I woke up the other day craving Brunswick stew. I’d never even had it before, but the basic elements of it that I knew of made it sound appealing. It was also my late friend Jim Villas’s all time favorite dish. So I set to researching recipes, which I discovered was like finding a recipe for salad or chili. The variations are endless!
Some of the essentials of Brunswick stew, it can safely be said, are chicken, tomatoes, lima beans, and corn. From there it can include any number of pork products, kielbasa sausage, bacon, and more. I wanted to keep mine simple and lighter than most recipes I came across. Interestingly enough, Brunswick stew is considered a side dish to go along with barbecue. To me, it is a meal in itself and I thought I would bump up the vegetable contents, and eliminate the pork and other less healthy ingredients.
The humorist Roy Blount Jr. once said that Brunswick stew “is what happens when small mammals carrying ears of corn fall into barbecue pits.” That was pretty close to the truth in the olden days. It was often made with squirrel, possum, and rabbit.
Both Brunswick County, Va., and Brunswick, Ga., claim this stew as their own but it’s a good-natured rivalry that has spawned massive cookoffs.
Virginia’s claim is the oldest and best documented. The story goes that in 1828, a Dr. Creed Hoskins took some buddies out hunting. His African-American camp cook, Jimmy Matthews, went hunting on his own for squirrel and turned it into a stew with stale bread, onions, and other seasonings. It is also (logically) believed by some that Native Americans had come up with something similar containing corn, beans, and those aforementioned small mammals, cooked over a cauldron on an open fire.
Georgia’s version tends to be spicier, thinner, and contains mostly pork. Sometimes potatoes are used as a thickener.
Many modern recipes call for some Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce (for smoky flavor), and cheating with a rotisserie chicken. No shame in that! Regardless of the ingredient list, most current recipes still call for hours of cooking time. When I made my batch, I didn’t want to simmer my precious end-of-season Dayton farmstand corn off the cob for such a long time so I added it towards the end. I also substituted edamame beans for the lima beans, which I have heard is a suitable substitute in other recipes. Epic error! Once the edamame beans had cooked for over 45 minutes, they became tough, whereas lima beans would have retained their pleasant creaminess. A lot of people don’t like lima beans and they are often hard to find out here.
In lieu of any pork, I simply sautéed an onion in two tablespoons of bacon fat to get that smoky, fatty flavor. I went overboard with a whole bottle of Bone Suckin’ barbecue sauce as one online recipe had suggested. Man, it was salty! I also cheated with a rotisserie chicken, which stood up quite well considering they are often so overcooked when you buy them that they dissolve into powder in your mouth.
I threw in some fingerling potatoes, which added nice texture, and chipotle powder for heat and more smokiness, mimicking the iron cauldron in the forests of the Old Dominion.
I’ll be the first to admit I like tacky shortcuts and I always have a box of Jiffy cornbread mix on hand. I add about three-quarters cup shredded jalapeno jack cheese to the batter and bake it in a hot cast iron skillet greased with bacon fat. That makes it “homemade.”
So I woke up one day craving a stew I had never even tried and had a moderate success at lightening it up. It occurred to me that this is a great, affordable one-pot meal for a crowd anytime of year and is also easily frozen. If you stashed some of your Thanksgiving turkey meat in the freezer, defrost it and shred it into a Brunswick stew recipe.
Here are a couple of recipes to get you started, feel free to make this any way you want, just like they do Down South.
