It may have originated earlier in some form in the city of Braunschweig (English: Brunswick) in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in today's northern Germany.

Originally it was small game, such as squirrel, rabbit[1] or opossum meat, but chicken has become most common.

[3] Squirrel Brunswick stew instructions are found in James Beard's American Cookery.

[5] A competing story claims a Virginia state legislator's chef invented the recipe in 1828 on a hunting expedition.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, in her Cross Creek Cookery (1942), wrote that the stew, said to have been one of Queen Victoria's favorites, may have come from Braunschweig, Germany, one of the historic capitals of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg and traditionally known as "Brunswick" in British English.