Stewed Chicken Recipe: A Comfort Food Classic

Heather says:

This recipe for stewed chicken is a frequent request and a great use for those giant bags of leg quarters.

Leg quarters on sale are a mixed blessing. I’m not a huge fan of dark meat, but with the right seasoning I can be persuaded. My usual go to is a recipe for garlic and soy chicken thighs, but now -when the weather is cooler- I’ll be reaching for stewed chicken.

Can you blame me?

The recipe uses the braising technique which produces a very tender chicken dish.

Don’t be intimidated by the number of ingredients, I’ve color coded them to help, the green goes in the marinade / sauce and the red are all fairly common spices.

*Note* The 3 – 5 chicken parts can include a mix of dark and white meat, a whole chicken cut up, etc. It does need to be bone-in. I tripled the recipe to accommodate 10 lbs of leg quarters, which I stewed in two pots. The extra sauce was welcome. This recipe can also be converted to a slow cooker, but this doesn’t eliminate a lot of steps.

*Important note* The difference between this recipe and a recipe where the marinade must be discarded is important, the sauce here is FULLY cooked. This is entirely different than brushing cooked chicken with a sauce raw chicken has touched.

Stewed Chicken Recipe Ingredients:

• 3 – 5 pounds chicken parts
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 4 green onions
• 1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3 TBSP ground cumin
• 3 TBSP curry powder
• 1 TBSP total of the following herbs – a pinch of each- oregano, thyme, rosemary, black pepper
• 2 TBSP garlic powder*
• 2 TBSP onion powder
• 1/3 cup + 3 TBSP olive oil
• 5 TBSP sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Stewed Chicken Recipe Instructions:

Place the chicken in a bowl or shallow dish to marinate. In a bowl, combine all of the red and green ingredients: lemon juice, green onions, diced tomatoes, onion, ketchup, vinegar, and spices.

Stir and pour over the chicken. Refrigerate and marinate for several hours or overnight.

In a heavy pot over medium heat, add the olive oil and sugar. Stir until dissolved. If your pot is thin, it will have to be watched very closely. Remove the chicken from the marinade, shake off the vegetables and place in the pot, brown for 2 – 3 minutes per side. Do this in batches if necessary.

Reduce the heat to low. Return any browned chicken to the pot, if you did it in batches. And cover with the sauce.
*Crockpot version* Pour the sauce and chicken into the slow cooker and cook on low for 3 – 4 hours.

Cover tightly and go play for 1 – 1.5 hours. *Unless your pan is thin or you have a gas stove, in these cases come back and stir it once in a while to prevent scorching.*

Serve over rice, with plenty of the sauce.

Enjoy!

Submitted to Mouth Watering Mondays and Tasty Tuesday.