Awesome Brunswick Stew

 

There is one thing I love more than life....okay, maybe not that much, but I really, REALLY, really LOVE Brunswick Stew. It can’t just be any Brunswick Stew either. I’m a Brunswick Stew connoisseur and the best Brunswick in the world is found in my hometown of Thomaston, GA at Piggie Park. Piggie Park is a local drive in restaurant that honestly makes the best Brunswick Stew I’ve ever tasted.  Since we moved to Richmond, VA I’ve tried to find a stew that can come even close to their recipe. I’ll just skip ahead and let you know that we’ve been in Richmond for 9 years and my friends don’t allow me to order Brunswick Stew at restaurants anymore because they know I won’t like it. So what am I to do? I can't go without! I live so far away from Piggie Park, but I love Brunswick Stew. Well, in walks Trisha Yearwood into my life. Thank you Food Network for giving Trisha her own cooking show. She makes some awesome recipes, but the best one to date is her dad’s Brunswick Stew recipe. I could tell when she was making it that it was going to be close to my all time favorite so I had to give it a try. I actually still can’t believe that I made Brunswick Stew, but I did and it was AWESOME! I’m not even kidding, it is so good. If you love, or even like, Brunswick Stew, this is your recipe. I urge you to try it at least once! Okay, let’s get started because this is going to take a little time.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound Boston butt pork roast (I doubled the pork and didn’t use the beef roast at all)
• 1 pound fresh chicken or hen, bone in
• 1 pound boneless beef chuck roast
• 1 pound red potatoes, peeled and quartered (I also forgot to peel and they were fine)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 small sweet onion, such as Vidalia, chopped
• 6 cups canned whole peeled tomatoes (I'm not sure why I couldn't just use crushed tomatoes since I blended them in the food processor, but again, I just did as Trisha recommended)
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 32 ounces (4 cups) cream-style white corn

Directions:

Place the pork and chicken in a 1 1/2 gallon stock pot with enough water to cover. Cook at a medium simmer for 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender, skimming occasionally. Remove the meat to a bowl and reserve the stock. Meanwhile, in a separate large stockpot, do the same to the beef. Remove the beef and discard the broth. Remember, I left the beef out and only used pork and chicken, but Trisha used the beef so you decide.

Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan, cover with water and simmer until tender. Or you can plop them in with the chicken and pork and cook all in one pot like I did.

Remove and discard the bones and skin from all of the cooked meat, pull apart or cut into chunks and process in a food processor or meat grinder until ground.

Put 2 pints of the reserved pork and chicken stock into a 1 1/2 gallon stock pot, reserve the rest for another use. Add the ground meats to the stock. Dissolve the black pepper and the cayenne pepper in 1 tablespoon water, and add to the stew. Trisha says when you add pepper directly to a pot that the pepper will never mix in correctly so she dissolves in water first. I don't know if I've had that problem in the past, but I wasn't cutting any corners so I did what Trisha said.

Add to the onion and tomato to the food processor, process well and add it to the meat mixture with the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

This is just the meat, stock and tomato mixture. It looks yummy already.

Process in the food processor the cooked potatoes, then add to the stew, stirring until any lumps are removed. Stir in the salt. At this point, the stew should be soupy not watery. If the stew is too thick to stir easily with a flat spatula or pancake turner, thin it slightly with more reserved pork and chicken stock. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly.

Puree and add the corn, then continue to cook the stew over very low heat for 1 hour, stirring often and scraping the bottom of the stock pot with a flat spatula or pancake turner to avoid scorching.

Look how much stew this recipe makes! I put two batches in the freezer. This is the best recipe. I really recommend it. If you make it, be sure to come back and tell me how you liked it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!