Comforting Chicken Stew makes for a deliciously filling Sunday meal; just let your pot full of comfort food simmer away on the stove until dinner time.
While today’s Comforting Chicken Stew is quite simple (with simple, real food ingredients), and is fairly easy to throw together, you do need to let it simmer slowly for a while in order to let the flavors blend and the potatoes soften. Once it’s simmering away in the pot, though, most of the cooking time here is relatively hands-off.
This recipe is basically one of my variations on a classic comfort food stew, but we all need a dinner option like this in our back pocket! Boneless chicken thighs are just so versatile, and this is another direction to take them in when you’re cold or craving some classic home cooking. Chock full of carrots, potatoes, and celery, chicken stew combines chicken and veggies with warming garlic and spices to create a pot brimming with comfort food. Everyone here enjoyed a hearty bowlful, as the perfect dinner for a chilly evening
Comforting Chicken Stew
Ingredients
1.5 lbs boneless chicken thighs, trimmed
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic (about six small cloves)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1.5 lbs baby potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
32 oz chicken broth
1 cup water
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp rosemary, slightly crushed between your fingers
1 bay leaf
Directions
Trim the chicken and season both sides with sea salt and pepper. Cut up your onion, carrots, and celery, as well as the garlic (if not using pre-minced).
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a Dutch oven or large heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pot and brown it for about 3 minutes per side, then transfer to a separate plate. The chicken won’t be cooked through at this point; it will finish cooking in the stew.
While the chicken is browning, chop up your potatoes. I cut the smaller ones in half, and the larger into thirds or quarters, depending on size.
After removing the chicken from the pot, reduce heat to medium. Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil, stir in the onion, carrots, and celery, and saute over medium heat for about seven minutes so that they begin to soften. Stir the veggies occasionally, and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot as they start to loosen up.
After seven minutes, stir in the garlic and saute briefly.
While the onions, carrots, and celery are sauteeing, cut the browned chicken into bite-sized pieces with poultry shears.
After sauteeing the garlic in with the veggies briefly, stir in the flour and continue to cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the vegetables are nicely coated and the flour is browned. (Note that the bottom of the pot will get coated with the browned flour, but we’ll deglaze that, so no worries.)
Pour some chicken broth into the pot and deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom with a wooden utensil as the liquid begins to loosen them.
Stir in the rest of the chicken broth and the water, as well as the browned chicken, potatoes, & seasonings. As you stir, continue scraping any remaining browned bits off of the bottom of the pot.
Bring everything to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the potatoes are tender, the chicken is cooked through, and the stew has thickened nicely.
Taste your stew and add additional sea salt and pepper as necessary. (Mine needed a generous amount of black pepper!)
Discard the bay leaf and serve.
Note: I highly recommend using boneless thighs rather than substituting chicken breast; you’ll want the depth of flavor in this stew that comes from using dark meat.
Perfect with a loaf of crusty bread
Simple, real food ingredients, cooked up simply — what could be better? We enjoyed our comforting chicken stew with a warm loaf of take-and-bake bread, which served to scoop it up to perfection. The added pepper at the end made all of the difference here, but it’s best to wait until the flavors have blended to taste and adjust the seasonings to your own liking.
We got six filling servings out of today’s stew recipe; five dinner portions, and enough for a hearty take-to-work lunch for one the next day. Try it when boneless chicken thighs go on sale, or to use up part of a family pack: Soups and stews are a great way to stretch a bit of meat to feed an entire family.
Comforting Chicken Stew, printable recipe
Comforting Chicken Stew
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs boneless chicken thighs trimmed
- Sea salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp olive oil divided
- 1 medium yellow onion roughly chopped
- 3 medium carrots peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 stalks of celery chopped
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic about six small cloves
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1.5 lbs baby potatoes cut into bite-sized pieces
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp rosemary slightly crushed between your fingers
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Trim the chicken and season both sides with sea salt and pepper. Cut up your onion, carrots, and celery, as well as the garlic (if not using pre-minced).
- Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a Dutch oven or large heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pot and brown it for about 3 minutes per side, then transfer to a separate plate. The chicken won’t be cooked through at this point; it will finish cooking in the stew.
- While the chicken is browning, chop up your potatoes. I cut the smaller ones in half, and the larger into thirds or quarters, depending on size.
- After removing the chicken from the pot, reduce heat to medium. Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil, stir in the onion, carrots, and celery, and saute over medium heat for about seven minutes so that they begin to soften. Stir the veggies occasionally, and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot as they start to loosen up.
- After seven minutes, stir in the garlic and saute briefly.
- While the onions, carrots, and celery are sauteeing, cut the browned chicken into bite-sized pieces with poultry shears.
- After sauteeing the garlic in with the veggies briefly, stir in the flour and continue to cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the vegetables are nicely coated and the flour is browned. (Note that the bottom of the pot will get coated with the browned flour, but we’ll deglaze that, so no worries.)
- Pour some chicken broth into the pot and deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom with a wooden utensil as the liquid begins to loosen them.
- Stir in the rest of the chicken broth and the water, as well as the browned chicken, potatoes, & seasonings. As you stir, continue scraping any remaining browned bits off of the bottom of the pot.
- Bring everything to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the potatoes are tender, the chicken is cooked through, and the stew has thickened nicely.
- Taste your stew and add additional sea salt and pepper as necessary. (Mine needed a generous amount of black pepper!)
- Discard the bay leaf and serve.
Notes
Recipes in the real world
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Jordan
Sunday 19th of March 2023
This was delightful and was fairly low calorie with tons of vegetables. We didn’t add the cup of water because the pot would have overflowed.