Perfect Chicken Stew
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 13
- Serves:
-
12-16
ingredients
- 1 (3 -7 lb) whole chickens
- 8 potatoes
- 6 carrots
- 2 onions
- 4 stalks celery
- 1 (8 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 (10 ounce) can chicken stock
- 1 cup unbleached flour
- 2 cups milk (optional)
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons pepper (fresh ground is best)
- 3 tablespoons salt (kosher or sea salt optional)
- hot sauce (optional)
directions
- Season a 3-7 pound chicken with Garlic powder and Pepper. Roast chicken in oven at 325 degrees.
- While chicken is cooking, dice potatoes, slice carrots, chop onions and carrots to desired thickness. Place vegetables in stewing pot and add water until vegetables are covered with about an 3 inches of water. Boil rapidly until potatoes are just finished.
- Remove vegetables from the pot by straining them and keep the water. By removing the vegetables and letting them cool, you prevent overcooking them and they won't dissolve into nothing.
- With remaining water on low heat, add can of cream of mushroom soup, can of chicken stock and milk (milk optional, Zie Ga Zink).
- If you don't use milk, I suggest a premium ready to serve brand of creamed mushroom soup, it will be of a smoother, creamier consistency than the regular cans of mushroom soup.
- Get a small sealable container and fill with 1 cup of cold water, then add 1 cup of flour, cover and seal, then immediately shake vigorously. You are making a thickener for the stew, it should look like the consistency of glue with no lumps. If to thick add a bit of water, too thin add a bit more flour, shake very hard again. If there are a few lumps you can remove them by straining. This process, once learned, is very useful for making gravies or other stews without using a high-fat butter and flour 'roux' thickener.
- Rapidly add thickener to the starch water/mushroom soup/stock/milk mixture using a whisk. You may have to make a little more thickener if you want a hardier stew, just remember that the stew will thicken more after it is removed from the heat and it stands. Simmer to desired consistency. Stir often. Do not burn! I suggest a non-stick stew pot, it helps prevent burning.
- Add the cooked (now cooled) vegetables to the stew.
- When chicken is finished roasting, drain juices into the stew. Remove skin and bones. Tear or cut chicken apart and add to the stew.
- Stir in about 2-3 tablespoons of salt to stew and about the same amount of pepper to taste.
- If you want, try adding a dash of hot sauce or a pinch of Sambel Olek.
- Let stew simmer for a little longer. Serve with fresh bread and Enjoy.
- Questions? brennarlauterbach@hotmail.com.
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Reviews
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I was looking for a good chicken stew recipe for quite some time and this was exactly what I was looking for. I did change just a few things just because I can't help myself. Here's what I did: <br/><br/>I made this over 2 days because of my schedule. I roasted the chicken as directed.. (the chicken was close to 7lbs.) When cool enough,. I scraped what I could from the roasting pan along with the juice and stored it over night in a bowl in the fridge and the shredded meat went into a zip-lock bag. Then the next day, I was able to skim off the solidified fat from the juice and discard before adding it to the stew - It was a good amount of fat so I'm glad I did this. When I made the flour thickener, I used chicken stock instead of water with the flour. I found that I needed to add another 1/2 cup of the stock/flour mixture to get it to my desired thickness...this may have been due to using a bit too much water for the vegetables though. I added a bag of frozen peas near the end of cooking time because I love them in stews. This recipe makes a very large batch of stew. I used an 8 quart pot and it was filled to the top. I knew I was going to be freezing a good portion of it and was worried that the milk might separate and get weird when frozen...so instead of using milk, I took the suggestion of the recipe submitter and used a ready-to-serve mushroom soup. I went with Campbell's Portobello Mushroom & Madeira Bisque Slow Kettle-Style Soup (15.3 oz. container) - because that's about all I could find in the store...and it worked just fine. I didn't use all the salt called for but added in some ground thyme.<br/><br/>This recipe is a bit of work but a definite keeper. To the submitter...thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Tweaks
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I was looking for a good chicken stew recipe for quite some time and this was exactly what I was looking for. I did change just a few things just because I can't help myself. Here's what I did: <br/><br/>I made this over 2 days because of my schedule. I roasted the chicken as directed.. (the chicken was close to 7lbs.) When cool enough,. I scraped what I could from the roasting pan along with the juice and stored it over night in a bowl in the fridge and the shredded meat went into a zip-lock bag. Then the next day, I was able to skim off the solidified fat from the juice and discard before adding it to the stew - It was a good amount of fat so I'm glad I did this. When I made the flour thickener, I used chicken stock instead of water with the flour. I found that I needed to add another 1/2 cup of the stock/flour mixture to get it to my desired thickness...this may have been due to using a bit too much water for the vegetables though. I added a bag of frozen peas near the end of cooking time because I love them in stews. This recipe makes a very large batch of stew. I used an 8 quart pot and it was filled to the top. I knew I was going to be freezing a good portion of it and was worried that the milk might separate and get weird when frozen...so instead of using milk, I took the suggestion of the recipe submitter and used a ready-to-serve mushroom soup. I went with Campbell's Portobello Mushroom and Madeira Bisque Slow Kettle-Style Soup (15.3 oz. container) - because that's about all I could find in the store...and it worked just fine. I didn't use all the salt called for but added in some ground thyme.<br/><br/>This recipe is a bit of work but a definite keeper. To the submitter...thanks so much for sharing it with us!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I love to cook quality food or good food fast. I have worked in many restaurants and seen a lot of good tricks and recipes.