Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen · Beef

Easy Brunswick Stew

Name: Easy Brunswick Stew
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 large onion; 28 g butter; 4 medium potatoes; 1 can barbecue chicken; 1 can barbecue beef; 1 can barbecue pork; 1 can cream corn; 1 can tomatoes; 30 ml Worcestershire sauce; 60 ml soy sauce; 1 tsp black pepper; pinch salt

Brunswick stew without the all-day simmer — three kinds of canned barbecue meat with potatoes, cream corn, and tomatoes, ready in under an hour. Southern Sunday flavor on a weeknight.

~50 min total 15 min prep 30 min simmer

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Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Get the potatoes tender first, then it's a quick simmer. Everything else comes from cans — three kinds of barbecue meat are the Brunswick-stew shortcut — so once the potatoes are soft, you're just heating it through and letting the flavors marry, 25–30 minutes. Taste before adding salt; the canned meat and soy sauce bring plenty.

Easier, if you like

It's already the shortcut — canned barbecue meats instead of all-day-smoked.
Pulled pork or rotisserie chicken from the deli can stand in for the cans (about 3 cups total, plus a cup of barbecue sauce).

Method

Cook's notes

Brunswick stew, the easy way. The traditional version simmers shredded meats for hours; three cans of barbecue meat (Castleberry's is the classic brand) get you there in a fraction of the time.

Cream corn gives it the signature thick, slightly sweet body; the undrained canned tomatoes add the liquid.

Taste before salting — the canned meats, soy sauce, and Worcestershire are already salty.

Even better the next day, and it freezes well. Serve with cornbread or saltines.

Make it gluten-free

Gluten-free: use tamari for the soy sauce and a gluten-free Worcestershire, and check the canned barbecue meats (some contain wheat).