![beef and chicken hunter stew beef and chicken hunter stew](https://www.jessicagavin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/chicken-cacciatore-15-1200-480x270.jpg)
It makes a perfect midweek family meal, and is also good for a crowd. This dish is usually made with thighs and/or drumsticks, or also a whole chicken cut into parts. I prefer though the Italian one because of some additional ingredients that I like. The French have their own version, called “Poulet Chasseur”(same meaning) which is quite similar. Season with salt, black pepper and some of the reserved cabbage cooking liquid, to taste - the final result should be sweet, salty, fatty and sour in balance.This Recipe is Italian (Tuscan more precisely). During the last 15 minutes of cooking, add the remaining garlic. Cook it all over low heat for at least 3 hours, stirring often to prevent it from sticking to the base of the pan. Add the sauerkraut, cabbage, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram, allspice, peppercorns, caraway seeds, if using, hock stock, and all of the meats and their reserved fat. Add the onion and half of the garlic and cook slowly until the onion is soft and translucent. Melt this in a large heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Using a large metal spoon, remove the fat from the top of the chilled hock stock.Cut the reserved hock meat into 1 cm dice. Pick the meat from the pork neck and chop it into 1 cm dice.Remove the sausage and any fat to a plate with the kaiserfleisch. Cook the Polish ring sausage until it is well browned. Remove to a plate, leaving the rendered fat in the pan. Cook the kaiserfleisch in a frying pan over medium– high heat, turning often, until it is well browned, about 10 minutes.Blanch the cabbage in a saucepan of boiling water for 1 minute, then drain well, squeezing out and reserving the excess liquid - this will reduce any sulphurous smells during cooking.Put the porcini and prunes in a bowl and just cover with boiling water.Polish smoked ring sausage (wiejska kiełbasa), sliced into quarters lengthwise, then into 5 mm slices Kaiserfleisch or smoked pork belly, cut into 1 cm dice Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then cover and refrigerate for later use. Reduce the oven temperature to 180☌ and cook for a further 10 minutes. Turn it over and cook for 10 minutes - it should be nicely browned. Meanwhile, place the pork neck in a roasting tin and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.Use your fingers to remove all the meat from the hock (this is easier if it is still a bit warm), separating and reserving any sinew or fat in the refrigerator for later use. Put the stock into the refrigerator to thoroughly chill. Remove the hock from the stock, reserving the stock, and allow to cool. Add the bay leaf, allspice and juniper berries and simmer, uncovered, for 3 hours, or until the meat is falling from the bone.Skim off any scum that rises to the surface at this point but leave the fat (this recipe will never receive the Heart Foundation tick of approval, so don’t go acting like it will.) Put the hock into a large saucepan or stockpot and cover with 3 litres cold water.I have divided the cooking into two days, though it is obviously an advantage to have another couple of days up one’s sleeve to age and reheat (or freeze) the finished product.
![beef and chicken hunter stew beef and chicken hunter stew](http://irepo.primecp.com/2016/03/267883/recipe-15960_ExtraLarge1000_ID-1513062.jpg)
It will keep frozen for up to three months and as mentioned above, the flavour improves with time and harsh treatment. I recommend doubling or quadrupling the recipe and freezing it in batches. Some Poles like to freeze bigos before reheating and serving it, this is easy in the Polish winter where all you have to do is leave it outside your house! It is widely accepted that bigos is better when it has been reheated after two or three days. It is known as Hunter’s Stew, which is almost certainly because it was served to the nobility and their hangers-on returning from game hunting. In the north of Poland it is likely to contain caraway seeds, whereas in the south it is more likely to contain paprika due to its proximity to Hungary. It is made by cooking several types of cured pork and fresh meat or leftover roast (this can be more pork, lamb, chicken, duck, game birds or any combination of the above) with lots of onion and sauerkraut. Its origins are uncertain, though there is a similar dish prepared in Alsace on the border of Germany and France. Bigos is possibly the most Polish of all dishes.