Brunswick Stew - The Daring Cooks challenge

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.

This was a very good challenge for this month as I have been on a soup and stew kick these past two weeks. One thing I should of realized before making this is how much stew it makes!  Seriously look at the picture of the pot full of stew, I should of invited my sister over for dinner...and her neighbors.  We have tons of frozen leftovers in the freezer, actually there is no room for anything but stew in the freezer right now :)

The original recipe called for rabbit but since that is not very easy to come by here without going out into the woods and bopping little bunny foo foo yourself I chose to use a pork roast.  Also for the chicken I bought 4 bone-in chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, I was in the mood for more white meat than dark.

Enjoy!

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients:

• 1/4 lb (4 oz) slab bacon, rough diced
• 2 Serrano peppers, stems trimmed, sliced, seeded, flattened
• 1lb pork 
• 1 4-5lb chicken, quartered, skinned, and most of the fat removed
• 1 Tablespoon sea salt for seasoning, plus extra to taste
• 8-12 cups Chicken Broth
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2 large celery stalks, chopped
• 2lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, or other waxy type potatoes, peeled, rough diced
• 1 ½ cups carrots (about 5 small carrots), chopped
• 3 ½ cups onion (about 4 medium onions), finely chopped
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels, derosted
• 3 cups butterbeans
• 1 (35oz) can whole, peeled tomatoes, drained
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• Juice of 2 lemons
• Tabasco sauce to taste

1. In the largest stockpot you have fry the bacon 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 peppers. Toast the peppers until they just start to smell good, about a minute tops. Remove to bowl with the bacon.

2. Season liberally both sides of the pork and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the pork 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, 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 leaves & peppers and discard.

5.  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.

6. Add in your onion, butterbeans, 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 butterbeans 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.

7. 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 corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.