Many people probably have never had brunswick stew. From my understanding its mostly a southern thing…and mostly Georgia to be exact. If you have never had brunswick stew, all you have to do is look at the ingredients and you’ll know its good. I consider brunswick stew right up there with chili as one of the manliest soups. Its great anytime during the year, but I always break it out during football season and when it starts to get a little chilly in the fall. My recipe makes a HUGE quantity, so make it when you are having a party, or just scale it back if making it just for yourself.I have to credit my Mom for serving me brunswick stew for the first time, because without her initial recipe mine would have never been created!  OK now one thing you have to remember with brunswick stew is that there are a LOT of ingredients. But don’t get turned off by this. Most everything is low prep and I keep things simple by not having to measure out lots of stuff. You’ll notice in the ingredient list that I mention pulled pork and pulled chicken. Now the manliest of men will want to smoke their own pork butts and chicken, and let me tell you that is definitely the way to go…however, most of the time not all of us want to go to all that trouble, so there are easier solutions. If you ever run into a recipe that calls for pulled pork or chicken pulled off the bone and you don’t have the time, or just don’t feel like getting out into the weather to smoke all day, do this: go to your favorite BBQ restaurant and order your pulled pork by the pound! Some BBQ restaurants will even sell whole smoked chickens, or pulled chicken by the pound. An even easier and cheaper method for the chicken is to buy the rotisserie chickens that they sell at the grocery store for like $4! You can just buy the rotisserie chicken while you are shopping for everything else and pull it off the bone yourself…its 1/3 of the price of the BBQ restaurant!

Here are the ingredients:

1 pound of pulled pork

1 whole chicken pulled off the bone, either smoked or rotisserie

1 large onion chopped, or 2 small ones (Vidalia onions, or large texas sweet onions are the best if you can get them!

4 cups beef stock

3 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans tomato sauce

4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 bottle Heinez Chili Sauce (find it next to the ketchup and hot sauce)
1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/3 stick of butter

3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

1 frozen cylinder of creamed corn (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it in the frozen vegetable section)

1 frozen 16 oz package of whole kernel corn

1 frozen 16 oz package of english peas

1 frozen 16 oz package of baby lima beans

1 frozen 16 oz package of vegetable gumbo mix

6 small red potatoes chopped up

3 bay leaves

Extra seasonings: salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, marjoram, red pepper flakes and/or cayenne pepper

Really the hardest thing about this recipe is just getting all the ingredients! The only prep work you need to do is pulling the chicken off the bone, if its not already done and chopping your onion and potatoes. You will need a really BIG pot for this recipe. I made it big because I like cooking for parties…and I like leftovers. You’ll probably need a good 10-12 quart pot for this one. Its OK you can justify the expense…it will be the manliest pot in your kitchen.

Now just start throwing all the ingredients into the pot…there is no rhyme or reason here…just get everything in there. All the extra seasonings I listed in the ingredients are to taste. There are a lot of frozen ingredients, so you are going to have to heat this on your stove quite awhile before it gets to boiling. When you finally have it to boiling reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let it simmer for 4-6 hours. Yeah I know what you’re thinking…”Does it REALLY take that long to cook??” The answer is no of course…everything but the vegetables are cooked already and the vegetables probably would cook within 1 hour of simmering. This dish is slow cooking…the longer you cook it the better it gets essentially. I usually try for 6 hours if I can manage it.

When you have the stew simmering add your extra ingredients and taste as you go. A good start would be just a teaspoon of everything you like, oregano, thyme, and marjoram. Let it simmer for a few minutes then come back and taste it. Salt and pepper are always to taste, so just add some in and try it as you go. Traditional brunswick stew is fairly spicy, and I like mine that way, so just add as much red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, or hot sauce as you like to kick it up to your taste! Just remember whenever you add something stir it up and let it simmer for a few minutes before tasting it again. This give the seasoning time to break down in the stew and distribute throughout the whole pot.

At then end of your simmering time you are ready to enjoy! I like to serve my brunswick stew with some good hot cornbread…its awesome!