It’s winter and I can feel it in my bones! We need to eat yummy and comforting dishes constantly to help un recuperate our energy that we loose while shivering down the street haha. This chicken stew is by far my favourite and I could eat it a whole week without any problem. It’s really tasty and full of attractive colours.
My favourite part of this stew is how soft the chicken turns out and this is because it’s cooked on low heat and a bit of patience. Sometimes we want everything to be done fast and be ready in seconds but some dishes are deserving of a bit more of our time and are completely worth it 🙂
You don’t have to be staring at the pot as it cooks away. You can set up an alarm on your cellphone and do whatever it is that you need to do in the meantime… you know, like watching that series on Netflix ;). Also, if you like chicken stews you can also check out my Indian Chicken Curry recipe.
I love the mix of flavours in this chicken stew with the tomatoes, thyme and bayleaves but also with the mushrooms that we find along the way and the potatoes. Remember not to add the carrots and potatoes from the beginning so they don’t turn to mush. Don’t you just want to grab a piece of bread and soak it in that juice? If that made you salivate then we must become friends! hahaha
Ingredients
Chicken stock
- 1 bayleaf
- 200 g chopped celery
- 200 g chopped brown onion
- 200 g chopped carrots
- 200 g chicken wings
- 3 litres water at room temperature
Chicken stew
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1.6 kg chicken thigh and legs without skin and notorious excesses of fat
- 200 g brown onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves grated, minced or passed through a press
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1.5 tsp paprika
- 2 bayleaves
- 6 sprigs thyme, leaves only
- 200 g mushrooms cut in 4
- 1 litre chicken stock from above
- 600 g tomatoes cut in 4 and deseeded
- 200 ml red wine (not from a box please!)
- 250 g carrots peeled and in slices
- 600 g new potatoes washed and cut in squares
- 150 g frozen or fresh peas
Instructions
Chicken Stock
- Put everything in a pot and let the temperature go up. Once it starts boiling lower the heat so you only see a few bubbles coming up.
- Let boil for 2 hours. You can make vegetable soup or cream with the veggies and a bit of the stock.
- Try to remove as much as you can from the fat that floats around in the stock using a spoon. If it boiled too hard then it will be mixed in and you won't be able to take it out.
Chicken stew
- Blend the tomatoes with a bit of the stock and reserve.
- In a pot on high heat puta bit of olive oil to sear the chicken until the pieces are nice and golden. Remember not to fill up the pan; only put enough chicken pieces to fill up the base. Also don't move them around constantly; lay them on one of their sides and give them 1 or 2 minutes to become golden without moving them and then rotate it. Once the first batch is ready take it out and continue with the rest.
- Remove the chicken, lower the heat to medium-low and add a bit more olive oil as well as the onion, bayleaf and thyme leaves.
- Use the water that is released by the onions to scrape out the burnt bits of chicken on the pan because they have a lot of flavour in them. Cook the onion until it's soft and translucent and you don't feel that strong smell that it had at the start.
- Add the garlic, tomato paste and paprika and cook for another minute.
- Add the blended tomato, the rest of the litre of chicken stock, the chicken, mushrooms and the red wine. Bring everything to a bowl and regulate the heat (low to medium-low depending on your stove) so that we only see a few bubbles on the surface. This is what keeps the chicken nice and tender.
- Cook with a lid on for half an hour. Remember that you don't have to look over it as it cooks ;).
- After 30min take off the lid and add the potatoes and carrots. We don't add them sooner so they don't mash up.
- Cook without the lid on for another half and hour or until the liquid starts to evaporate and thickens. Be careful when you stir at this point because you can separate the chicken that is super tender.
- At the very end add the peas and cook for barely 2min so they don't go dark.
- Serve immediately on its own or with a side of rice, quinoa or cous cous.