Authenticish maybe, genuinely delicious: Portuguese-style Beef Stew

Beef stew meat, Portuguese chouriço, bell peppers, paprika and potatoes drive the comforting flavor of this hearty stew. Recipe below.

PORTUGAL POPPED UP ON OUR CULINARY RADAR innocently enough. Not finding anything new we wanted to watch on TV one night, we settled into something old. We had already binge-watched Somebody Feed Phil about a year ago, and Netflix offered it up to us again. The first episode they served up was Lisbon, Portugal.

Close on its heels was a visit to Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, a former Portuguese colony. The food there has many influences including, of course, Portugal. As Phil does in his eponymous series, he ate wonderful, varied things in both cities. But what caught this carnivore’s eye was house-made Austrian sausages in Lisbon. And a traditional Brazilian stew in Rio, feijoada, made with beef and pork and black beans.

Fast forward to us looking at some beef stew meat in our freezer. Moments later, we were researching Portuguese beef stew recipes. Turns out there are at least a few traditional stews, quite different, and a dazzling array of conflicting versions of each. That lack of one traditional beef stew that “must, must, must always be cooked exactly like this” was actually freeing. We borrowed from a few recipes, added our own tweaks and came up with a Portuguese-inspired stew that, while not authentic, was genuinely delicious. It is meaty and potatoey, tasting of paprika and bell peppers—sublimely comforting.

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Portuguese-style Beef Stew

Beef stew meat, Portuguese chouriço, bell peppers, paprika and potatoes drive the comforting flavor of this hearty stew.

Course Main Course, One-pan meal, Stew

Cuisine Portuguese-inspired

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 to 1-1/2 pounds beef stew meat cut into 1-inch or larger chunks
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 to 8 ounces Portuguese chouriço or Spanish chorizo, sliced into rounds (not Mexican chorizo—see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 medium/large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper and 1 green bell pepper, cut into chunks (you can also use 2 green bell peppers)
• 4 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika, not smoked (we like Hungarian paprika)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups water plus more as needed
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 to 6 medium potatoes (we used yellow)

Instructions

• Season beef with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or heavy, lidded pot over medium-high flame. Working in batches, brown the beef. You don’t need to char it, just cook it on all sides briefly, a few minutes per batch. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a bowl.
• Reduce heat to medium and add the chouriço to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl with the meat with a slotted spoon.
• Add onion and bell peppers to pot, stirring to combine and coat everything with oil. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Now is an optional but recommended step: transfer a generous cup of the bell peppers to a bowl (see Kitchen Notes). You’ll get some onion too, but try to mainly get bell pepper. Set aside.
• Add garlic to pot with remaining pepper and onion mix. Sprinkle on paprika and stir to combine. Cook for an additional 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Return beef and chouriço to pot, along with any accumulated juices. Stir to combine, then add wine, water and bay leaves. Stir together and raise heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover pot and cook for 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. If the liquid is cooking away, stir in a little more water, as needed. We didn’t need water—add it cautiously so you don’t turn the stew into soup.
• Meanwhile, prepare potatoes. Don’t peel them—just rinse under cold running water, then cut into large chunks. When the stew has cooked for 1-1/2 hours, add potatoes to the pot, along with reserved bell peppers. If necessary, add a little more water so they are just submerged. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Meat and potatoes should be completely tender.
• Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, if needed. Remove bay leaves and ladle stew into individual bowls. Serve.

Kitchen Notes

Chouriço? Chorizo? Portuguese chouriço and Spanish chorizo are similar, in that they are both dense little sausages that are either cured or smoked, and are thus considered fully cooked. Both are made with chunks of pork and seasonings, mostly garlic and paprika. You can use either in this dish.

Mexican chorizo is made with ground pork and is usually sold uncooked. All three are delicious in their own right, but Mexican chorizo is quite different from the Portuguese and Spanish ones. Don’t use it in this dish.

For our dish here, we actually used Linguiça Calabresa, a Brazilian sausage (Brazil was once colonized by Portugal and some foods were adopted and adapted). If you can’t find any suitable sausage, you can just leave it out. As we often say, it won’t be the same, but it will be different. And it will be delicious.

Peppers on the side? We’ve made this dish twice now. The first time, we didn’t take any of the peppers out after sautéing them; the peppers literally disappeared into the stew, flavoring it beautifully, but leaving precious little visual evidence of their existence. The second time, we took some out and added it back when we added the potatoes. The results are visually more interesting and you get the occasional bite of pepper.