Old Fashioned Brunswick Stew
Classic comfort food with tender meat and flavorful vegetables, this Old Fashioned Brunswick Stew is a hearty and satisfying dish perfect for any occasion.
Classic comfort food with tender meat and flavorful vegetables, this Old Fashioned Brunswick Stew is a hearty and satisfying dish perfect for any occasion.
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 whole 4 to 5 pound chicken
- 1 (4 to 5 pound) bone-in boston butt pork roast cut in large pieces
- 5 onions divided
- 2 pounds potatoes peeled and cubed
- 2 pounds whole kernel corn (i prefer silver queen)
- 2 pounds tiny green limas shelled (we call these butterbeans)
- 2 cans diced tomatoes and the juice (28 ounce) (or use an equivalent amount fresh tomatoes)
- 2 pounds okra sliced
- 32 ounces ketchup
- 1 tablespoon tabasco sauce
- Carbohydrate 1908.24288498714 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 22.4868017205883 g
- Fiber 86.5922345982567 g
- Protein 158.020349702618 g
- Saturated Fat 3.69494380513325 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (11018g)
- Sodium 70322.2645162539 mg
- Sugar 1821.65065038888 g
- Trans Fat 6.69984346424719 g
- Calories 7527 calories
Step-by-step
- Place chicken and Boston butt in an extremely large pot along with one whole peeled onion, a bay leaf and one tablespoon kosher salt. Cover with water and simmer 3 to 4 hours or until both chicken and pork are shreddable. Remove chicken and pork and let cool. When they’ve cooled enough to handle, remove bones, skin and excess fat. Shred. Strain cooking broth and return to large pot.
- Chop the remaining 4 onions and add to the extremely large pot. I want the meat and onions to cook all alone to give the onion flavor a chance to permeate the meat before the other ingredients were added.
- Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes. Permeate, onions, permeate! After 30 minutes, add peeled and chopped potatoes. Don’t make the chopped size any smaller than an inch or the potatoes will cook to mush.
- And…..here’s the rest of the gang ready for the extremely large pot. I use fresh corn, okra and butter beans if available. If not, I will substitute good quality frozen. Fresh or canned tomatoes may be used.
- Add Tobasco sauce and bring to a boil. Cook for 30 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Serve hot.
Long-simmered regional stews derive their structural integrity from the gradual breakdown of collagen in bone-in cuts. Simmering a whole chicken alongside a bone-in pork shoulder releases gelatin into the cooking liquid, creating a naturally viscous broth that requires no added thickeners. Purging the bones after three to four hours yields shredded meat capable of absorbing large volumes of acidic tomato and condiment components without losing texture.
Managing Vegetable Starches
Adding dense ingredients sequentially prevents undesirable textural collapse. Potatoes cut to precisely one inch withstand thirty minutes of boiling without disintegrating into starch paste that would otherwise muddy the broth. Staggering the introduction of green lima beans and corn ensures they retain structural bite while absorbing ambient pork fat and capsaicin from the hot sauce.
- If potatoes dissolve too quickly, reduce the rolling boil to a gentle simmer after the thirty-minute mark.
- Leftover stew benefits from overnight refrigeration, allowing starches to fully retrograde and concentrate the savory tomato-ketchup base.
