Slow Cooker Brunswick Stew
vintage North Carolina recipe
post updated 3/24/2024
Grandma’s Brunswick stew recipe
This “modified for the crockpot” recipe for Brunswick Stew comes from my beloved Grandma Brooks. I went to visit with her on a chilly day when she just happened to be cooking this up. She gave me a big ol’ bowl of it and it was so delicious and cozy, it warmed me right up. After gushing to her about how wonderful it was, she did the sweetest thing and sat down and hand wrote the recipe out for me. I still have it and keep it in her old black recipe book to treasure along with her other recipes. Below is the original recipe she hand wrote for me the day I first had some of her Brunswick Stew.
Most of the Brunswick Stew’s I’d had in the past were from fundraising fire departments, selling it by the quart, that was slow-cooked in a huge cast iron cauldron or pot. She was able to capture the essence of that same taste by cooking it on the stove top. Chicken, stewed beef, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, butter beans are the main ingredients, along with a few more simple add-in’s for the tasty broth. No doubt, my grandmother used vegetables she canned from her garden harvest bounty. I used store bought canned tomatoes and lima beans. Traditionally, corn is also added to Brunswick Stew, but I do not eat corn and neither does my dad, so I left that out. Feel free to add it if you want though. You will want to wait to add the corn when it’s about one hour away from being done. This Brunswick Stew recipe makes enough for 10-12 very hardy servings. (Grandma had a big family! Nine kids!!)
Let’s begin!
Ingredients for Brunswick stew:
Equipment needed: Also needed is a large 8–10-quart capacity slow cooker. (See a few of my recommendations in recipe card at bottom of post.)