2cups½-inch pieces peeled or scrubbed parsnips or carrots
¾cupbeeryour favorite kind
Hot cooked noodlessuch as egg noodles, to serve
Instructions
Season the beef evenly with salt, pepper, and the garlic powder.
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Working in batches, brown the meat until it is browned on all sides, about 10 minutes for each batch. Don’t crowd the beef cubes in the pan. Set the meat aside.
Pour off all but 2 teaspoons of fat from the pan and add the onions. Sauté them for 3 minutes, until lightly browned, and add them to the slow cooker. Add the barbecue sauce, beef broth, honey and mustard and stir to combine. Add the parsnips and browned beef to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
Pour in the beer, cover, and cook on low for 6 hours, until the meat is tender. Serve hot, with noodles.
Notes
When browning beef for a stew (whether you’re making it in a slow cooker, or a regular old pot or Dutch oven), I think it’s less important to get all of the sides of the cubes of beef barely browned than it is to get a couple of sides nicely caramelized. Getting all 6 sides of a cube-ish piece of meat is a bit painstaking, and I’m absolving you from the task.