Pork Brunswick Stew
Okay, who’s ready to normalize summer stews? The first time I had Pork Brunswick Stew was at Tomlin BBQ. And it was… dare I say life altering. I definitely chased the stew’s flavor for over a decade, returning every couple of years for barbecue bliss, until I finalized this recipe. Now I can make it at home and eliminate the 7-hour drive to get there. Yep! It’s THAT good!
Any who, Brunswick stew is meant to be a lighter stew, with lots of summer vegetables (zucchini, crookneck squash, sweet onion, butter beans, sweet corn, and tomatoes. It’s like a garden in a bowl). The addition of chicken stock and barbecue flavors build Brunswick stew into the perfect balance between sweet and savory.
Usually, shredded or chopped chicken is used in a Brunswick stew, but I prefer shredded pork. I like that it adds a slightly meatier and more barbecue-like feel to the recipe. For the lucky few of you who’ve made the Braised Mojo Pork and want to use leftovers for something else or just to stretch that meal further. I developed this recipe with those leftovers in mind. And if you haven’t, don’t worry, I’ve given alternatives with extra instructions for anyone who wants to use BBQ pulled pork (see FAQs).
Get the Recipe: Pork Brunswick Stew
Ingredients
- ½ cup sweet onion, chopped (about 1/2 medium onion)
- 2½ cup zucchini, chopped into ½in (1.25cm) thick pieces
- 2½ cup yellow crookneck squash, chopped into ½in (1.25cm) thick pieces
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon marmite
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, ground
- 1 teaspoon cumin, toasted and ground
- 2 cloves roasted garlic
- 1 cup sweet corn kernels, fresh or frozen
- 1 cup butter beans (aka baby lima beans), fresh or frozen
- ½ tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt + more for salting to taste
- 1, 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, juice and tomato
- 2¼ cups chicken stock
- 1-1.5 lbs mojo pulled pork , (or store/restaurant bought, see notes)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ tablespoon vodka or tequila to finish, optional finishing ingredient
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 cutting board
- Measuring spoons
- measuring Cups
- 1 kitchen scale
- 1 dutch oven or stock pot
- 1 Small Sauce Pot
- 1 colander
Instructions
Timing Disclaimer
- If you are going to make my braised mojo pork recipe and use its leftovers for this recipe as intended, please review that recipe and it's timing beforehand. It will add an additional 30 hours into the mix because of brining and marinating. I have given other pulled pork options in the FAQs if you'd like to skip making the mojo pork.
Pork Brunswick Stew
- First prep your vegetables. Make sure to keep them on separate plates. Finely dice your onion. Then quarter (longways) and chop the zucchini and yellow squash into 1/2in (1.25cm) thick pieces.
- In a small pot, cover the corn and butter beans with 4 cups (.9L) of salted (1/2-1tbsp or 4.6-8.8g of kosher salt) water. Bring to a simmer until they are well cooked through, about 10-20 minutes. Test taste the beans, in particular, for doneness. Bigger ones can sometimes take a little longer. Then, strain and leave in the colander until they are ready to be added to the stew.
- Next, whisk the tomato paste, marmite, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and cornstarch together in a medium bowl. Once combined, set aside.
- Drizzle the canola oil into a dutch oven or stock pot heated to medium high. Then add in your pepper and cumin for 15 seconds stirring until fragrant. At this point, toss in your onions and add a pinch of salt to bring out their moisture. After they start to sweat, add in the garlic and continue cooking until the onions are translucent.
- At this point, add in the chopped squash. Sauté these until they just start to lose their rigidity but have not begun breaking down, about 7-10 minutes. They should still have a fairly bright color.
- Add in the mixed sauce, corn, beans, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, pulled pork and bay leaves. Give the whole pot a good stir to incorporate and let simmer for about 60 minutes. Before serving, take out the bay leaves and stir in the vodka or tequila, if you are using it.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
Sure can. The way I see it, you have 3 options (2 quick and 1 that’s similar but with less ingredients):
1. Most grocery stores sell pre-packaged pulled pork that’s pretty dang good. So, there’s the first. I do suggest defrosting the pulled pork to pick through it before use. There can be really fatty pieces in those storebought packets, and you may want to remove them beforehand. If you don’t mind those pieces, feel free to defrost right in the stew.
2. You can also stop by any BBQ joint and get 1-2lbs (.45-.9kg) of plain pulled pork a-la-carte. This is going to add a bit of smokiness to the stew, but it’s meant to be eaten alongside barbecue, so it will still work.
3. Make a different pulled pork or simple braised pork recipe (like carnitas) and use those leftovers.
Of note for all of these options… using a different pork than mojo pork means you might need a little bit more acid in the final dish.
Once you’ve gone through all the steps, give the Brunswick stew a taste. If you like it, GREAT! If you find the dish needs a little more tang, here a few ingredients you can add. I first recommend adding a bit of orange juice. I know this sounds a little weird, but a major component of mojo pork is orange juice. The acid and the sweetness might be just what you’re missing. If you don’t have orange juice, go for a little extra apple cider vinegar or even squeeze in some lime juice. You want just enough to brighten things up. Start small, you can always add more.
Essentially, you are going to do the exact same thing, but use shredded chicken instead.
Again, some barbecue restaurants already sell this a-la-carte. You can also roast some chicken thighs (for dark meat only) or purchase a whole rotisserie chicken (for both white and dark meat). From there, use the roasted meat to make chicken stock. Simmering the roasted chicken in stock will dissolve the connective tissue in the chicken and allow it to shred.
Strain out the needed stock and then shred pieces of chicken, putting them into the liquid to cool. Cooling and reheating meat in liquid helps it retain moisture and not dry out.
It’s really not that difficult to make this stew vegetarian. But, just a heads up, it will definitely taste more like a summer vegetable soup or minestrone soup than it will Brunswick stew. Essentially, you’ll use vegetable broth and leave out the meat.
Optional suggestion: you could also add a drop or two of liquid smoke to give the dish a more interesting flavor.
Oh, let me count the ways!
1. By itself
2. Over rice
3. with hushpuppies or cornbread
4. As a TominatorTM. The tale of the tominator is as follows…
The second time Brunswick stew re-captured my heart was in Atlanta, Georgia at Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q, where I had the “tominator” for the first (and definitely not last) time. A tominator is when you layer cooked tater tots, Brunswick stew and any style of chaddar or jack cheese (colby, pepper or apple). in a skillet and bake it until the cheese is bubbling and melted. It sounds good because it is! I highly recommend doing this with leftovers.
I like to re-heat Brunswick stew on the stovetop more than in a microwave, because the microwave is harsher to softer veggies than re-heating on a low heat setting. So, grab a sauce or stew pot and let it come to temperature, covered (to retain moisture) and on a medium-low setting (less cellular breakdown).
That being said, the zucchini and crookneck squash are going to break down quite a bit regardless of the reheating technique if you are reheating from frozen. This is because when water freezes it expands and kind of explodes the cellular structure of more delicate fruits and veggies. Personally, this doesn’t bother me because I am all about slop foods and stews. And with the texture from the pork, beans, and corn it doesn’t change it that much. I just want to make sure everyone is aware; they are going to turn to mush and lose some color, but taste just as yummy. Don’t panic.
There is one other I would suggest using if you don’t want to purchase pork shoulder (a.k.a. pork butt). Grab a pork loin or roast from your grocery store. The cut of meat will be less fatty, but it works beautifully with braised dishes where you want flavorful, fall of the bone tenderness.
If your summer garden is going strong or the farmer’s market haul was top notch, you can always blanch the tomatoes, skin them, and then dice them from fresh.
Simply score a cross into the bottom of the tomatoes and add them into a gently boiling pot of water for 30-60 seconds. Then, take them out of the pot and drop them into ice water to stop the cooking. The scoring at the bottom should allow you to easily peel the tomato skin off. Dice into whatever size you’d like from there.
Again, yes of course you can. Buy some sweet corn and cut the kernels from the cob. Then, boil them as instructed. Easy.
This one is going to add extra.
1. Cook the beans and the corn separately. The corn will most definitely cook faster, and you don’t want them to be ready at different times in the same pot.
2. If you are using fresh beans, they can take up to an hour to cook, so be wary of this added time if you are using all fresh ingredients. Start with 30 minutes and then begin biting into a bean here or there in 10-minute intervals until you are happy with the texture.
Good news! Butter beans or are the same thing as lima beans. It’s all about when you harvest them that determines how they are labeled. Which means you can definitely substitute them.
I do recommend baby lima beans over full-sized lima beans because they are softer in texture and faster to cook. They are also smaller, so the ratio of beans to other parts of the stew are better than if using very large beans.
