When it comes to food during the Holidays, mostly I am obsessed with baking. But the truth is, we can’t go around eating nothing but sweets or we will all have raging headaches and splitting our jeans like I did Thanksgiving weekend.
Please don’t judge me.
Plus, there is that technicality where we have to feed our husbands and children too…
So besides amazing sweets and frilly appetizers and tickle-my-fancy cocktails, I also love to cook comforting and filling one pot meals for my family. Oh, easy helps too.
Like this Red Wine Chicken Stew. My husband loves lamb and beef stew- but I knew that my girls wouldn’t eat that. So I tried to recreate a lot of the same hearty and rich flavors you get with e red meat stew- only using chicken. It is actually really delicious and thick and velvety- A great alternative to a dish traditionally using beef and perfect for weeknight dinner!
To make this stew- this is what you do:
In a large heavy pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Place the chicken in the pot and brown it on all sides, rendering some of the fat and browning the bones, about 10 minutes.
Add the vegetables to the pot and stir them well, getting them underneath the chicken breasts (so that the chicken drippings fall onto the vegetables. Cook until the vegetables get a little soft, 5-7 minutes.
Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir the flour into them until they get a little gummy and the pan dries out.
Add the red wine to the pot. Stir well, scraping up any browning bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add the chicken broth and the bay leaf and a sprig of fresh thyme. Let simmer uncovered over low heat.
Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the bone, the best that you can and chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and set aside.
Put the chicken bones back and chicken pieces to the stew and Simmer the soup with the lid on for 1 hour. Then simmer uncovered another hour or two. It should reduce so that the broth has a nice silky texture to it and all of the vegetables are very soft.
Remove the bay leaf and chicken bones and season with salt and pepper and additional fresh thyme.
Serve hot as a stew or over rice.
Recipe: Red Wine Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- -2 Tbs butter
- -2 large chicken breasts with skin and bone
- -1 large yellow onion, small diced
- -2 cups carrots, cut into half moons
- -2 cups celery, sliced
- -2 cups potatoes, cut into bit sized pieces
- -1 cup frozen peas
- -3 cloves garlic, chopped
- -½ cup flour
- -4 cups red wine
- -8 cups chicken broth
- -bay leaf
- -fresh thyme sprigs
- -Kosher salt and black pepper
Instructions
- 1. In a large heavy pot, melt the butter over medium heat.
- 2. Place the chicken in the pot and brown it on all sides, rendering some of the fat and browning the bones, about 10 minutes.
- 3. Add the vegetables to the pot and stir them well, getting them underneath the chicken breasts (so that the chicken drippings fall onto the vegetables. Cook until the vegetables get a little soft, 5-7 minutes.
- 4. Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir the flour into them until they get a little gummy and the pan dries out.
- 5. Add the red wine to the pot. Stir well, scraping up any browning bits from the bottom of the pan.
- 6. Add the chicken broth and the bay leaf and a sprig of fresh thyme. Let simmer uncovered over low heat.
- 7. Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the bone, the best that you can.
- 8. Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and set aside.
- 9. Put the chicken bones back in the pot to simmer. Simmer the soup with the lid on for 1 hour.
- 10. Add the chicken pieces to the stew and simmer uncovered another hour or two. It should reduce so that the broth has a nice silky texture to it and all of the vegetables are very soft.
- 11. Remove the bay leaf and chicken bones and season with salt and pepper and additional fresh thyme.
- 12. Serve hot as a stew or over rice.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 3 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12
Mama saaaaaid knock you out.
Can I use this same recipe but add beef? Need to make a hearty beef stew this weekend for 3 teenage boys and parents.
Sure Kersten! Beef would be great in this soup, just make sure that the meat cooks long enough that it is tender. Thanks for the reminder, I will make a beef stew for the blog 🙂
I made this recently and it came out GREAT! I will definitely make it again 🙂 I am doing a diet counting calories and was wondering if you had an idea of the calorie count for this stew?
Thanks Kathryn!I do not know, but there are lots of free recipe building sites with nutritional info that you can plug it into!