7 Steps to Sensational Stew

The ultimate comfort food, stew is good for the body and the soul. It’s a versatile, one-pot meal that works as well for a weeknight family dinner as it does for weekend entertaining. The best thing is, stews taste event better the next day, so they’re the perfect make ahead dish. You can freeze stews, too. Just thaw in the fridge and reheat gently before serving.

Here’s all you need to know to create a perfect stew:
1. Use a Dutch oven. A heavy-duty enamel-clad cast iron Dutch oven belongs in your kitchen. With care it will last forever.
2. Start with the onions and garlic. It doesn’t matter what kind of stew you’re making, this is the place to start. Cook the onions and garlic in a small amount of Crisco Canola Oil until soft, brown and caramelized then remove them and reserve, to add back in later.
3. Use the right meat. Long cooking stews work well with tougher, less expensive cuts of meat. In fact, tender cuts of meat can become tough when stewed. Beef stew meat is usually labeled as such and is easy to find. Pork stews do well with shoulder cuts. Chicken stews work well with a combination of breast and thigh meat.
4. Dredge and brown. Before browning, dredge bite-sized pieces of meat in flour for a nice crust and a thickened sauce. Working in batches, brown the meat over medium high heat in a small amount of Crisco Canola Oil.
5. Deglaze. Remove the meat before deglazing the pan. Deglazing just means adding liquid to the pan, and boiling it while scraping up the browned bits left on the bottom from browning the meat. The browned bits might as well be called “flavor bits” because when they dissolve in the liquid, they add great flavor to the stew.
6. Let the stewing begin! Return the meat and aromatics to the pan and add liquid. Stewing isn’t boiling, so keep the heat low and the cooking slow for the most tender results.
7. Don’t rush the veggies. Make sure the meat has stewed before adding potatoes, carrot or other veggies. You don’t want the vegetables to get mushy, so they should be added toward the end of cooking.

Click here for a  Classic Beef Stew recipe from Crisco.