Pork stew might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of stew recipes. Traditional beef stew usually steals the show, but this pork stew recipe, in the most delicious way possible, will make you rethink that assumption.
Tons of tender, juicy pork chunks and bacon ensure meat in every bite, and all of your favorite veggies are here in abundance. This thick, hearty pork stew recipe, together with my classic beef stew, slow cooker beef stew, Brunswick stew, and cowboy stew will fill you up on the coldest of winter days.
Let’s make this stew!
What I Love About This Recipe
This pork stew recipe has so much going for it. Here are the best parts!
- Thick and hearty
- Lots of veggies and meat
- Lovely depth of flavor
- Makes enough for a crowd
Pork Stew Recipe Notes
There are a lot of versions of pork stew meat with gravy around the world. Both the pork stew recipe Filipino style and pork stew Spanish version use potatoes and bell peppers. The pork stew Jamie Oliver makes uses fatty pork, sage, and cider.
Whatever version it is, they are all certified comfort food!
- The pot- you’ll want a large pot with a heavy bottom to prevent burning. Thin bottomed pans are notorious for hot spots that can burn your stew.
- Deglazing the pan- deglazing pulls off all the little bits of meat and veggies (called the fond) that stuck to the bottom of the pan. The key to it is to use a rigid spatula or wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan when you add the wine. As soon as the liquid hits the pan, start scraping and stirring until the bottom is free of any stuck bits.
- Why is this important? Because those little brown bits are flavor gold! They add tremendous flavor to your dish, so don’t skip this step!
- Bacon drippings- Sautéing the veggies in bacon drippings adds lots of flavors. There should be a tablespoon of drippings from the bacon. If you find you have excess bacon grease, drain some before adding the veggies. If you don’t want to use it at all, I suggest olive or vegetable oil instead.
Now, let’s talk about the ingredients in this recipe.
- Wine – If you don’t cook with wine, you can use an extra cup of beef broth.
- The Veggies –Â You can adjust vegetable amounts and types to suit what you like or what you have in the fridge! Turnips, butternut squash, or chunks of tomato are all good ideas.
- Parsnips- This is such an unsung veggie. It’s sweet and earthy tasting. Try to look for parsnips that are less than 2 inches at their largest point. They start to get fibrous which means they’re tougher, as they get bigger. The flavor compliments the pork deliciously.
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How Long Does This Last In The Fridge? Soups and stew hold well in the fridge for 3-4 days, according to the USDA guidelines.
- Can You Freeze This? You can freeze this pork stew recipe, but the veggies might lose a bit of texture after a trip through the deep freeze. To freeze, allow the stew to cool completely before putting it in a freezer container. It should keep for 2-3 months.
- Make Ahead Tips: This stew reheats beautifully and, like most soups and stews, tastes better the next day. You can also do a lot of the veggie and meat prep beforehand and then assemble and cook when you’re ready for it.
Serving Recommendations
Pork stew recipe is as good as it gets on a cold winter day. Serve it with a hunk of warm Southern cornbread or Bisquick cornbread if you like it sweet, homemade crescent rolls, Lion House rolls, butter swim biscuits, or Bisquick biscuits. It’s sure to be a family favorite!
Recipe Variations
- Cook this in an Instant Pot. For super busy days, you can always rely on the instant pot. Just brown the pork in batches and sauté the aromatics, which is similar to how instant pot beef stew and instant pot chicken noodle soup are cooked.
More Delicious Stews To Try:
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Pork Stew
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed of visible fat, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- salt
- black pepper
- 2-4 tablespoons vegetable oilÂ
- 4 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 2 cups carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 cup celery,
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 4 cups beef broth
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup pitted prunes, chopped
- 2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 cup parsnips, peeled and diced
Garnish (optional)
- 2-3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, toss the pork with the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon black pepper to coat evenly, shaking off excess.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil, over medium-high heat, in a large pot and brown pork in batches without crowding it, about 7-9 minutes. Add more oil as needed. Transfer browned meat to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set aside. Remove and discard pan drippings.
- Cook the bacon in the same pot, stirring frequently until crispy. Transfer to bowl with pork.
- Reduce heat to medium and saute onion, garlic, carrots, and celery, in bacon drippings, stirring occasionally, until soft.
- Add wine to the pot, continue to simmer, scraping up brown bits on the bottom of the pot until liquid is almost evaporated.
- Add beef broth, tomato paste, browned pork, bacon, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for 45 minutes.
- Stir in prunes, potatoes and parsnips then cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. If you'd like the stew thinner, add more beef broth or water to achieve desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper as needed. Ladle into individual bowls, garnish with parsley and serve.
Would pork loin be suitable to use instead of pork shoulder meat in this stew? I have a little over two lbs. of pork loin I’m trying to find a way to use besides doing boneless chops, which we’re tired of. This stew look so good,I’d like to make it.
Hi, Vicki! I think that will work well! Enjoy this stew 🙂
My guess…..I cut the potatoes too small and yes cooked too long. Making it again NOW s we will see! Lol
I wish you luck! And enjoy 🙂
Amazing! We’re keto so I left out the wine and tomato paste. It was outstanding and our family’s new favorite stew!
Hi Jennifer. I’m so happy you and your family enjoyed! Great Keto tweaks for Keto!
My family LOVES this stew. A few times it seems to “mush” together too much. Any suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong? I know it’s stew, not soup, but tonight was very soft and mushy.
Hey Brandon! Do you think you might have cooked it a bit longer when it was mushy?
Hi Brandon, I don’t want to piggyback here but since you were asking for help with why your stew got mushy, I want to give you a little advice and my version of the pork stew; I hope you will like it. I’m Hungarian so I make pork stew very often and my family loves it. In a large pot add cubed pork, broth and all the seasonings including 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder and cook covered for 10 minutes. In a large pan sauté vegetables and bacon for 3 minutes. Add in wine, stir well and set aside. Check the pork and if you feel it’s about half way cooked then add veggie / bacon / wine mixture to the pot with the pork. Add a little water to the pan and swish it around and add to the soup. (You don’t want to leave all the good flavors in the pan). Cover and cook everything together until vegetables are tender, about 25 – 30 minutes. If you have parsley or cilantro, or carrot leaves (yes, carrot leaves, they are extremely nutritious and healthy) add 2 tbsp. and then add cubed potatoes. Make sure potatoes are large cubes because by the time they are done and everything cooked; potatoes will be much smaller. Taste and add more seasonings as you like, and if you like it spicier just add a pinch of crushed peppers or just cayenne pepper. Add a little bit at the time, you can add more as needed (taste twice, season once). Now make the roux: in a small pan add and heat 3 tbsp. vegetable oil, add in 2 tbsp. flour and mix well. Take off the heat, add 1 tsp. paprika and 1 tsp. chili powder; mix well. Add about 1 1/2 – 2 cup of cold water and with a whisk quickly mix until you get a smooth not too thick but runnier roux (warm water make your roux lumpy). Add a little more water if needed! Turn the heat down to low and add roux to the pot with meat and veggies and mix well so it doesn’t get lumpy. Simmer just for 2 – 3 minutes on low heat, stir it a few times and you are done. The roux should thicken the stew not too thick, but if in case it is, just stir in a little more water. Hope this helps.
I admit I was hesitant about the prunes but they add such a subtle sweetness that goes great with pork (much like apples always do) Рperfect for the slow cooker since mine has a saut̩ option so it was truly one pot!
This receipe was sooooo delicious. I made it for my family, they had second helpings even the grandchildren. Everyone gave a high score. I added raisins like the lady said instead of prunes because I did not have any.. I definitely will make this again. Thanks for such a lovely receipe.
Thank you so much for your positive review, Judy! I’m glad you liked this 🙂
Turned out very good. I used crown royal instead of white wine and some Cajun Louisiana seasoning. It came out beautifully and taste bids danced. Thank you
Sounds great Gregory!!!
Big hit with my family. I used tenderloin instead of shoulder and sherry for my white wine. Skipped the parsnips because I couldn’t find any in January in Minnesota. Go figure. Still delicious 😋. I’ll definitely be making this one again. Thank you.
Thanks, Jeff! I’m glad it was a hit! 🙂
Amazing! I left out the prunes and only did one 45 minute cook time. The pork came out super moist and just fell apart.
Wow, that’s awesome. Thank you so much, Markita! 🙂
This is absolutely one of my families favorite stews. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made it. The best part is that if you follow the instructions exactly (full disclosure I use raisins instead of prunes) it’s delicious. And if you assume you have all the ingredients and discover you don’t only after you get back from the grocery store, you guessed it, still delicious!
I discovered I had no bacon, only chicken broth, no potatoes and only fresh rosemary, but I had just gotten back from the store where I waited a good 35 minutes to check out. I wasn’t going back. So I figured I’d give cooking the veggies in the pork drippings, using chicken broth and fresh rosemary a try. Then I was so flustered by the turn of events, I put the pork in my Dutch oven without tossing it in flour first so I added a few tablespoons of flour to the veggies ala beef stew. Of course the flour sucked all the wine up at which point I was even more flustered and promptly put in a tablespoon of Thyme instead of a teaspoon. Then I pretend everything was fine, served it over left over mashed potatoes to make up for the lack of potatoes in the stew. Final result, I messed up pretty much everything and everyone still had seconds (and in some cases thirds). This recipe is magic and if you haven’t made it yet, you are missing out!
Wow, Amaya! That made me hungry and craved for this stew! Thank you so much for sharing and your positive feedback! <3 🙂
Took your idea for the raisins since I had some, but no prunes. Pork seems to like a touch of sweetness. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Hi Kathleen – this is such a great stew. Made 2 changes – nix on the prunes and I cooked it in my slow cooker on low for 7 hours. OMG – it is so good. I also used pinot noir that you suggested to another reviewer. Thanks for posting this. Since there is only me and I made the full recipe, I now have 6 bags frozen to reheat and eat later. Thanks again.
Hi Kathi! So glad to hear you enjoyed this stew!
Thanks for the slow cooker suggestion, I was wondering how that would work.
I’m sorta new at this. Gonna try this today.