Flavorful Chicken Stew Recipe: 4 Tips for Making Chicken Stew
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: May 31, 2025 • 4 min read
Chicken stew recipes are usually versatile, providing you with the opportunity to mix in your favorite vegetables alongside tender chunks of chicken breasts or chicken thighs to make a thick and flavorful soup.
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What Is Chicken Stew?
Chicken stew combines protein, starchy carbohydrates, and veggies to create a full meal in one bowl. Considered by some to be a comfort food, this thick soup typically encompasses bone-in chicken breasts; boneless, skinless chicken breasts; or boneless, skinless chicken thighs and assorted vegetables in a broth. Common chicken stew seasonings include bay leaves, fresh thyme, minced garlic (or garlic powder), and salt and pepper.
Stewed chicken recipes have less liquid than a chicken soup and you can make the dish in Dutch oven or saucepan on your stovetop, or even in a slow cooker. Chicken stew is a popular dish in Jamaican cuisine. To make the Caribbean dish—called brown stew chicken—marinate a whole chicken before combining the chicken pieces with brown sugar, browning sauce, garlic cloves, bell peppers, and spices to create a sweet and spicy, hearty chicken stew that you can serve on its own or with white rice.
4 Tips for Making Chicken Stew
There are numerous variations on chicken stew, and you can experiment to develop your own preferences in regards to consistency and flavor. Here are tips for making a thick and flavorful chicken stew:
- 1. Add cornstarch for a thicker stew. You can combine cornstarch with a little water or broth and mix it into your stew to thicken it without negatively impacting the flavor.
- 2. Use flour for a richer chicken flavor. Tossing your chicken in all-purpose flour before browning it can enhance the flavor of the chicken in your stew. Additionally, flour is a good alternative to cornstarch if you want to thicken your stew. A stew thickened with flour typically reheats and freezes a little more easily than one thickened with cornstarch.
- 3. Add potatoes for heft. Potatoes are a common ingredient in soups and stews because they complement the flavor of proteins and increase a stew’s chunkiness factor. Try cubes of russet potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, baby potatoes, or other potatoes of your choice. Sweet potatoes will add an interesting sweetness to your chicken stew, and if you intentionally cook them down, they will make your stew extra thick.
- 4. Reduce your stew’s base. For a chunky chicken stew, you can take the extra step of temporarily removing the meat and large vegetables from the pot and letting the base simmer uncovered to enable excess liquid to evaporate. Once you’re happy with the amount of liquid that’s left, you can return the ingredients to the pot.
Chicken Stew Recipe
makes
prep time
15 mintotal time
1 hr 20 mincook time
1 hr 5 minIngredients
- 1
Heat a large pot over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- 2
Add the chicken thighs, skin side down, to the large pot and brown the chicken for about 5–7 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken thighs from the pot. They will not be fully cooked at this point.
- 3
To the same saucepan, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the rendered chicken fat. Then add the celery, carrot, and onion. Sauté the vegetables for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- 4
Add the tomato paste and sauté with the celery, carrots, and onions for 2 minutes.
- 5
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the flour over the vegetables and stir until coated. Continue to cook for 2 minutes to cook out the raw flour.
- 6
Add the white wine, scraping the browned bits (called fond) from the bottom of the pot, which will help add flavor to your dish. This process is called deglazing.
- 7
Stir in the tomatoes, chicken broth, basil, and thyme. Cook this mixture over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes.
- 8
Add in the red pepper, and partially cooked chicken thighs and bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let it simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
- 9
Stir in the peas, kidney beans, potatoes, and heavy cream. If the stew is too thin, combine the last 2 tablespoons of flour with 1 cup of water or broth in a jar with a lid—shake the mixture well to get rid of any lumps, then add it to the stew. Simmer the stew, uncovered, for 15 additional minutes.
- 10
Taste the stew and add more salt and pepper as needed.
- 11
Before serving, remove the chicken thighs from the pot, take the meat off the bone and either shred the meat or cut it into bite-size pieces. Add back to the stew.
- 12
Ladle the stew into serving bowls and garnish each serving with the fresh parsley.
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