Smothered Chicken Stew

IMG_3128 (4)I present to you my Chicken stew. This stew reminds me of Sundays  as a little child. Apart from eating fish stew and rice, my mother made a mean chicken in tomato stew. Although this is not my mother’s recipe, it does have the same cooking time. To get the smothered feel to this stew, you have to precook your chicken and if using  if using the tough type, you have to cook it until quite tender; then cook it with the tomatoes on low heat for a while to allow for the stew and it’s spices to permeate into the chicken. Once the stew is done, with one bite, the meat on the chicken should be falling off the bones. You want to enjoy your meal and eat your meat without feeling like you just had a fight with your meat :)) Now I maybe understand why it took so long for the stew to cook each Sunday 🙂

If you paired this stew with some warm rice and dodo ie plantains, you would understand why it is so good

Nma…

 

IMG_0564 (3)Let’s get to cooking

Chicken Stew
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Cuisine: African
Serves: 6
Ingredients
for chicken
  • Chicken. clean and cut(I used the boiler chicken)
  • 1-2tbsps dry pepper
  • salt
  • knorr
  • one small onion(cut into chunks)
  • (I like to make a simple chicken stock. Just incase I need the stock for something else)
for stew:
  • 6-8 nice sized plum tomatoes
  • 1 large onion
  • Half of a smaller onion cut into thin slices
  • a clove of garlic
  • an inch of fresh ginger
  • 2 medium sized bell pepper
  • 1 finger of cayenne or chili pepper
  • 1 small habanero pepper ie ata-rodo(add more if you like it spicy)
  • ½-1cup of cooking oil
  • 1bay leave
  • I tsp curry
  • ½ tbsp thyme
  • salt to taste
  • bouillon
Instructions
prep
  1. remove seeds from bell peppers, and chop. Also chop the tomatoes and the full large one of the onions. Chop the cayenne pepper and along with the garlic, ginger, other peppers, blend into a smooth or rough paste. Pour the tomato and pepper blend into a wire mesh sieve or a cloth to remove the excess water(you may skip sieving the tomatoes), or even boil out the water(How to do that is on my jollof rice post)
for chicken prep
  1. Wash and season the chicken with the ingredients and bring to a boil in it's own juices. Once the juices are almost dried up, add some more water and check for seasonings and add more salt or knorr if needed. Once chicken is cooked and tender, remove from the stock to drain.
for stew
  1. In a pot, pour the oil and make sure it is hot. slice in the remaining half of the smaller onion. Add the bay leaves to release it's aroma and essence. Once the onions get translucent pour in the tomato blend along with the chicken, thyme, curry and stir. Slightly cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add some of the juices from the meat stock (be careful so you do not make the stew watery). Check for seasonings. Add salt and knorr if needed and keep cooking slowly on reduced heat until the oil floats to the top of the stew and the stew looks like little fried pebbles and a bit darker.(You may decant oil when stew is cooked) Let the stew rest for about 5 minutes before serving
  2. Note:I used the whole cup of oil. You may use less. the oil and the slow frying helps the stew loose that acidic tomato taste. if not, you may add a pinch to a small tsp of sugar to help
Notes
To make this stew easier in one pot. Season and cook the chicken until tender. Then pour the tomato blend into the boiling meat stock and let it cook together on low heat. Once the stew begins to thicken, add your seasonings and the oil and cook until the oil floats to the top(my favorite method by the way)

 

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