Chicken Stew

Hello everyone! I apologize (again) for yet another long absence. I am now the proud mother of a two-and-a-half-month-old baby boy. I had all these grand visions of trying great recipes and blogging away after maternity leave started but before the baby came, but instead I mostly nested and tried to sleep. Since the baby came, life has been more hectic (but in the best possible way) so there hasn't been much time for blogging, hence the absence of recent posts.

Now that things are starting to settle into more of a routine (though I probably just jinxed myself), I'm hoping I will have more time to get back to blogging again. I want to try out more recipes involving short cooking times and/or my slow cooker, since most of the time whatever I am doing gets sidelined by a crying baby. It would be great to be able to just toss things into a pot and let it simmer away rather than making something that requires a lot of preparation time or having to stick close by the stove and hoping that the baby stays asleep until dinner is ready, because that doesn't work most of the time.

I made chicken stew for the first time a few weeks ago, having seen Chef Michael Smith's recipe for it and thinking it would be a tasty dish to try. It's a relatively easy recipe, and I could probably make it in the slow cooker too, though I haven't tried yet. The nice thing about recipes like this one is that once you have the method down, you can make several variations of it with whatever you have in your fridge and pantry. I find myself craving dishes like this more now that the weather is starting to turn. I'm sad that summer is over, but the upside is that it's now the perfect time for comfort food!

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil (for browning the chicken)
• 6 chicken thighs
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 large baking potato
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 handful of green beans
• 1 big Tetra-pak (900 mL or almost 4 cups) of chicken broth 
• 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
• 1 dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• 1 green onion stalk, chopped
• 1 handful of parsley, chopped

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and set them aside.

Saute the chicken in a few tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat until it is browned. (I usually cook the chicken in the pot where I will be cooking the stew so that the flavourful brown bits from the chicken end up in the stew.) Remove the chicken from the pot and set it aside.

Add the onion and garlic to the pot and saute them until they are softened. Add the flour to the pot and then pour in the chicken broth while whisking everything together. Continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened and comes to a simmer.

Return the chicken and its juices to the pot. Add the vegetables, bay leaves, rosemary and Worcestershire sauce and stir until everything is mixed together. Reduce the heat and simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.

Remove the bay leaves. Stir in the heavy cream, green onion and parsley. Continue cooking the stew for a few more minutes to let everything heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with some more green onion and parsley, if desired. Serve immediately.

***