Bouilli or Pot au Feu Québécois - The FoodOlic recipes (2024)

Bouilli or pot au feu québécois is a traditional beef stew from Québec, Canada. Inspired by the famous dish ‘pot au feu’ from France—a simple stew made of root vegetables, beef, and pork belly simmered until tender.

As a kid, Ivisited my grandparentsonce or twice a year. They lived in a small and remote village far away in the forest called Lac-des-Aigles (Eagles Lake). We would always arrive in the late afternoon, and the cast iron pot would already be doing its magic on the stove for hours.A succulent and traditional meat stew calledBouilli was the typical welcome smell of my grandma’s place. Such a treat!

A Winter Stew

This recipe is a flashback to those pleasant visits to my grandparent’s place. My grandma would make this recipe from September, when the root veggies were fully grown, until the end of winter. As one knows, Quebec, my homeland, has inherited a lot from its cousins from France, including the language, justice system, and gastronomy. However, everything took a slightly different direction, and it’s also true with Pot au Feu.

French Pot au Feu vs. Canadian Bouilli

A popular peasant dish in both France and Quebec, this dish is considered by many to be anincontestablecomfort food. However, the French version often contains leeks, while the French Canadian version uses onions and adds green or yellow beans. Another difference is the type of meat; in Canada, we usually adda piece of salted pork belly(Lard salé), which is common in any Canadian stews. However, they solely use beef pieces and extra bone marrow in France.

TheTechnique

The recipe is simple; you only need a good old Dutch oven, patience, and an eye on the pot’s liquid. It’s a slow and long cooking stew with many veggies like rutabagas (or turnips), carrots, potatoes, beans, onions, and cabbage. But also plenty of beef cuts like chuck roast, Bottom Sirloin Flap, oxtail, brisket, and a piece of salted pork belly.

To prevent the stew from boiling, we cover the pot with thelid and always leave a tiny crack to let the extra heat escape. This way, you’ll get a perfect simmer, tender the meat, and steam the veggies to perfection without blurring the broth.

Bouilli is a “kind of” stew without as much liquid. It contains about half the liquid of a regular stew. The goal is always to check for the meat tobe covered by water,although the many veggies will stay on top of the liquid; there is no mixing. The secret here is to simmer gently and for a long time without moving the stew around. This way, you’ll collect all the residual water fromthe “steamed” veggies and steam them up without getting saggy.

The result is a tender and dreamy merge of all the ingredients with just a touch of the tasty brothtocover the bottom of the plates. Back in the day, Pot au feu used to be served in 2 different dishes: first, the broth or soup, and afterward, the meat and veggies as the main.

To Serve with…

The only personal touch of mine in this version of Pot au feu is the garlic clove sinceI’ve been living abroad in Spain… I have this habit ofadding garlic everywhere.

To Serve with

In my family, we like to serve this dish with a nice fresh, buttered white loaf slice of bread to accompany it and soak all that yummy broth. Other sides are pickled beets or pickles to get a little acidic kick. To make it more pleasant for the eyes, little bundles with the beans make them easier to pick up in the end, too.

Other Nice Stews

• MOLE MEXICAN BEEF STEW
• GUINNESS BEEF POT PIE
• BEEF BOURGUIGNON PASTA

So, let’s start and make good use of that iron cast!

Pin me!