Here's a simple and hearty
chicken stew recipe to get you started!
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken thighs or breasts (bone-in for extra flavor)
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3-4 carrots, sliced
- 3-4 potatoes, diced
- 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp paprika
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Olive oil (for searing)
Instructions:
- Sear the Chicken: Heat some olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika, then sear on both sides until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
- Cook the Vegetables: In the same pot, add the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. SautƩ for about 5 minutes until softened.
- Simmer the Stew: Add the chicken back into the pot. Pour in the chicken broth, water, and tomato paste. Add the bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and let cook for 25-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.
- Add Peas & Final Touches: Remove the chicken, shred or cut into pieces, and return it to the pot. Stir in the frozen peas and let simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
- Serve: Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve hot with crusty bread!
This is a customizable baseāfeel free to add extra spices or veggies depending on your taste!
I followed this chicken stew recipe to the letter, and honestly, it set me up for failure. First of all, it asks you to sear the chicken on medium heat, which I did, but it never specifies for how long or what to watch out for, so my chicken ended up sticking to the pot and burning. The instructions donāt even mention what to do if that happens, leaving me with a mess before I even got to the vegetables.
Then, it says to sautĆ© the vegetables āuntil softenedāāsuper vague. What does that even mean? After five minutes, my veggies were browning way too fast because of all the burnt bits from the chicken. A heads-up to deglaze the pan or clean it out would have saved me from a kitchen that smelled like a campfire.
The simmering instructions are equally misleading. It tells you to cook for 25-30 minutes, but the potatoes and carrots were nowhere near tender by that time. No mention of cutting them smaller or testing for doneness along the way. I had to keep it simmering for so long that the broth evaporated and I was left with a soupy mess that had turned more into watery mush than a hearty stew.
And donāt even get me started on the timing for adding the frozen peas. Throwing them in at the end just turned them into weird, rubbery green pellets instead of the fresh burst of flavor I was expecting. The recipe acts like itās all going to magically come together, but in reality, it leaves you with an undercooked, bland, and watery stewājust not worth the effort.
