Dublin Coddle Recipe (Irish Sausage and Potato Stew)
I know many of you will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day with corned beef and cabbage, and no offense to you guys (I mean, I love corned beef and cabbage, too), but this Dublin coddle is my favorite food to have on St. Patrick's Day!
My recipe isn't a traditional Irish coddle, but this is my Americanized version that is modeled after my favorite dish served at The Irish Lion in Bloomington, Indiana. Unfortunately The Irish Lion no longer exists, but when I make this coddle, I can feel like I'm back in that cozy pub hanging with my friends on St. Patrick's Day.
What is Irish coddle anyway?
If you've never had coddle before, it's a hearty Irish stew. Coddle is all about its working-class roots. This isn't a delicate meal. This is the kind of meal that can slow cook away in the oven for hours and hours and hours while you're working hard, and still be delicious when you come home.
Another tidbit I've read about coddle-every family seems to have their own special recipe. One true "authentic" version of coddle doesn't really exist-it changes based on what's available. Basically, you put whatever you have kicking around your kitchen into a pot, and it always turns out delicious. As I mentioned above, my version isn't authentic Irish (because I'm not Irish and the traditional ingredient can be hard to track down in rural Indiana), but it is instead modeled after a coddle from my favorite Irish pub here in the States!
Can you make this in the slow cooker?
This is a slow-cooked recipe that I actually don't recommend doing in the slow cooker! This coddle cooks for 2-3 hours in a very low oven, and while you could do it in the slow cooker, most slow cookers cook with very moist heat. Sometimes I find that moist heat actually makes potatoes go mushy instead of tender and soft. And considering this stew is 75% about the delicious, pillowy potato bites? No one wants them to be mushy. Mushy potatoes are great for my crockpot mashed potatoes recipe, less great for a stew.
Instead, I recommend investing in a nice, sturdy, cast iron Dutch oven, and doing this baby at a low temp in your oven. There are a lot of really beautiful and really expensive Dutch ovens out there, but the one I always recommend to folks is the Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven. It runs right around $60, comes in beautiful colors, and works like a champ! I've had mine for years.
What kind of sausage do you use in coddle?
Traditional Irish sausages can be a bit tricky to track down here in the U.S., so I recommend going with any high-quality pork sausage you can find. I've used both bratwurst and Polish sausage in this recipe with good results.
What's the best kind of beer to use in this stew?
Why, Guinness, of course! I highly recommend keeping on theme here and going with Guinness stout. Thanks to some wonderful Dubliners that took the time to comment on this post (seriously, thank you!), I now know that many people consider coddle a white stew with no beer in it. But Irish chef and author of The Irish Cookbook, Jp McMahon says in the headnotes for his coddle recipe that, "Often it contained a drop of Guinness (or it was eaten with plenty of pints and soda bread)." So if you choose to go the beer route, I think it's safe to say that Guinness is a perfectly fine choice! Of course, any other dark beer would do the trick-either a stout or porter. Buy a six-pack and put one in the stew and drink the rest with dinner!
What if you don't want to use beer?
No problemo! Just sub in more beef or chicken stock in place of the beer. It'll change the flavor slightly, but your coddle will still be delicious.
What to serve with Dublin Coddle?
I think it's just wrong to serve coddle without a side of warm, crusty homemade soda bread! I always like to make a green salad to go along with the coddle and bread to give us something fresh on our plates, too.
It's easy to think that there is no way this Dublin Coddle is going to be flavorful enough. It seems too simple to be delicious, but magic happens in that oven! Seriously. Mag-ic. This dish is bursting with flavor that only gets better and better as leftovers. Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Dublin Coddle
Ingredients
- 8 slices bacon chopped into small pieces
- 1 pound high-quality pork sausages see notes
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 bottle Guinness beer see notes
- 2 pounds potatoes peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 large onions cut into slices
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 4 tablespoons fresh minced parsley
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 2 cups beef, ham, or chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Heat a large, oven-proof Dutch oven over high heat. Add in 8 slices bacon and cook until crisp, about five minutes. Remove the bacon to drain on paper towels. Leave the grease in the Dutch oven.
- Add 1 pound high-quality pork sausages in, a few at a time (don't crowd the pan), and cook on each side until just golden brown—no need to cook all the way through. Remove to a plate and continue with additional sausages. Remove to plate. When cool enough to handle. Slice into 1" pieces.
- Reduce the heat to low, and then whisk in 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour. Cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Then remove from heat completely.
- Whisk in 1 bottle Guinness beer (see notes if you'd like to not use beer).
- Place half of the potatoes in the gravy, followed by half of the onions, half of the garlic, half of the bacon, half of the sausages, half of the parsley, the bay leaves, the thyme, and black pepper. Repeat layers with the remaining ingredients.
- Pour 2 cups beef, ham, or chicken broth over the whole thing. Place lid on, and bake in preheated oven for at least 2 hours (see notes).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Brilliant comfort food for Winter! Followed the recipe and also cooked it for 4 hrs, beautiful thick sauce, flavours and textures. To the 2 cups of beef stock I also added 2x TBSP of Worcestershire Sauce to bolster the broth a bit more and combined with a 750ml bottle of Guinness resulted in divine flavours! I also added a few carrots after 2 hours and a few celery stalks for the final hour. I'd made enough to reheat leftovers the following day - again on a low heat but cooked on the stovetop this time. Had matured beautifully! This is a keeper recipe! Cheers...
Yay! So glad you're happy with the recipe, Michael! Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about it. We really appreciate it!
Did you go to IU in Bloomington, Indiana? Because that's where I fell in love with Dublin Coddle!!! At the Irish Lion! 🙂
HOO-HOO-HOO HOOSIERS! 🙂
That's where i discovered it too! I've been in search of it ever since! I've got it on the stove now! I'm hoping it will bring back memories!
I tried addiing Brussels sprouts to this when I made it and can't imagine without them now.
Made this for a dinner party and was a huge hit! Thank you.
Hooray! Glad everyone enjoyed it!
Exactly the sort of hearty meat-and-potatoes dish this hard-working athlete needs after Sunday practice! Tried this out in my multicooker tonight--used the "brown" function to crisp the bacon and brown the sausage, then let it cook on the "slow cooker: high" function until the potatoes were tender--not quite 2 hours. It's St. Patrick's Day weekend, so the liquor store was all out of Guinness; substituted a Fuller's London Porter instead. Thanks for dinner!
Mine is a different reason for using this recipe. My hubby has esophageal cancer and has an inoperable tumor that makes certain foods impossible to eat. Beef is one of them, stringy beef like Corned Beef would result in a trip to the emergency room. So I was looking for a dish, other than potato soup which we eat all the time, for St. Patrick's day. This really filled the bill! St. Patty's is a true holiday in my house. The kids come home for the day. There are lots of food, lots of drinks and lots of Irish music. So changing up the traditional corned beef and cabbage was going to be met with trepidation by some family member. But once they smelled the coddle that was all gone. Now knowing all the 20 something young men that would be eating this I did double the amount of sausage and bacon in the dish, and it was wonderful! No one is going to complain when I say I am making this again! Thank you for helping me keep St Patty's Day alive and well in my home!
My husband LOVED this!
This was excellent...not much left...lol. Made this with Irish Soda Bread Muffins. Yum..
This looks and sounds absolutely delish!!! I really want to make it for tonight but I don’t have a Dutch oven. Can this be made in a crockpot? If so can you tell me how to do it? I am new to cooking and need instructions ??♀️?.
Thank you!
Yep! Cook it on high for 4-6 hours.
I made this recipe for a Staint Patrick's day party last year. I did not get very much, it was a hit. So, I made it this year for use so we could enjoy it. It is still so good.
Could I make this the night before and reheat it? Would the potatoes just disintegrate?
Nope, they should be just fine.
Can this be nad in a slow cooker? If so, what temp and for how long? I do t have an oven proof Dutch oven.
I just had great results in my slow cooker on the high temp for about the same amount of time as the recipe calls for. Expected it would take longer--was a nice surprise!
Sure, cook it on high for 4-6 hours. 🙂
Made this as an early St. Patrick's Day dinner Came out great. The family loved it! I used a Dutch oven in the oven for 2 1/2 hrs at 350. I was in a hurry.
Like many here, I was introduced to coddle in Bloomington IN 🙂 Loved it so much I had to go home and figure out how to make it anytime I wanted.
I've never tried it with Guinnness but I'm willing to try anything once.
I've also thrown in chunks of cabbage and it turned out really well. This is a hard recipe to "mess up" if that is even possible.
If you don't have soda bread any crusty bread will do.
Quite a few notes to make here. Beef stew is a traditional irish fare, coddle is distinctly dublin. It's a peasant meal. Its a meal of leftovers when we had notuing but scraps to feed ourselves with. proper hearty starchy grub. Salt is perfectly ok to use. We do NOT call them bangers. That's english people. Defo do not confuse to two, you'll get some evil glares. Traditionally everything is thrown into a pot of water and cooked this way on the hob. Beer of any kind is not used. Just flavoured with herbs. Apart from that spot on.
As much as I can't wait to fix this dish...I wish the recipe would have printed on just one page, and not three. Thanks to the ads and size of print, it was much longer and took more paper than it should have. Perhaps rethink the ads (which cover part of the recipe when printed) and size of font.
Dublin coddle is a white stew. The raw ingredients are cooked in the liquid. The late Jury’s Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland had it on it Menu for the Cabaret night. My introduction to it was by my late Husband who was the Head Banquet Chef in the aforementioned Hotel. Ann
Nw how about a recipe for the Blarney Puffballs and soda bread?
I made this the other night and it was so delicious. Next time I'll make the Irish soda bread to go with it.
When I can get the bangers I use them but have been having trouble getting them. You can use chicken and apple sausages too. Guiness is a little heavy for me so I use Harp. I’ve even used sweet white wine once it was really good. My friend doesn’t drink so she uses all broth. This is just the best tummy warming recipe.