New Brunswick Stew with Rotisserie Chicken Recipe
Costco's $4.99 Chicken In our continuing series of quick
weeknight dinners leading up to Christmas, I couldn’t ignore the charms of
Rotisserie Chicken. I cannot go into
Costco without buying one of their birds, beautifully cooked and an amazing
bargain at $4.99. I’ve made this
chicken into sandwiches and salads and I’ve sliced off parts to eat all by
themselves when I am all by myself.
Last week, I brought one home and searched around for a recipe that
would fall into our dinner-on-the-table-in-no-time criteria. Almost immediately, I came upon a recipe
labeled “Brunswick Stew”. To be honest,
it landed squarely in Sandra Lee territory but it fit the bill. Rotisserie chicken is skinned and
shredded. Everything else came out of a
can or the freezer and the mixture was then seasoned, stirred into a Dutch
oven, brought to a boil then simmered on the stove for 45 minutes. Just enough time for a Cocktail! Or a look into the origins of Brunswick
Stew. It must be named for Brunswick
Georgia, I thought to myself.
Brunswick Stew is indeed popular in
the American South. In fact two
Brunswicks lay claim to the recipe:
Brunswick, Georgia and the entire county of Brunswick, Virginia. Both have plaques supporting their claims. Brunswick, Georgia's Visitors' Center has an actual pot it claims was used to make the first Brunswick Stew. But the
name of the recipe is about all that is the same. The recipes vary wildly. The common denominator is a tomato base,
which contains lima or butter beans corn and okra. Recipes claiming authenticity call for
squirrel, possum or rabbit meat.
Chicken, pork, beef are also commonly used. And in case you wondered, all the separates
Brunswick Stew from a soup is its thick consistency. So minus the squirrel, possum or rabbit, what
was I making? The Georgia version, I
read, favors pork and beef. So that
wasn’t it. The Virginia version calls
for chicken, like mine, and rabbit, unlike mine. And then I read that a woman named Marjorie
Kinnan Rawlings , who wrote a book called “Cross Creek Cookery” in 1942, had
written that the stew, said to have been one of Queen Victoria’s favorites, may
have come from the original Brunswick, Braunschwieg,
Germany!
Queen Victoria loved
her Brunswick Stew
At that moment, Andrew came in the
door, asked what I was cooking for dinner and when I replied “Brunswick Stew”
asked “A Family recipe?”. A couple of
generations ago one entire branch of my family all lived in New Brunswick,
Canada. So I looked at the ingredients
and decided that’s exactly what we’ll call this amazingly simply, wildly
satisfying bowl of chicken stew. It’s
full-on Sandra Lee because when I went to buy the ingredients, what did I find
in Trader Joe’s frozen vegetable section but something called “Soycutash”…a
package containing sweet corn, red pepper and shelled edamames. If you have aren’t near a TJ’s, just
substitute 1 3/4 cups of frozen lima beans and 1 3/4 cups of frozen whole
kernel corn. I used lots of salt and
pepper and I’d advise you to do the same.
I served the stew with some pull-apart rolls and a green salad. And toasted good old New Brunswick, and of
course, her Queen, Victoria. Here is the
recipe:
- Recipe for New Brunswick Stew with Rotisserie Chicken
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken, skin removed and
- meat shredded
- 1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 cups low-sodium Chicken Broth
- 1 16 oz. Can of Tomato Sauce
- 1 ½ cups peeled, chopped red potatoes
- 2 16 oz. Packages of Trader Joe’s Soycutash or
- 1 ¾ cups frozen lima beans
- 1 ¾ cups frozen whole kernel corn
- 1 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
- 1 tsp. black pepper (or more to taste)
- ¼ tsp. ground cayenne pepper
- 1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive
- oil over medium heat, add the diced onion and cook until onion is translucent,
about 3 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients and
stir. Bring the dish to a boil. Reduce
the heat to simmer and cook for 45 minutes until all the vegetables are
tender.
3. Serve in bowls, garnished with parsley or cilantro.