Turkey stew with sweet potatoes cranberries and rosemary

Flavorful and hearty turkey stew (I used turkey leg meat) with sweet potatoes and cranberries. Stewing turkey leg meat it’s the best way to treat this piece of meat. It comes out so tender. We really liked this turkey roulade with butternut squash and cranberries, so I wanted to make something similar. This stew was spot on!

Ingredients:

• Meat – I used boneless, skinless turkey legs for this stew. You can prepare this kind of meat like you would a turkey breast but it always seemed a little bit too tough for me. I tested, for example, this turkey roulade with both turkey breast and turkey leg meat and it was so much better with turkey breast. In this recipe, it’s the opposition. I think stewing the turkey leg meat for a long time brings the best results. The meat is so tender and juicy, it’s amazing. If you would like to substitute turkey leg for turkey breast you can do that, but you need to stew the meat for a much shorter period of time.
• Instead of sweet potato, you can use pumpkin, butternut squash or even carrots. I love the way the sweet potato sweetens and thickens the stew.
• Instead of rosemary, you can use thyme (but rosemary works best).

How to make it step by step:

This is a complete recipe. Scroll down for printable recipe card.

Start with preparing the ingredients: cut 3 lbs/1.4kg boneless and skinless turkey leg meat into 1.5-inch/4cm cubes, 3 medium sweet potatoes (3 lbs/1.4kg) into 1-inch/2.5cm cubes, chop 2 medium onions, finely chop 6 cloves of garlic and 2 twigs of rosemary.

Then cook the stew:

1. Sear the meat: heat 2 tablespoons of oil over high heat in a big pot, add the meat in batches, making sure that the pieces are not overcrowded. Cook on all sides until browned. Transfer browned pieces of meat to a plate and add another batch, adding more oil if necessary. Transfer all the meat to a plate.
2. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the onions and chopped rosemary to the pot, cook for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

3. Add the meat back to the pot, add 8 cups (2l) chicken/vegetable broth, season lightly with salt and pepper. Make sure to scrape down all the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Cover and cook over low heat for 1.5 hours.

Note: don’t add whole rosemary twig like on the photo above. The cooking time is too long, all the needles will fall off the twig and it will be hard to discard them from the stew! Add it with the sweet potato.

4- Add the sweet potato and whole rosemary sprig, cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes.

5. Add 2/3 cup of dried cranberries and cook for 5 more minutes.

6. Make the flour slurry – add 3 Tbsp of flour and a couple of tablespoons of the stew to a small bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the slurry to the pot. Bring the stew to a boil, then take the pot off the heat. Season the stew with 2 Tbsp lemon juice (or less!) salt, and pepper to taste. Add the lemon juice gradually and taste if it’s sour enough for you (lemon juice should balance the sweet potatoes’ sweetness).

What to serve with turkey stew:

• crunchy bread
• pearl barley (on the photos there are finely ground barley groats).
• any kind of potato dumplings
• mashed potatoes

Storing and freezing tips:

Storing: This turkey stew (like any stew) is perfect for reheating and tastes even better the next day. Store it in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.

Freezing: This stew freezes very well. For the best results, freeze it for up to 3 months.

Why this recipe works (and is delicious):

• Browning the meat provides amazing flavor – browned meat tastes so much better and the brown bits at the bottom of the pan add an extra layer of flavor to the stew. When browning the meat make sure that the meat pieces are not overcrowded so that they fry and not stew.
• Sweet potatoes sweeten and thicken the stew. Their flavor works also well with the flavor of the turkey meat.
• Rosemary perfumes the whole stew. It’s my favorite herb to pair with the sweet potatoes.
• Cranberries are both sweet and tart. They add great flavor and a pop of color!
• Lemon juice – brightens this turkey stew up and makes it less heavy. Rounds up all the sweet flavors of the stew. For me, it’s one of the key ingredients.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!