Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (2024)

ByEdyta

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Bigos – Polish Hunter Stew – is a traditional Polish dish that originated in Medieval times. Sauerkraut, Kielbasa, Wild Mushrooms, Prunes, and spices are braised in red wine for hours to achieve this amazing comfort food.

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (1)

Bigos – Delicious Polish Hunter’s Stew

Today I’m going to share my recipe for Bigos – Polish Hunter Stew. Ever since I posted my Authentic Polish Pierogi with Potatoes and Cheese I have been getting requests from the readers to post a recipe for Bigos.

Apparently, a lot of people remembers their grandmothers making it and they really wanted to recreate the dish. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the best photos of this dish (they were actually taken a while ago), but since the requests are coming, I just decided to post it and deliver the recipe. That’s the most important part anyway, right?

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (2)

Traditions of Bigos

So in Poland Bigos is like Turkey in the US. It’s the go-to dish for ALL of the holidays, small or large, and even on Birthday and Name Day parties. Yes, there is such a thing as Name Day celebrations in Poland.

Every calendar will tell you when your name day it is. Mine is on September 16th, which is just a few days after my birthday so I usually didn’t get to celebrate it. But the idea is pretty cool. You can have YOUR party twice a year. And both of these parties involve gifts. Isn’t that cool? And, as mentioned, Bigos would be served at all of them.

Bigos is also called ‘Polish Hunter Stew’ as its origins date back to Medieval times; when hunters would bring home game and it would be added to a stew which was cooked for hours. Sauerkraut was widely used then because of its high vitamin content and the fact that it could survive winter.

If you think about it, it was a dish that was supposed to keep them warm and healthy. Sauerkraut with wild mushrooms, prunes, and wine? Sounds super good to me. Then they would add whatever meat that was brought home. Nowadays, you can use any meat you want, or you can skip it and make it a vegan version. I like mine with Polish Kielbasa, but it is totally fine to add cubed beef or pork.

How to Serve this Polish Hunter’s Stew

For the holidays or other gatherings, Bigos would be served as an appetizer with a Crusty Breadwhich could be dunked into the sauce.

I also like it served for dinner with mashed potatoes, or even as a side dish to other meats like .

Feel free to experiment and let me know how you like it.

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (3)

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (4)

Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (5)

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew

Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew is a traditional Polish dish that originated in Medieval times. Sauerkraut, Kielbasa, Wild Mushrooms, Prunes and spices are braised in red wine for hours to achieve this amazing comfort food.

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Course: Appetiser, Dinner, Side Dish

Cuisine: Polish

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 328kcal

Ingredients

  • 6 cups Sauerkraut or 2 - 1 pounds jars
  • 1 package porcini mushrooms about 20 grams
  • 1/4 cabbage shredded
  • 1 carrot medium, shredded
  • 10 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms cut
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1/2 cup prunes pitted, roughly chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 onion medium, yellow, chopped
  • 2 cups Kielbasa cubed
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1/4 teaspoon rosemary dried
  • 1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic granulated
  • 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds granulated
  • 1/4 teaspoon coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • Salty & Black Pepper to taste
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

  • Place dried mushrooms in a bowl, submerge them in water and let sit for an hour;

  • Rinse the sauerkraut and chop it. Place it in large pot and submerge with water, cook it for about an hour, adding water if needed so that the sauerkraut is fully covered. After fully cooked, let the water reduce by half;

  • In a frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a chopped onion and fry it for about 5 minutes until golden brown;

  • Remove the onions and set aside. Add another tablespoon of oil to the same pan, baby bella mushrooms, and season with salt & pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft and cooked through;

  • Remove the mushrooms and set aside. Add another tablespoon of oil to the same pan and your kielbasa. Cook until golden brown, or for about 5 minutes;

  • When sauerkraut is soft and the water has reduced by half, add chopped cabbage, and carrot; mix together and let cook for about 5 minutes;

  • Carefully remove dried mushrooms from the bowl and chop them. Be careful not to grab the dirt which inevitably fell down to the bottom of the bowl;

  • Into the pot with your sauerkraut, add cooked onions, mushrooms, kielbasa, red wine, tomato paste and all seasonings;

  • Let it cook for another half hour to an hour, mixing often until all the ingredients are well blended;

  • Season with salt and pepper, if needed;

  • It can be served immediately with bread or potatoes. Additionally, it can be reheated the next day and I suspect you'll be presently surprised at how well the nicely the dish aged!

Notes

This dish gets better the longer it cooks for and the longer it sits. It can actually taste the best on the third day after it's been reheated twice. But it can be eaten immediately. Enjoy.

Nutrition

Calories: 328kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 1230mg | Potassium: 645mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 165IU | Vitamin C: 26.6mg | Calcium: 64mg | Iron: 3mg

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Bigos - Polish Hunter Stew Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is bigos stew made of? ›

This version from A Polish Country House Kitchen blends pork, venison, beef, veal, and sausage with cabbage, sauerkraut, and mushrooms. Kate Itrich-Williams is a food writer, editor, and recipe developer who wrote the "Cook the Book" column for Serious Eats.

What does bigos mean in Polish? ›

Bigos (Polish pronunciation: [ˈbʲiɡɔs]), often translated into English as hunter's stew, is a Polish dish of chopped meat of various kinds stewed with sauerkraut, shredded fresh cabbage and spices.

Why is it called Hunter's stew? ›

It was called this way in English because it used to be served during hunts and at the time contain game (nowadays extremely rare), but the etymology of the Polish word is not certain. Bigos has a long ingredients list, takes several days to cook and tastes different in every house.

What is the national dish of Poland? ›

Bigos stew is the national dish of Poland. It can be made with any kind of meat from pork to rabbit or venison, but should always have spicy Polish sausage.

What is the liquid in stew called? ›

Broth is a thin soup made of the water in which flavor-enhancing ingredients like meat, vegetables, and herbs and spices have been simmered. The liquid is strained after cooking to remove the flavoring ingredients. The broth can be served on its own or used as the base for a heartier soup or stew.

Is bigos like kimchi? ›

In many ways, bigos resembles my favorite Korean dish, kimchi jigae. My brother-in-law (and hence, my nephew) is of Polish descent, so the dish seemed fitting.

What does dobranoc mean in Poland? ›

Slawomir Judek. Knows Polish. · 5y. Dobranoc is the equivalent of good night in English.

What is irrelevant in Polish? ›

not important in a particular situation. nieistotny, bez związku.

What is a stew that never stops cooking? ›

A perpetual stew, also known as forever soup, hunter's pot, or hunter's stew, is a pot into which foodstuffs are placed and cooked, continuously. The pot is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary.

What is a stew that never ends? ›

Perpetual stew is essentially a stew that transcends time. Essentially, people turn on their crockpots to make a stew that keeps cooking, eating some of it, replenishing the leftovers with additional ingredients, and, well, you get the idea. A kind of bottomless, never-ending-stew.

What is the longest perpetual stew ever served? ›

In Japan, the restaurant Otaf*cku in the Asakusa district of Tokyo serves a stew called oden, which has been replenished constantly since 1945. The only reason it doesn't date back until 1916, when the restaurant opened, is said to be because that soup was lost in a World War II air raid.

Is bigos fermented? ›

A mixture of smoked Polish sausage, sauerkraut, meat and spices, Bigos is full of flavour and keeps well – it even improves with age and reheating! And with fermented sauerkraut as one of its key ingredients, those good bacteria make it healthy for your digestive system too.

How to make stew tender? ›

The most important key to making stew meat tender is being sure to cook it for a long time. If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours.

What is the history of Bigos stew? ›

Bigos is a Hunter's Stew most associated with Poland, but likely of German origin. This dish, in one form or another, has been a part of Eastern European cuisine since at least the Middle Ages. The stew derives most of its flavor from a combination of meats, sausage, sauerkraut, cabbage, and mushrooms.

What is caribou stew made of? ›

Caribou stew is a traditional Canadian stew and a specialty of Nunavut cuisine. The stew is usually made with a combination of boneless caribou (wild North American reindeer) cubes, onions, celery, red wine, tomato paste, bay leaves, thyme, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beef stock, oil, salt, and pepper.

What is the name of a stew made from pig hearts and liver? ›

A classic soffritto napoletano usually includes a variety of pork innards, including the heart, lung, spleen and (often but not always) liver. In old time recipes you also throw in the trachea.

What is stew meat usually made from? ›

What Cut of Beef Is Stew Meat? Stew meat is made from cuts of beef with lots of tough connective tissue, namely chuck and/or round. When you simmer it in a liquid, the connective tissue breaks down and becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender. That's why it's traditionally braised in stock and turned into beef stew.

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