Brunswick Stew, with Chicken and Pork Hocks
serves 6
about 3 hours, start to finish
stovetop
3 cups chicken broth
1 smoked or plain pork hock, about 1 to 1.5 lbs
3 large chicken breasts, or leg quarters, or a small roaster cut up
3/4 cup barbeque sauce (barbecue? BBQ? my spell checker is protesting)
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 Tbsp celery salt
salt and pepper, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
1 5oz can tomato paste (the small can)
1.5lbs potatoes, scrubbed and cut in chunks (peel them if you really need to)
3 medium carrots, about 3/4lb,
370gr
1/2 package frozen sweet corn (1kg package, 2lb package) OR 1 can creamed corn (for a different texture)
1/2 package frozen sweet corn (1kg package, 2lb package) OR 1 can creamed corn (for a different texture)
large handful of frozen green or yellow beans
Simmer the chicken broth, pork hocks, chicken breasts, barbeque sauce, bay leaves, celery salt, sugar, and seasonings for about 1 hour, or until the chicken and pork hock are cooked through. Take the chicken and pork out of the pot, and set aside to cool slightly. Add in the tomato paste, potatoes and carrots to the pot and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked. Shred or cut into chunks the chicken and cut the meat off of the pork hock, and add those back to the pot. Add in the rest of the ingredients, and simmer for another 10 or 15 minutes, until heated through.
Serve with a side of greens and some cornbread!
This is really good if it's been left in the fridge for a night to contemplate its fate.
For the chicken, I have used those cheap, frozen, pre-seasoned chicken breasts that always seem really fatty and gross when used like a normal chicken breast. They work very well with the long cooking of this recipe, and do not get dried out after prolonged cooking – which is something that should probably scare me, but I'm going to ignore that while the chicken is cheap.
Ok, so the meal continues… no tomato paste, and my kids also veto’d the “hunks of tomato” , so I opted for a can of condenced tomato soup.
All in all it worked out great. I ended up adding a bit more BBQ sauce ( well, maybe not really, I didn’t measure origionally)
The votes are not yet in, hubby who hates anything that could possibly be considered a soup or stew , is the one to worry aobut.
Thanks Meg, you’re the greatest. I am attempting my version of this today, figuring that the new hocks will be arriving soon. So… I am in phase one and my version so far sounds like this…
More water, since I am using a big big pan
no chicken broth, but I did have three left over flavour packets from the mr.noodles that the kids eat raw… is that good enough ?
random spices, cheap BBQ sause that is good for not much else
and of course the pork hocks. I didn’t add any chicken yet, as it is already cooked and left over from last night…
I’ve never had (or heard of) Brunswick Stew with barbecue sauce or creamed corn. Those sound like interesting additions.
I know that you were just using what you had, but it tastes much better with the dark meat of the chicken. If you decide to make it again, try that instead.
Hey Marci – glad you tried it. Now I’m eager to hear how it turned out! The tomato soup probably worked out just fine, and those flavour packets are, well, flavourful.
Pfirsch – not being Southern myself (unless you count southern Ontario), I took the barbeque sauce idea from a couple of different recipes. Some called just for tomatoes, or ketchup, but I liked the smokiness of the BBQ sauce. And I agree – the cream corn would probably be delicious in this.
Thanks for visiting!