Pot of Homemade Chicken Stew with Onions, Carrots, Celery, Garlic & Herb Blend to shape the overall flavors. This is a Wonderful, Robust, Savory Chicken Stew, that you can serve with Soft Fluffy Buttered Dinner Rolls, or Bread. Over Biscuits for a Chicken Stew & Biscuit Dinner or use Poly Flour to create dumplings for a Savory Chicken & Dumpling Stew. While this recipe is usually done with a whole Chicken. You can certainly use Chicken Quarters, Thighs, or Legs or even left over turkey meat for a Turkey Stew.
Servings: 8 portions
Equipment
- 2 Stock Pot or Deep Skillet
- 1 Tray to cool down and strip the chicken
Ingredients
- 1 3-4 lbs Whole Chicken - Skin removed and chopped down into 12 pieces
- 12 C Water
- 1/2 C Cream - or Milk for thinner, or 1 can of cream soup for thicker
- 6 Cubes Chicken Maggi Bouillon
- 1 Large Onion
- 2 Medium Carrots
- 2 Large Celery - with leaves
- 5 Cloves Garlic
- 1/2 C Butter - or rendered Chicken Fat
- 1 C Flour
Chicken Stew Seasoning
- 1 Tbl Savory
- 1 tsp Thyme & Rosemary - each
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper & Tarragon
- 1/8 tsp Ground Bay Leaves - or 2 Bay Leaves
Salt & Pepper
- 1 Tbl Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper
Instructions
- Chop the Chicken down and remove the skin on all pieces. Place the Chicken into the Pot with Water & Bouillon Cubes. Bring to boil over max heat on the back burner, uncovered. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for 45 minutes, or until Chicken is tender and beginning to fall apart.
- While the Chicken is simmering, chop the skin into small pieces and render the fat out in another stock pot over medium to medium low heat. This will be your main stockpot for the Chicken Stew. Mix every so often and remove the cracking once it is golden brown and crisp. Set aside to cool down the fat. At the same time, prepare your Vegetables and set aside.
- When the Chicken has boiled for 45 minutes, scoop the Chicken out and set aside to strip down later on after it has cooled.
- Place the pot with rendered fat over medium heat, add Onions, Celery, Carrots, and Garlic, then Butter if needed to ensure you have about 1/2 C of total Fat. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle Flour over the Vegetables, mixing it in well. Continue to cook for an additional 3 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the reserved stock, a little at a time, and continuously mix. Once thickened and simmering, add more and repeat until all the broth is used or until the desired thickness, and the soup is simmering.
- Lower the heat to low and add the Chicken Stew Seasoning, along with Salt & Pepper to taste, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the Vegetables are soft. Mix often and scrape the bottom to ensure nothing gets stuck. If adding Potatoes, add them in to simmer for 15–20 minutes, or until tender. I use the entire Salt & Pepper blend, with the entire broth. But you may want to add less, depending on what additional ingredients you add, how much broth you use to get the desired thickness or based on preference. You can always add just the pepper to get a decent heat, and Salt can be added to taste.
- Strip the Chicken down while the stew is simmering, chop any large pieces into smaller bite size pieces. After the 20-minute simmer, add the Chicken back in to mix through and taste to adjust the seasoning as needed. Milk, cream or cream soups can be added here to mix in and bring back to a simmer. Make any final adjustments to the seasoning, and remove from heat to cool down a bit before serving. If adding in Dumplings for Chicken & Dumpling Stew, add them after 10 minutes of simmering instead of 20 minutes, cover, and finish cooking the last 10 minutes. Then remove from heat and rest 15–20 minutes, uncovered. The Chicken can be added back in and mixed right before adding the dumplings.