Chunky Chuckwagon Cowboy Stew

Hey guys, Dave here from Easy Country Cooking and Cooking Chair. Well, you know, the weather's getting colder, and we're cooler anyway, and I thought it would be a good time to cook up some cowboy stew. So I dug out the old hat, started up the old wood fire out there, and we're going to mix them up. I bet you any money this is going to be so, so good. So let's get started. So we'll quickly go through the ingredients here. So what we got are some potatoes, of course, salt and pepper, Italian seasonings, some cumin, some chili powder, tomato paste, corn, tomatoes fresh from the garden, and we got some beef broth, pinto beans, kielbasa, that is really good, garlic, mixed veggies, onion, jalapeno peppers, and over here, some hamburger, and some bacon, and of course, a cup of coffee. Alright guys, I got the old Dutch oven heated up here, so I'm going to go in with about five strips of bacon. We're just going to cook this down a little bit until it gets on the semi-crisp side. Now our bacon is kind of fried up there a little bit. I'm going in with a small chopped onion and three cloves of garlic. We're just kind of stirring sauté this until that wonderful aroma fills the air. This is smelling so good with the bacon guys already, and we haven't even started yet. Now I'm going in with a pound of medium ground beef. Just kind of break this up here a little bit guys. Already starting to smell and look good. Now here's the thing, you don't have to use ground beef, like you can use stewing beef, but I looked at stewing beef and it was like, you know, for a package of a pound, it was like 15 bucks, and I thought, no I'm not going there, but it is cowboy stew, and remember Cookie on the Trail, they used whatever was available. I mean, it wasn't always beef, although it was a cattle drive, you know, it wouldn't be very good to cut up the boss's cow and chow down on it, so they often used squirrel, possum, whatever they could find. So, you know, whatever meat you got kicking around, but stewing beef would be perfect, but so expensive. While the beef is cooking here guys, I'm going to grab up a slab of kielbasa and I'm just going to cut this up and then cube it into some chunks, maybe something like that. So we've got some good chunks of kielbasa. Now, no means guys, you have to use kielbasa, but it's a combination of beef and pork, kind of like a Polish, well, similar to a Polish sausage, but it is so good, it adds that nice smoky flavor. So if you can afford it and you've got it kicking around, go ahead and use some kielbasa, but you don't have to. And you know what, I think we can ahead and throw that kielbasa in now. Kielbasa, kielbasa. Give everything a stir around here. All right guys, we is looking pretty good now. Beef is pretty well browned up. So now I'm going to go in with a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. Now again, this is optional, but maybe a little bit more, maybe two and a half, but it does thicken it up and makes it nice and rich. Just give this a stir around until that tomato paste coats everything. Now, just look at this. Doesn't that tomato paste add a real nice touch to everything? Believe me, when I get that liquid in there, it's going to make it so nice. It's looking good right now. Next up, I'm going to crack open a jar of diced tomatoes I made fresh from the garden. Just look at these. I'm going to go ahead and pour this in. Then a can of Italian tomatoes. Of course, this is from the store, but this is Italian tomatoes with garlic and herbs and a bit of spice in there. You know, you can just use regular two cans of regular tomatoes, but these Italian are so nice. A can of sweet corn, some mixed veggies, and these are just peas and carrots and the frozen ones, which work absolutely fine. If you have fresh, you can use them too. Grab up some jalapeno peppers and throw those in just for some heat. Totally optional. I mean, a few are as many as you like. Just give everything a stir around here. Oh, now this is looking stewy. Well, the stew is simmering up there for a few minutes, guys. I'm going to peel up a couple of taters. These are just regular old baking potatoes. Now, something I wanted to mention going back to the garlic and the onion, don't slice them too fine. Don't really chop them up because that flavor will just cook out of them. That's what I find anyway. It's up to you. Now, we'll just kind of slice these and we'll just cube them up here. Now, you might be saying, Dave, you could have sliced those potatoes beforehand. Why wait until now? Well, I was lonely and I needed somebody to slice potatoes with or dice potatoes with, but you know, you can do that too. Okie dokie, we're all cubed up, so let's throw these in. And you can add as many taters or as little as you want. Grab up the old spoon and we'll give everything a stir around here. Now, isn't this starting to look like stew, my friends? I think so. Now, I'm going to season things up with a bit of salt. Teaspoon or something like that. Some ground black pepper. And you know me, I'm a pepper lover, so I'm going to add quite a bit of this. A teaspoon or two of Italian seasoning. Now, this is up to you. I'm going to say optional. About a teaspoon, good heaping teaspoon of chili powder. And I'm going to throw in I don't know, about half a teaspoon of cumin. Give everything the old stirroony here. Now, this is starting to look thick, guys, so now it's going to be time for that beef broth. So, I'm only going to throw in about a cup here. Now, I know I've got two cups, but I'm going to start with a cup. And there are a couple of reasons why I'm just adding the cup. Number one, I want this stew the perfect texture. So, when I go out in the fire pit and I'm going to let this simmer away for about 45 minutes, an hour. If it gets too thin, then I'll add a little more beef broth. And also, we have the beans and we have the pinto beans to add yet. And these are fairly, they're a fairly fine texture and they're going to collapse. So, I'm going to, I'm going to add these in 15 minutes just before the cooking. So, we'll do that outside, but still two things to add. So, just hang on to that beef broth and then we'll just add that slowly if we need it. Okay, now I'm going to throw a lid on this and we're going to go out and put this on the fire pit. But I made a few modifications to my fire pit, so I'm just going to explain that and we'll go through this on. All right, guys, what I did quickly here to modify my fire pit, just to show you fast. The neighbor had an old pool and she was throwing it out. I said, don't throw out that tubing. I can use it. So, I took the tubing, I made a frame for my grill. Then I had an old fence or a gate laying around. So, I put the gate and put a piece of the tubing in the ground, the gate on the tubing, welded everything together. And this just swings this lickety split and you can even adjust it up or down. So, I'm going to be doing some cooking on this. Somebody's watching in the window. Hi, Coke. Okay, guys, we've got the old fire going here. I've got some good hot coals in there and got a flame going on. She's just smoking. So, I'm going to go ahead and add my stew on. This is going to be so good. And I do have to say, guys, if you've got a fire pit and a grill, go ahead and cook this, just about cook anything over because that smoke. I'm burning some maple here and that smoke is so good when it gets into any dish or any meat. There's a lot of smoke here right now, but you will not regret it if you've got a fire pit. You know, stove is fine. When you lie with me, down in the holler, in mansion or squalor, Martha, where you are is where I'll be. Even cogs lay a head down, give you weary legs to rest now. Okay, guys, we're about 15 minutes into this cook and we are looking pretty good. Let's look at that simmering and bubbling and that steam coming off and that fire cracking. This is going to be so good. And while I'm sitting here waiting for the stew, guys, what do you think of my hat? You think I should wear this all the time? I kind of like it. Maybe I should move down to southern Kentucky or something. I'd like that. All righty then, we're about half an hour in now and just bubbling away. So I'm going to go in with those Pinto beans and my regular can of beans and molasses. And of course, give everything a stir around. Oh, wow. And the reason, guys, I put the beans with molasses in is simply because I want that bit of molasses, that sweetness in there. And I think this is going to be super good. And I don't think that we need any more broth in here. I think this is soupy enough for me. That's entirely up to you. But once this cooks off for another 15 minutes, it's going to be just perfecto, I think anyway. All righty then, after 50 minutes to an hour, we are pretty much done. And just look at this, my friends. Oh, doggies, this is going to be good. So much flavor in there. OK, guys, we're back inside. So I'm going to pull the top off. Look at this. So I'm going to grab some of this up. Oh, doggies. And we are just going to ladle this into our bowl. Got to get some of those kielbasa or some of that kielbasa and potatoes and jalapenos and corn and everything from the chuck wagon. Now, of course, I'm just to be all fancy. We don't do this at the chuck wagon usually, but I'm going to garnish this up with some parsley fresh from the garden. Sometimes the old cookie just has to be fancy, you know. And there you have it, our super delicious cowboy stew that absolutely everybody, not even only on the range, but everybody in the neighborhood and family is going to love. Okey dokey, let's grab some of this up. And just look at that, we've got some kielbasa on there and some tomatoes, just about everything. All right, guys, down the old hatch. There is a lot going on here. I can't even begin to describe it. It is so good. Now, some people are going to say it's just glorified chili. Don't even go there. It is so much more. First of all, you got the smoke from the fire pit. And I know everybody is not going to have that. So let's eliminate that. But the kielbasa is so good. The ground beef would be even better with stewing beef. The tomatoes, the seasoning, everything just blends together so perfect. You can freeze this up. You can leave it in the fridge. Be fit for a week. You just got to make this, guys. It is so good. And if you do leave, leave us a comment. Love to read them. Give us a like. Helps the channel out. Most of all, subscribe. Thanks for watching, guys. See you in the next video. And, of course, I got to have more of this cowboy stew, fresh from the chuck block. So good.