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French beef Bourguignon recipe

Sebastien
French beef Bourguignon recipe

Beef Bourguignon was historically considered peasant food but has today become a staple in everyday French cuisine.

The word “Bourguignon” refers to a recipe that is prepared in the style of the French region of Burgundy.  A recipe prepared in the Bourguignon style will feature meat such as beef, which is slowly cooked, almost covered, in red wine with mushrooms, onions and flavoured with bacon or pancetta.

This recipe for beef Bourguignon is quite similar to Stefan’s recipe for Greek “Afelia”, which also cooking meat slowly in wine,

The “bouquet garni” used here is a mixture of herbs tied together and cooked with the other ingredients, then removed before serving.

Ingredients for beef Bourguignon:

  • x8 shallots (if can’t find use 1 big onion and x2 small)
  • 800g of beef (ideally beef for stews/casseroles)
  • x5 whole cloves
  • x2 bay leaves
  • x1 bouquet garni
  • x6 baby potatoes
  • 250g mushrooms
  • 250g of diced pancetta (or diced bacon)
  • 150g all purpose flour
  • x1 carrot
  • x1 bottle of cooking red wine
  • x3 cloves of garlic
  • Vegetable or olive oil for cooking

How to make beef Bourguignon:

1. Slice x3 shallots and just peel the remaining x5 of them (or slice the large onion and peel the x2 small onions).

2. Plant 1 clove on the end of each of the x5 shallots.

3. Peel and slice the carrots, slice the mushrooms and peel the potatoes.

4. Pre-heat the oil in a deep pan/pressure cooker.

5. On a separate plate, cover it with flour and roll each piece of the beef.

6. Cook the meet on a medium heat until it goes golden (around 2-3 minutes), then remove the meat from the pan.

7. Add more oil to the pan, heat it up and on a low heat cook the diced shallots until they brown and soften.

8. Add the x3 cloves of garlic, mushrooms, carrots and the x5 whole shallots and cook for a few minutes.

9. Add the potatoes and the meat together and reduce the heat to a low/medium simmer.

10. Add the bottle of wine, but so it covers the meat and add the bay leaves and the bouquet garni.

11. Cook on a low heat, covered, for around x3 hours (or x1 hour if using a pressure cooker).

Beef bourguignon goes well with mashed potatoes to soak up the sauce.  Traditionally however, it is usually served with rice.

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Sebastien

Sebastien is the co-founder, editor and author of nomadicboys.com. He is a tech geek, a total travel nerd and a food enthusiast. He spends the majority of his time planning Nomadic Boys' travels meticulously right down to the minute details. Sebastien has travelled to over 80 countries with his partner in crime and the love of his life, Stefan. He regularly shares his expertise of what it’s like travelling as a gay couple both on Nomadic Boys and on prominent publications ranging from Pink News, Matador, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian and many more. Originally from France, Sebastien moved to London in the early 2000s where he pursued a career as a computer programmer for Thompson Reuters and Bloomberg. He subsequently left it all to explore his passion for travelling around the world with Stefan to hand, and thus Nomadic Boys was born.

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