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Halal bigos (hunter's stew)

Polish hunter's stew of cabbage, dried mushrooms, prunes and spices, made with Halal beef and sausages, oil instead of lard, no pork bacon and stock in place of the red wine.

Polish · Main · Easy · 1 large pot · 230 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

Bigos is usually made with pork: BBC Good Food's version fries German-style sausages and smoked bacon in lard, adds cooked pork, game or beef, and simmers it with red wine.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Sausages and smoked bacon: The original uses German-style pork sausages and smoked bacon. Use Halal-certified beef or chicken sausages and Halal smoked beef or turkey bacon, or leave the bacon out. See Sausage and Bacon.
• Lard: Lard is pork fat, and the original fries the meat in it. Use sunflower oil, as here. See Lard.
• Cooked meat: The original allows pork, game or beef. Pork is Haram, and beef and game are Halal only from Halal slaughter. Use Halal beef. See Beef.
• Red wine: The original simmers 90 ml of red wine into the stew. Cooking it does not make it Halal on this site. Use Halal beef stock, as here. See Wine.
• Beef stock: Beef stock is Halal only from Halal slaughter. Use Halal-certified stock cubes. See Stock cubes.

Ingredients

Stew

• 1 (1) white cabbage, finely sliced
• 250 ml (1 cup) Halal beef stock
• 100 g (3½ oz) dried mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 1 hour
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) sunflower oil, in place of lard
• 400 g (14 oz) Halal beef or chicken sausages, sliced
• 250 g (9 oz) Halal smoked beef or turkey bacon, diced (optional)
• 2 (2) onions, chopped
• 750 g (1⅔ lb) cooked Halal beef, diced
• 200 g (1¼ cups) prunes
• 1 (1) bay leaf
• 2 (2) cloves
• 12 (12) black peppercorns
• 4 (4) juniper berries
• 4 (4) allspice berries
• 90 ml (6 tbsp) Halal beef stock, in place of the red wine
• 32 g (2 tbsp) tomato purée

Method

1. Cook the cabbage. Put the cabbage in a heavy casserole with the 250 ml of stock and cook over a low heat for about 50 minutes until tender.
2. Fry the meat. Cut the soaked mushrooms into strips, keeping the soaking water. Heat the oil and fry the sausages and the beef or turkey bacon, if using, then lift them out, leaving the fat in the pan. Fry the onions in the same pan for 5 to 8 minutes until lightly browned.
3. Combine. Add the mushrooms and their liquid to the cabbage with the sausages, bacon, cooked beef, onions and prunes. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
4. Simmer with spices. Add the bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, juniper, allspice, the 90 ml of stock where the original adds red wine, and the tomato purée. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour, then season well.
5. Rest and reheat. The original says bigos improves over a couple of days. Cool it, cover and chill for up to two days, then reheat until piping hot before serving.

Allergens

none in the core ingredients (read the sausage and bacon labels)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Bigos (Polish hunter's stew)' (white cabbage cooked in beef stock; dried mushrooms soaked for an hour; sausages and smoked bacon fried in lard; onion, mushrooms and their liquid, cooked meat and prunes simmered 20 minutes; bay, cloves, peppercorns, juniper, allspice, 90 ml red wine and tomato purée added and cooked for an hour). We used oil instead of lard, Halal beef or chicken sausages, Halal smoked beef or turkey bacon (or none) and Halal beef for the cooked meat (the source allows beef), and replaced the wine with Halal beef stock. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: a plate of bigos, not the finished dish.