The Snowflake Chronicles

Hobo Stew

Originally two different essays written several weeks apart.

Hobo Stew: The Recipe
This recipe takes leftovers
Written in September 2009

This is a recipe that you can plan a week ahead of time. The only ingredients are leftovers. The first step in preparing Hobo Stew is to decide which meat you are going to use in this dish. This is also a good dish to prepare the day after a holiday, when you have several storage containers of leftovers taking up space in your refrigerator.

Step one: Remove the meat from the bone and slice it into medium size pieces. Since I normally use leftover Deli Roast chicken for this dish, I heat the chicken, with just enough water to cover it, in a slow cooker or a stew pot before removing it from the bone. My Grandmother prepared leftover chicken this way when she wanted to remove it from the bone; therefore, this is how I prepare leftover poultry.

Step two: After removing the meat from the bone and cutting it into medium sized chunks return the meat to the stew pot. I usually add a package of spice mix at this point. The spice mix is not necessary with properly seasoned leftovers; however, I find that with Deli roast chicken the packaged spice mix adds a more flavor to the stew. Each time I make this dish, I use a different type of spice mix depending on how I feel the day I make the stew and the type of spices I have on hand.

Step three: Add the storage containers of leftover one at a time, tasting the mixture, as it gets hot. When you like the taste then stop adding leftovers. You do not have to use all the leftovers for this dish. The idea is to use the leftovers and not have any leftover Hobo Stew.

Serving directions: Serve Hobo Stew hot, with bread, bagels, crackers, or chips.

Note: If you are a vegetarian, then make this dish with either rice or pasta. Once the rice or pasta is cooked then add the other leftovers to complete the recipe.

Hobo Stew: An Essay
I use leftovers to make Hobo Stew
Written in August 2009

Word count: 512

According to legend, hobo stew got its name from the hobos, homeless men and woman, who rode from town to town in railroad boxcars in the early part of the twentieth century. They would do odd jobs at farms and in towns for food or cash. In the evenings, they gathered in camps along railroad tracks. After starting a cook fire, the hobos would take whatever food they brought with them to the camps into miscellaneous pots and pans and then share the food they cooked with each other.

Whether or not this legend is true, I do not know. My mother tells me that when hobos came to my grandparents’ farm in Oklahoma, Grandma would make sure they had something to eat. After they did whatever work Grandma or Grandpa found for them, my grandmother would make sure they had food to take with them.

When I cook Hobo Stew, I can make it in one of two ways I can make it. The first way to make it is with leftovers already in the refrigerator. The second way is from scratch. I have made it using both methods, but I prefer the leftover method myself.

The leftover method lets me take all the odd and ends of foods not eaten in the past week and put them in a stew pot or slow cooker. I use a slow cooker and begin with either a beef or chicken stock base. To make the chicken stock base, I use the leftover roasted chicken from the grocery store deli. I can use leftover fried chicken from a fast food restaurant as well.

I put the chicken pieces with enough water to cover them in the slow cooker. Then I plug the cooker in and turn it on high. When the chicken is hot, I remove it from the cooker and take the chicken off the bone.

Before I begin the process of taking the chicken off the bone, I add whatever storage container of vegetables, rice, or pasta I find in the refrigerator or freezer. If I want more taste then I use the packaged spices I buy in the grocery store. Since I make this dish with chicken, I use the oriental or Mexican spice packages to add flavor. If I were making it with beef then I would use the beef stew or pot roast spice packages.

The Hobo Stew from scratch method is even simpler then the leftover method. When I want to cook this stew and do not have leftover, I open cans of vegetables and meat. This method allows me to make a fish stew using canned tuna and frozen vegetables.

Once the stew is ready to eat, then I serve it with crackers, bread, bagel, or chips. This is a good dish to make after Thanksgiving or Christmas because we normally have leftover turkey and turkey gives it a good flavor. I would love to include a recipe with this, but I do not have specific recipe because each time I make it I use different ingredients.