stifado can also be made with octopus or cuttlefish, which is mostly done in Greek island home cooking. Mainland cooks the meat versions mostly.

Similar Greek Stews You May Like:

• Beef Kokkinisto - Greek Beef Stew with Tomato Sauce
• Sofigado - Beef and Wine Stew with Quince
• Bekri Meze - Drunken Pork Stew with Cheese
• Pork Stew In Tomato Sauce with Potatoes and Peppers

Ingredients

• Beef Chunks: beef for stewing; ideal parts are those with some fat membranes, which yield tenderer meat. Such as Chuck or Blade, or neck cuts.
• Pearl Onions: A small, sweet onion variety. Peeled and used whole, so you can actually have a bit of them as they get soft and silky in the stew. If you can't find them, you can use shallots; they're not exactly the same, but it's the closest match. You can even make Stifado with regular sliced onions. The sweet flavor will be there, but you'll be missing the bite!
• Red Wine: sweet red wine or even semi-sweet. Greek Mavrodafni wine is the best choice for this stew. The best substitutes for Mavrodafni wine are Port (ruby or tawny), Madeira, or Marsala.
• Red Wine Vinegar: Just a small amount is used to add a hint of acidity. Balsamic vinegar is also great to use here.
• Spices: a stick of cinnamon, allspice berries, and whole cloves. Ground spices are not as strongly flavored, but you can still use them if you like. Use about 1 teaspoon of allspice powder, 1 teaspoon of ground cloves, and ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
• Herbs: I'm using only a small amount of thyme to marinate the beef. You can also use some rosemary, like a sprig of 2, in the stew; it goes great, even though it's not in the traditional recipe.
• Brown Sugar: just a small amount to caramelize the onions.

How To Make

To make beef Stifado, start by marinating the meat in a small amount of wine, thyme, salt, and pepper. You can marinate for 30 minutes or even all night in the fridge. It's important to let the meat get close to room temperature before cooking, so it becomes tender and doesn't toughen during cooking.

Next, you need to precook the onions. Sauté them in olive oil for a couple of minutes to soften. Then add in some red wine vinegar (or balsamic for an even stronger flavor) and a small amount of brown sugar. Cook for a minute and then remove the onions from the pot and set them aside.

The pearl onions are added to the pot with the meat after it's cooked. This is done so they won't overcook and become mushy.

Brown the meat in olive oil. This step adds the most flavor, so make sure you sear and brown the meat well on both sides. Then stir in the spices and tomato paste. Cook for a minute to let the tomato paste caramelize, then pour in the wine.

Simmer uncovered at low heat for 5 minutes. We don't want strong heat to reduce the wine; we just want its alcohol to evaporate. When you stop smelling the alcohol, you can proceed to add the water or stock. Cover with the lid and simmer low and slow until the meat is very tender.

Add the onions and ensure they're at least partly submerged in the sauce so they cook and soften properly. Continue cooking low and slow until onions are mellow and tender.

Preparing Onions

To easily clean the pearl onions, soak them in boiling water for at least 30 minutes. This helps the skin come off easily and reduces tears. Another way is to blanch them. Boil them in plenty of water for 1-2 minutes, then immediately transfer them with a slotted spoon to a large bowl with ice-cold water.

Serve With

Serve this delicious beef Stifado with some mashed potatoes or steamed rice. In Greece, we sometimes eat it just with bread and mop up every last bit of that hearty and aromatic sauce!

Recipe