Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical about this Sweet as Pie recipe for Brunswick Stew. I’d only had Brunswick Stew once before and I didn’t care for it at all. And check out the picture on the official recipe – doesn’t it resemble a by-product of a stomach virus? Anyway. Phillip really likes Brunswick Stew and I’m a committed cooking club participant, so I made plans to whip this up one weekend (it requires some time, so a weekend is best). Here’s how it came together:
First, I boiled some chicken and pork and reserved the stock. I used leftover beef roast for the beef component so I saved myself some time on that one. Meanwhile, I boiled some potatoes. I took a detour from the recipe at this point. It instructed me to ground all of the meat, but I just saw this as a pathway to paste. I hate paste. So, I decided to ground/puree only half of each ingredient to get the best of both worlds. Best decision. So, for the meat, I shredded half and ground half to leave it a little chunkier. I added the meat, some stock, and a mixture of black pepper, cayenne, and water to my dutch oven.
I added in onion, tomato, and potatoes (again, only pureeing half), ketchup, Worcestershire, and salt. After a 30-minute simmer, I added the corn (only half pureed).
Another hour’s worth of simmering and the stew was done.
This was totally edible! I liked it much better than I expected and Phillip, of course, enjoyed it. It actually reminded me of chicken stew, one of my favorites. I think the decision not to puree the whole thing really made the difference. The recipe made quite a bit so I put a few servings in the freezer for us to enjoy later. If you’re a fan of Brunswick Stew (or your husband is), this one’s not bad.
