Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Stew

Hearty chicken and vegetable stew is amazingly flavorful. Juicy chicken thighs cooked with bacon, yummy vegetables, and a couple secret ingredients.

You could be eating this stew in about an hour’s time and you’d think that it has been simmering for hours – it’s so rich and flavorful.

Chicken and Vegetable Stew

This is not your average chicken stew. First of all, it has bacon in it. And remember secret ingredients? Red wine is in the broth. But what really sets off this recipe, it’s made with Beef Broth, rather than chicken broth.

In essence, the whole recipe is beef stew made with chicken thighs. The thing about beef stew though is it requires a lot of time on the stove to tenderize the meat. I suppose you could make a fast beef stew using $20 a pound tenderloin, but that’s not too practical. 2 pounds of chicken thighs costs around $5!

This family friendly stew can be made in about an hour so you could be having this on a week night…no problem. 

Ingredients in the Stew

First off is 3 strips of thick cut, smoky bacon. Try to find some bacon with nice stripes of red meat and less fat. It seems that good quality bacon is hard to find these days and the good stuff is going to cost around $12 a pound. Cut the bacon into bite sized pieces.

Next, boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Trim off the large pieces of fat on the thighs and cut them up into 1″ pieces. 

The vegetables used are: garlic, onion, carrots, celery, potatoes, and peas. Coarsely chop the onion…you don’t have to be too picky about this since the onion will wilt and it becomes a tasty bite. The carrots can be scrubbed and left unpeeled for extra fiber and nutrition. Cut them into 1/4″ rounds. Wash and chop the celery stalks into pieces. 

I used Yukon gold potatoes and scrubbed them well, left the skin on, and chopped them into bite sized pieces. 

Frozen Bird’s Eye Sweet Garden Peas were the last veggie to get thrown into the pot. 

This recipe just requires a single large pot and makes 6 generous servings. Leftovers can be refrigerated for 3 or 4 days. You can also freeze the leftovers for up to 3 months.

Serve this with a good bread so you can soak up all the goodness of the delicious broth. MaryJo had just made some 50/50 wheat and white sourdough bread and it was perfect with the stew.

Dinner – Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Stew…on your table in an hour’s time. Everyone will love this!!

Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Stew

Hearty chicken and vegetable stew that you can make in about an hour, but it looks and tastes like it has been simmering all day.

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken stew, hearty chicken and vegetable stew

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 469kcal

Author: Joe

Ingredients

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 6 oz. thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces, (3 slabs)
• 2 lbs. boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, excess fat trimmed, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 med. yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, washed and chopped 1/4" slices
• 12 oz. carrots, scrubbed and chopped into 1/4" rounds, (3 large or 5 small)
• 6 oz. tomato paste, canned
• 1 cup dry red wine, like cab. sauv., merlot, shiraz
• 1/4 cup white flour, all-purpose
• 4 cups beef broth, low sodium
• 14 oz. Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into bite sized pieces, 1/2" squares
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp, each salt and pepper
• 13 oz. frozen peas no need to thaw them

Instructions

• Add olive oil and bacon pieces to a Dutch oven or heavy 4 Qt. saucepan and place on medium high heat until most of the bacon fat has rendered, 6 to 7 minutes.
• Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally until nearly cooked through and no pink spots are evident on the chicken, 7 to 8 minutes.
• Next, throw in the garlic, onion, celery and carrots and cook for 4 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and red wine, bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes to release some of the alcohol of the wine.
• Combine the flour with 1 cup of cold broth in a shaker or lidded jar and shake to combine into a slurry. Add the remaining broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir in the slurry, bring to a boil to thicken. (See notes, #4).
• Then add the Worcestershire, thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and potatoes. Bring to a simmer , cover the pot and cook for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 to 7 minutes to prevent any sticking on the bottom of the pot.
• Add the peas and allow them to heat up 5 to 7 minutes.
• Serve with a sturdy, crusty bread and sprinkle with chopped parsley if desired.

Notes

1. Get the bacon and chicken chopped up first, then while they are cooking, you can prepare the vegetables. This will speed up the time it takes to make the stew.
2. I didn't peel the carrots or the potatoes. Just give them a good scrub before chopping.
3. Even though this is cooked for a good amount of time, the veggies are still firm to the bite. If you prefer softer vegetables, microwave them for a couple minutes before adding to the stew. The peas do not need to be microwaved as they will be soft.
4. I used Better Than Bouillon roast beef base to make the broth and the water must be hot for the bouillon to dissolve. To make a flour slurry, the broth must be cool or the flour will clump in the hot water. I made the broth about an hour before it was used so it was cool enough. If you also use Better Than Bouillon, you could make a slurry with 1 cup of plain cold water and make 3 cups of broth containing enough bouillon for 4 cups water.
5. Leftovers can be refrigerated for 3 or 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
6. Recipe adapted from Recipe Tin Eats.

Nutrition

Calories: 469kcal

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