Backyard Booyah
Submitted by Zoe
Backyard booyah, the giant slow-simmered meat-and-vegetable stew of the Upper Midwest. Beef, soup bones, and chicken cooked until they fall off the bone, then loaded with vegetables in a kettle.
YIELD
16 servingsPREP
1 hrsCOOK
4 hrsREADY
5 hrsBooyah isn’t a recipe so much as an event. This Upper-Midwest tradition, with roots in Belgian immigrant communities going back to the 1880s, is the kind of stew you cook by the gallon for a crowd, low and slow over a long backyard afternoon.
The foundation is meat cooked until it surrenders. Soup bones, beef, and chicken simmer in a big canning kettle until the meat falls right off the bone, then it’s all pulled, picked, and chopped back into the pot. That long-cooked, bone-rich broth is what gives booyah its soul.
From there it’s a parade of vegetables: onions, celery, carrots, cabbage, and potatoes simmered down, then canned vegetables stirred in. A cheesecloth bundle of garlic, marjoram, and bay perfumes the whole kettle.
This makes a true crowd batch, so round up some friends.
Pro Tips
- Cook the meats until they truly fall off the bone, then pick the meat and discard skin and bones before adding it back.
- Bundle the garlic, marjoram, and bay in cheesecloth so you can lift the aromatics out cleanly at the end.
- Season at the very end; a pot this big needs a surprising amount of salt and pepper.
Variations
- Booyah varies house to house, so add a little paprika or other spices to make it your own.
- Stir in peas, corn, or green beans for more vegetable variety.
- Make it a day ahead. Like most big stews, it deepens overnight.
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the soup bones just until meat is tender. Using a large canning kettle add beef broth and fill with water, so it is ¾ full.
Add the rest of the uncooked meat and chicken.
Cook until meat falls off bones.
Bone all meat and remove chicken skin (discard). Cut meat in pieces.
Place broth on stove to simmer. Add onions, celery, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. Cook for 2 hours.
Add all canned vegetables. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.
Add all the meats. Cook slowly for another 2 hours. In a square piece of cheesecloth put about 6 cloves of garlic, a good handful of marjoram and bay leaves. Tie and put in with the vegetables.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Paprika and other spices may be added, if desired.
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