Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Bœuf Bourguignon
Beef braised in Burgundy red wine with pearl onions, mushrooms, and bacon until the sauce turns to velvet.
French (Burgundian) · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 180 min
~1102 cal · 71g protein · 61g carbs · 52g fat · 10g fiber · 26g sugars · 18g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Boeuf bourguignon began as Burgundy peasant cooking, a thrifty way to make a tough, cheap cut of beef delicious by braising it slowly in the one thing Burgundy has always had in abundance: red wine. Only later did French chefs, Escoffier and then Julia Child among them, enshrine the rustic stew as a monument of French cuisine.
The technique is the whole dish. The beef is browned deeply for colour and flavour, then gently for hours with red wine, , and a bouquet of herbs until it is meltingly tender and the sauce turns rich and glossy. The classic garnish is a trio of small onions, mushrooms, and lardons of bacon, each often cooked separately and folded in near the end.
The cardinal rule is patience and low heat: the wine must and mellow, never boil hard, or it turns harsh. Served with potatoes, buttered noodles, or just bread for the sauce, it is home cooking that happens to be a classic.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
3 lbs beef chuck, large cubes
6 oz smoked bacon lardons
1 bottle Burgundy (or any dry red) wine
20 pearl onions
12 oz cremini mushrooms
2 carrots
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley)
3 tbsp flour (to dust the beef)
3 tbsp
Instructions
1
Render the lardons until crisp, then set aside.
2
Pat the beef dry, dust with flour, and brown it hard in batches in the fat.
✎ Chef’s note
Dry the beef well and do not crowd the pan. A deep brown crust on each piece is where most of the sauce’s flavour comes from.
3
Soften the onion, carrots, and garlic in the pot, then stir in the tomato paste.
4
Return the beef and lardons, pour in the wine and enough water to nearly cover, and add the bouquet garni.
5
Cover and braise at 325F (160C) for 2.5 hours (40 minutes for the plant version), until the beef is fork-tender.
6
Meanwhile, brown the pearl onions and mushrooms separately and add them for the final 30 minutes.
7
Discard the bouquet garni, reduce the sauce to a glossy velvet (or thicken with cornstarch), and serve over mashed potatoes or noodles.
Burgundy tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Burgundy. Burgundy is French cooking at its most iconic, beef bourguignon, coq au vin, and escargot, all built on its legendary wines. Slow braises and Dijon mustard define this heartland of gastronomy.
🗺️
France. Under the technique sits a country of regional larders that barely resemble each other: butter and cider in Normandy and Brittany, duck fat and confit through the southwest, olive oil and garlic along the Mediterranean, and choucroute with Riesling in Alsace. Which fat a French recipe reaches for usually tells you which corner of the country it comes from.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Bœuf Bourguignon?
Beef braised in Burgundy red wine with pearl onions, mushrooms, and bacon until the sauce turns to velvet.
Where does Bœuf Bourguignon come from?
Bœuf Bourguignon is a French (Burgundian) dish from Burgundy, France.
Can Bœuf Bourguignon be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Bœuf Bourguignon recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Bœuf Bourguignon safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Bœuf Bourguignon take to make?
About 210 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 180 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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