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Pork stew might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of stew recipes. Classic beef stew usually steals the show, but this pork stew recipe — in the most delicious way possible — will make you rethink that assumption. If you love that rich, slow-simmered stew flavor, my classic beef stew is the perfect starting point.
Tons of fork-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.
💗 This stew reminds me of the kind of meal that fills the house with good smells on a Sunday afternoon — the kind that brings everyone to the table before you even call them.
What You’ll 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
✨ Before You Begin
✨ Choose the right pot: Use a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven to help prevent scorching and promote even cooking.
✨ Brown the pork in batches: Don’t crowd the pan. Browning creates caramelized bits (fond) that make your stew richer and more flavorful.
✨ Deglaze like a pro: When you add the wine, scrape up every brown bit from the bottom — those are pure flavor gold!
✨ Don’t rush the simmer: Low and slow cooking is the secret to tender pork and beautifully melded flavors.
✨ Thickening: Our recipe creates a rich and thick stew and gravy without a cornstarch slurry. If something goes wrong and you need a thickener, start by dissolving one tablespoon of cornstarch with three tablespoons of cold water. Whisk it until smooth, then add it to the stew. Again, I want to reiterate that you’ll only need the slurry if something is forgotten or a step is missed. It’s a rescue plan!
✨ Adjust to taste: Feel free to swap veggies or add extra broth if you prefer a looser, soupier texture.
Pork Stew Ingredients
- Pork: We like to cut our own pork stew meat because it’s hard to find already cut at the supermarket. We trim the pork shoulder of all visible fat and cut it into 1-inch cubes.
- Flour: We use all-purpose flour to coat the pork before browning.
- Salt and Black Pepper: These are our most important, foundational seasonings. Nothing tastes right when the s + p is off!
- Oil: I use a neutral vegetable oil with a high smoking point.
- Bacon: I prefer to use uncured bacon.
- Onion: Use a yellow onion.
- Garlic: Please use fresh garlic, not the stuff that comes pre-minced in a jar.
- Vegetables: We use a combo of carrots and celery to flavor the broth. 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.
- Wine: If you don’t cook with wine, you can use an extra cup of beef broth.
- Broth: I use a low-sodium beef broth. It’s also delicious with half beef broth and half chicken broth.
- Tomato Paste: This adds a nice depth of flavor and a bit of acidity to the stew.
- Dried Herbs: We use a combo of dried thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf
- Prunes: The prunes add a mild sweetness that complements the pork beautifully. I’ve gotten many emails regarding this ingredient! People say they were unsure whether they’d like the prunes in the pork stew. They ALL say how happy they were that they added them. If you’re unsure, give them a try. I honestly think you’re going to love the flavor they add!
- Check out what reader Karen says, “Wow, this was absolutely delicious. I was skeptical about the prunes but I did add them and it was yummy, gave the stew a nice depth of flavor. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”
- Potatoes: I chose russet potatoes for this recipe because I love their creaminess. As they cook, their edges break down and thicken the stew beautifully.
- 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. As they get bigger, they start to get fibrous, which means they’re tougher. The flavor complements the pork deliciously.
Pro Tips for the Best Pork Stew
⭐ Use the right cut: Pork shoulder is ideal for stewing because its marbling breaks down beautifully during long, gentle cooking. Avoid lean cuts like tenderloin—they’ll dry out.
⭐ Deglaze thoroughly: When the wine hits the pan, scrape up every caramelized bit with a wooden spoon. This step builds the stew’s incredible flavor foundation. 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. 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!
⭐ Flavor layering: Cooking the vegetables in bacon drippings, then adding tomato paste and herbs, creates a deep, complex broth that tastes like it simmered all day.
⭐ Don’t skip the prunes: They may sound unexpected, but they melt into the stew and bring subtle sweetness that makes the savory flavors sing.
⭐ Different Spices To Try: Our recipe uses dried thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf. Occasionally, I’ll add smoked paprika or oregano to change the flavors.
How To Make Pork Stew
- Coat the pork with flour, salt, and pepper.
- Brown the pork in batches. Set aside.
- Cook the bacon in the same pot. Set aside.
- Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery.
- Saute the vegetables until soft.
- Add wine to the pot and scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of the pot.
- Add beef broth, tomato paste, browned pork, bacon, and herbs. Cover and simmer. Stir in prunes, potatoes, and parsnips, and continue to simmer. Adjust seasoning to taste.
- Serve.
***See the full instructions below.
Instant Pot Pork Stew
Want that rich, slow-simmered flavor in a fraction of the time? The Instant Pot makes it happen!
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Sauté and Brown: Set your Instant Pot to Sauté mode. Brown the pork in batches, then remove to a plate.
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Cook the Veggies: Add the bacon, onion, garlic, carrots, and celery, and sauté until softened.
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Deglaze: Pour in the white wine and scrape up all those flavorful browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
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Add Liquids and Seasonings: Stir in the beef broth, tomato paste, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Return the pork and bacon to the pot.
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Pressure Cook: Lock the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and cook on High Pressure for 35 minutes.
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Release Pressure: Allow a 10-minute natural release, then quick release any remaining pressure.
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Add the Veggies + Finish: Stir in the prunes, potatoes, and parsnips. Set back to Sauté and cook for 10–12 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
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Serve: Adjust seasonings, garnish with parsley, and serve piping hot!
Crockpot Pork Stew
Prefer a “set it and forget it” meal? The slow cooker version gives you all-day flavor with hardly any effort.
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Brown First: In a skillet, brown the pork in batches and cook the bacon until crisp. (Don’t skip this step — it adds incredible depth of flavor.)
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Layer in the Slow Cooker: Add the browned pork, bacon, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, beef broth, tomato paste, wine, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.
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Cook Low and Slow: Cover and cook on LOW for 7–8 hours or HIGH for 4–5 hours, until the pork is fork-tender.
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Add Root Veggies: Stir in prunes, potatoes, and parsnips during the last hour of cooking so they stay perfectly tender.
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Finish + Serve: Remove bay leaves, adjust seasoning, and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How Long Does This Last In The Fridge? According to USDA guidelines, soup and stew leftovers should be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days. Be sure to keep leftovers in an airtight container.
- Can You Freeze This? You can freeze this pork stew recipe, but the veggies might lose some texture after a trip through the deep freeze. To freeze, allow the stew to cool completely before putting it in a freezer container. I like to freeze leftovers in 1-gallon freezer bags and flatten them when I place them in the freezer. It makes it easier to stack up leftovers in the freezer. 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 prep a lot of the veggies and meat beforehand and then assemble and cook them when you’re ready.
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety, check out this link.
What To Serve With Pork Stew
Pork stew recipe is as good as it gets on a cold winter day. It’s a great one-pot meal. That said, I like to serve it with a hunk of warm Southern cornbread or Bisquick cornbread (if you like your cornbread sweet and cake-like), homemade crescent rolls, cathead biscuits, Lion House rolls, butter swim biscuits, or Bisquick biscuits. We also love this with our easy-peasy beer bread served with Dijon mustard on the side. It’s sure to be a family favorite!
We like this with a nice crisp salad like our KFC coleslaw, strawberry salad (with blue cheese and a lovely sherry vinaigrette), strawberry spinach salad, or 1905 salad. My husband, however, asks for his favorite Southern collard greens or Southern-style green beans with this stew. You really can’t go wrong with any of these on the side.
More Favorite Pork Recipes
- Crockpot Pork Tenderloin
- Crockpot Pork Chops
- Crockpot Pulled Pork
- Instant Pot Pork Chops
- Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops
- Stuffed Pork Chops
- Grilled Pork Tenderloin
More Delicious Stew Recipes
Tried This Recipe?
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If you made this Pork Stew, I’d love to hear how it turned out! Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating and a review in the comments below — it helps our community of cooks, and it absolutely makes my day. 💕
Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today — happy cooking, friends! ❤️ Kathleen
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 oil
- 4 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 2 cups carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 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 (2 1/2 pounds) with the flour (1/2 cup), 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 (4 slices) in the same pot, stirring frequently until crispy. Transfer to bowl with pork.
- Reduce heat to medium and saute onion (1), garlic (1 tablespoon), carrots (2 cups), and celery (1 cup), in bacon drippings, stirring occasionally, until soft.
- Add wine (1/2 cup) to the pot, and continue to simmer, scraping up brown bits on the bottom of the pot until the liquid is almost evaporated.
- Add beef broth (4 cups), tomato paste (2 tablespoons), browned pork, bacon, thyme (1 teaspoon), rosemary (1/2 teaspoon), bay leaves (2), 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 (1/2 cup), potatoes (2), and parsnips (1 cup) 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 (2-3 tablespoons) and serve.
Notes
- 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.
- The Veggies – 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.
Nutrition
I’m wondering what the rationale is to brown the pork in oil and then discard the drippings as opposed to browning in the bacon grease. Wouldn’t discarding the drippings lessen the flavor? I look forward to trying this recipe this week as I bought pork stew meat and don’t want to freeze it for later.
Hey Virginia! You are a lady after my own heart. Your absolutely right. I love cooking with bacon fat and have so much of it stored in my freezer for recipes like this. A lot of our community watches the fat in recipes, so I compromised! Thanks for calling me out. Use the glorious bacon fat!
Really flavourful, cooked 15 mins ahead of time, but my gas stove runs hot so I adjust. Great recipe, will definitely make again. Oh and first time using prunes, what a great addition.
Hey, Pip! That’s fantastic. We’re glad you like this stew. Prunes, right? It’s so good! Thank you for the positive feedback and 5-star rating!
It was delicious! I just made this stew and it’s amazing! Though, I think I’d reduce the amount of bacon next time. It kind of over powered the flavor of everything. But it was still amazing! Thinking I’ll add mushrooms next time because of the other comments!
Hey, Heidi! Yaaay! We’re so happy you like this stew 🙂 Thank you for the positive feedback and 5-star rating!
Instead of prunes i once used pitted dates in a pork stew and worked well.
Sounds delicious Peter!
My wife and I have made this stew three times, it’s AMAZING, so perfect on a chilly night!! Just delicious! Thank you 👍
Hi Dick! Im so happy you and your wife are enjoying this recipe! I hope you find many more on our site. Thanks so much for leaving a comment and the 5 star rating!!
This very simple and ingredients are easy to find
Thank you so much! We’re happy you like this stew 🙂
Firstly, took MUCH longer (several hours prior to starting the Step 6 cooking) to prep & do the intermediate cooking than the noted times: washing, peeling, and chopping veggies & prunes, mostly the celery though, as sliced it thin so it cooked-down and disappeared by the time the cooking finished. But mainly because of browning the bacon on lower heat and in batches, as to properly brown turkey bacon without burning takes awhile. Finished product was fantastic!
Followed the recipe, aside from these tweaks/subs: used an enameled cast iron dutch oven; used a whole 12oz. package of peppered turkey bacon as only had 1.5lbs. of pork stew meat, so then only used 1/2 tsp. salt in Step 6, but it was smoked salt; added an extra potato, extra 1/2 c. carrots, and 1/2 c. celery and sautéed these in olive oil (as had no bacon grease from the turkey bacon), as well as used white port wine for the deglazing not regular white wine in Step 5; used cherry-infused prunes (Sunsweet sells them), instead of regular ones; used 50% reduced sodium beef broth; no parsley garnish.
The rich depth of flavors was outstanding, even more so the next day.
[NOTE: to save time, definitely suggest doing the veggie peeling & chopping/mincing/slicing (except the potatoes, as they’ll turn brown) the night before. You could also probably brown the meats the night before too if desired].
Hey RLF. Thanks so much for your comment and the 5 star rating! I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe! Really great suggestions and input on the recipe. I sure appreciate it and I know our community does as well! I hope you find many more recipes you love here and review them, too!
Wow, this was absolutely delicious. I was skeptical about the prunes but I did add them and it was yummy, gave the stew a nice depth of flavor.
Hey, Karen! Yes, prunes for sure. We’re glad you like this stew and thanks for the positive feedback and 5-star rating!
Excellent !!
Made this for my family…added some mushrooms…
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
Rob
So happy you enjoyed this pork stew!! Thanks for leaving a comment and especially the 5 star rating!
This sounds delicious. I have some pork loin pieces to use up. Could I use that for the stew meat instead?
Hey, Katherine. Yes, that’ll do. Make sure not to overcook the pork loin, it might get chewy. Slice it into smaller pieces.
Absolutely delicious. Substituted duck fat for oil but, other than that, followed the recipe. Turn out so well that I immediately emailed a photo to my sister, who also prepared using duck fat. This one is definitely a “keeper” to be enjoyed many, many times in the future especially given the price of stew pork vs stew beef. Highly recommend!
Thanks so much Wendy! So happy that you and your sister enjoyed! Thanks for leaving a review and a 5 star rating!! I hope you check out more of my stew and goulash recipes!
I made this pork stew just like the recipe said. Very delicious and hearty. In my opinion, the prunes add a greater depth of flavor without tasting like prunes. I once cooked a beef roast with raisins. There was no raisen taste, just good meat flavor. I definitely will make this pork stew again. Thank you.
Hey, Diane! Yaaay, I’m glad you like this stew. I agree with the prunes. Thanks for the positive feedback and 5-star rating! 🙂
Turned out really well, even though I’m not generally a fan of prunes. Added some fish sauce (2 tbsp), which you won’t be able to identify, but is a natural umami flavor enhancer,(you could also add msg) and added about 8oz mushrooms as pork lends itself to earthy vegetables (okay, mushrooms aren’t a vegetable, but anyway).
Hey, T K! That’s wonderful, excellent idea about fish sauce and mushrooms! Thanks for the positive feedback and rating 🙂
Wow! Huge yum. I followed the recipe exactly- but used an Insta pot.
So happy you enjoyed this stew, Amy!
This was absolutely tasty and a big success with my kiddos
That’s amazing, Robert! I’m glad this stew was a hit 🙂 Thanks for the positive review and 5 star rating 🙂
First rain of the season today which means it’s time for our favorite Pork Stew! Question for the audience though. Has anyone ever tried substituting the potato for sweet potato? We got an absolutely massive one in our produce box and three recipes later still have half of it left. I was thinking a sweet potato might give it an interesting fall flare. But that might be desperation talking. Thoughts?
Hey, Amaya! Having lots of sweet potatoes sounds perfect! I haven’t tried it though in this stew. There’s a tendency that the stew will have some sweet and thicker consistency.
I made it exactly as recommended except for the prunes. And one other thing I did was deglaze the pan with vino after browning the pork and removing it from the pan and saved the crumbles to add to the stew towards the end. This is amazing thank you so much for sharing it. Oh and I used red wine because I didn’t have any whites, but I may have used a bit less of it.
Kim I’m so happy you liked this Pork stew! Thanks so much for the comment!
Excellent pork stew. I used homemade chicken stock not beef, because that’s what I had. I didn’t have bacon or prunes but I imagine that would give it even more flavor. I’ll make this again for sure.
That’s awesome, Sarah! Homemade chicken stock sounds soooo good! 🙂
Made it today and I absolutely love it. I couldn’t believe that pork stew could be that delicious. I could give 10 stars if possible 😊 I did make some changes to accommodate what I had in hand. I skipped the thyme, parsnip, potato and bacon. I did substitute the potato with dry potato flakes. And still it was a hit.
Thanks for sharing
Hey, Deepti! That’s awesome. This stew is so versatile! I’m so happy you like this as much as we do 🙂
OMG! Was looking for a nice pork stew recipe and came across this little gem. It was simply amazing and so hearty. This is definitely a favourite with my husband and I can’t wait to make it again. Thank you!
Hey, Siobhan! Wow, that’s amazing! I’m glad it was a hit 🙂
Thank you so much for your positive feedback!