A traditional Polish dish that I associate most with Christmas and New Year’s Eve at home – Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew). The best dish you can make with cabbage and any leftover meat and cold cuts in the fridge (if any). If you think you have a pot big enough to make it, you’re probably wrong. After all, there’s no such thing as “too much” bigos. The best part is that you can make it with virtually any meat or sausage you like. Fattier? Less fatty? More sour? Less sour? With fruit or without? Team mushrooms or no thanks? There’s always someone picking prunes out of sauerkraut. A dish that might not look good, but it tastes amazing! An absolute holiday must-have!

Recipe modifications:

Fruits: Cranberries, prunes, smoked plums, plum jam. Want something less traditional? How about dried apricots, or maybe you have some frozen currants or blackberries lying around? You can also add a diced apple.
Meat: Wondering what meat is best for bigos? Choose cuts that have fat. Meat with fat is juicier, and the rendered fat will add flavor to the bigos. After a long simmer, it won’t become dry, but rather soft and tender. It’s also not worth adding expensive and lean cuts like tenderloin. The flavor and tenderness of the meat will be lost in the cabbage, and after long cooking, the meat will become dry and tough. It’s a good idea to mix fatty and less fatty cuts.
Pork: Ham, neck, ribs, bacon (raw smoked), shoulder.
Avoid pork loin or tenderloin; they have little fat and are too dry. But if you have the last piece of roast pork loin left in the fridge, you can throw it into the pot.
Poultry: Chicken or turkey, leg or breast meat. You can also add duck or goose to a gourmet bigos. Poultry is drier and has less fat, so it can become dry after repeated reheating and longer cooking. However, this is an option for those who want to make a lighter version of bigos. It’s better to use leg meat rather than breast meat, as it’s juicier. Turkey is quite sweet. It’s a nice addition if bigos is eaten by children, who often don’t like overly fatty cuts of meat.
Beef: Chuck, brisket, sirloin and rib. Beef is significantly more expensive than pork, but its addition will certainly enhance the flavor of the bigos.
Sausage: Medium or coarsely ground, raw, preferably raw smoked. Fry the sliced sausage over high heat before adding it to the sauerkraut for an even tastier result.
Fat: If you’re using very fatty cuts of meat, you don’t need to add much fat. To fry the sausage or sauerkraut, you can render fat from bacon, duck or goose skin. You can also add butter or lard. You can also add regular oil, but it lacks flavor on its own, so animal fats are best for bigos.
Pot: If your pot doesn’t have a non-stick coating, remember to stir the bigos frequently. You may also need to use more fat to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the pot.
Cabbage: Use sauerkraut with it’s jiuce. You can also add raw white cabbage in a ratio of, say, 1:1. Never rinse sauerkraut! This will remove the flavor and valuable vitamins and bacteria. If bigos made with just sauerkraut is too sour for you, sweeten it with white cabbage, reducing the proportion of acid to the whole bigos.
Alcohol: Adding alcohol to bigos is a great trick. Plum brandy, mead (e.g., fruit mead), red wine, or cognac will add character to the bigos. The alcohol will evaporate, leaving the flavor intact. However, you can skip this addition.
Mushrooms: Dried or frozen, preferably porcini mushrooms and/or bay boletes. Dried mushrooms can simply be steeped in hot water for a few minutes and chopped. Some people boil the mushrooms and discard the water for fear of bitterness. If you want to use the water from boiling/steaming mushrooms, first taste it to make sure it’s not bitter.
Spices: Salt, pepper, allspice, bay leaves, juniper, marjoram, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Add your favorites, but don’t overdo it. A pinch of cinnamon or a few cloves is perfectly sufficient. And the bigos will become more flavorful with each passing day.
Other: Tomato paste adds color and acidity; you can skip it. It’s useful if you want to make bigos quickly. Then you don’t have to fry the cabbage as long. Gravy – if you have sauce in the fridge from the previous day, such as fat from roasting chicken drumsticks, pork neck, or other meat, pour it into the bigos! It will add more flavor. The more meat and fat you use, the tastier the bigos.

TIP:
Be careful with the smoked meat, as it’s easy to overdo it. If you’re using heavily smoked sausage and a lot of smoked bacon, you can skip the smoked plums. It all depends on your preference for bigos.

The following proportions yield approximately 4.5 kg of bigos.
Read the step-by-step recipe on how to make the best traditional bigos and watch the video below.

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Polish Bigos

Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew)

Video

Polish Bigos Recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

Nutrition

Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew)

Video

Polish Bigos Recipe

Ingredients US CustomaryMetric 0.5x1x2x3x

Instructions Hide photos

Nutrition

Ingredients

Instructions