Polish Bigos / Hunter's Stew

Rita~'s Note:

Hearty Heart warming comfort food. Serve with good rye bread. The secret of Bigos is that it gets better as it's reheated. The more it heated the better it gets. I like cooking it most the day.This is a great make ahead meal.

• Total Time: 3 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 16

• 4 lbs sauerkraut
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 lb smoked pork butt
• 1 lb spareribs
• ¼ lb bacon
• 1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• 2 bay leaves
• black pepper
• salt
• 4 lbs heads of cabbage
• 1 lb pork loin chops or 1 lb country-style pork ribs
• 1 lb smoked kielbasa
• ½ cup onion (chopped)
• 16 ounces fresh mushrooms
• 1 ounce mushroom (dried)
• 2 tablespoons flour

Directions:

1. Brown pork and spareribs in a large heavy pot.
2. Add smoked butt with 1 cup of water and simmer until 1 hour.
3. Add the sauerkraut and one cup apple juice.
4. Chop the cabbage fine and add to sauerkraut.
5. Add lots of pepper and salt cover and simmer 1 hour.
6. Remove lid and keep pot on a very low simmer.
7. In a pan, fry bacon until crisp, then crumble into sauerkraut mixture.
8. Remove most of the bacon fat and fry onions and mushrooms and flour until they just brown.
9. Mix into sauerkraut mixture.
10. Cut kielbasa into slices add to sauerkraut mixture with the tomatoes.
11. Bring to a boil, simmer 30 minutes and serve hot.

Reviews

[Happy Harry #2]

Oh Boy! What a dish! I wanted to make something different for New Year's day. I'm always asked to make my stew but this time it had to be different.....and this took the cake. Had to have something I could make in advance cause I was very busy with my doggy daycare and lodging, being the X-mas holidays. I had to make a few adjustments but nothing to really change this delightful meal. Could not find a smoked pork butt so used just the plain type, but used smoked thick cut bacon. I cut up fresh Roma tomatoes for the canned and added an extra 1/2 cup water. My cabbages were a bit small so I used a whole onion. Also had gotten a great buy of Portabello mushrooms so I used only them. I cooked this two days early and then simmered it for three hrs. on the 1st. I added the potatoes to the stew at that time. The house smelled wonderful! I bought a uncut rye loaf of bread and tore it into chunks to eat with stew. My girlfriend baked and brought two apple pies, but only two slices were eaten.....cause EVERYBODY went for 2nds and even 3rds of the stew! This gal really thanks you Rita for helping bring in the New Year!

[Harley Quinn]

Dziękują (Thank You!) Wonderful hearty stew. I love Bigos and this is one of the best recipes I've ever made. Made for ZWT4 I can't wait for some cold weather to make it again--it's so comforting.

[xtine]

This is delicious! It is even better than the restaurant recipe I was looking to duplicate! I couldn't get spare ribs, so I left them out, I used dried morels for the dried mushrooms, and I drained and rinsed the sauerkraut before adding it to the pot. Very tasty, and will feed an army!