For my first challenge for The Daring Cooks i was intimidated to cook something I have never heard of even less made before. I turn to my husband and asked, “What the hell is Brunswick stew?” he replied, “I don’t know but they sell it at the Dixie Pig” (a local BBQ joint). So kept reading the challenge and it said Brunswick stew is made with rabbit. At that point I freaked out, “Rabbit? They want me to cook and eat rabbit? Nooo, I can’t do that!” Thankfully variations were allowed and we could substitute the rabbit for pork, turkey, beef, or even another game animal. I went with the familiar and chose pork, chicken thighs, even added some chorizo in there, the results were amazing. I also substituted the butterbeans and frozen corn and used red kidney beans, pink beans, and baby corn. This stew took several hours to prepare since I decided to use recipe number one (the long one). We ate this with some white rice and cornbread.
Blog Checking Lines- The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.
Brunswick Stew
- 4oz slab bacon, roughly sliced
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper
- 3 habanero peppers
- 4oz chorizo
- 1 lb chicken thighs
- 1 ½ lb country style ribs
- 1 tb sea salt
- 3 quarts homemade chicken broth
- 2 tbsp sofrito
- 1 envelope of sazon con achiote
- 1 tb adobo seasoning
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 large celery stalks
- 7 large Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and rough diced
- 4 small carrots
- 4 green onions
- 2 cup whole peeled tomatoes
- ½ can tomato sauce
- 1 can red kidney beans
- 1 can pink beans
- Baby corn cut into 1 inch pieces
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt and pepper
- Hot sauce to taste
1-In the largest stockpot you have, which is hopefully larger than the 5 qt ones I have, preferably a 10-12 qt or even a Dutch Oven if you’re lucky enough to have one, fry the bacon and chorizo over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the scotch bonnet, habanero peppers and sofrito. Toast the peppers until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute tops. Remove to bowl with the bacon.
2- Season liberally both sides of the pork and chicken pieces with sea salt, pepper, oregano, abobo, and sazon. Place the meat pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and peppers, add more bacon fat if needed, or olive oil, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Remember not to crowd your pieces, especially if you have a narrow bottomed pot. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon, peppers and pork. Set it aside.
3- Add 2 cups of your chicken broth or stock, if you prefer, to the pan and basically deglaze the4 pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark color and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, pork, bacon, chorizo, peppers and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil/high simmer, over medium/high heat. Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. Supposedly, the stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or pork floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the peppers. Taste the stock, according to the recipe, it “should taste like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had”.
4- With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and pork pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. Remove the bay leaf discard. After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones. Add in your carrots, and stir gently, allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes, or until the carrots have started to soften.
5- Add in your onion, beans, corn and tomatoes. As you add the tomatoes, crush them up. Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly, and onions, corn and beans are tender. Remove from heat and add in vinegar, lemon juice, stir to blend in well. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.
6 You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors meld more and makes the overall stew even better. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of cornbread, over steamed white rice, with tostones.
