I love making one pot meals as you may have noticed from my previous posts and also hearty stews are so comforting. They are easy to make and soul satisfying to me.
This is a chicken stew I made in a rich tomato sauce with potatoes
Season the chicken liberally with salt and pepper and sear on high heat till the chicken is golden brown. I throw in some fresh thyme while this is happening – you can use rosemary, oregano or almost any herb of your choice.
Because I am lazy or very smart – you decide – I make some room at the side of the pan and add a couple of table spoons of flour. I brown this for a few minutes until the flour is brown and cooked through. You might have to add a little oil to make sure this happens well.
Next, I add a cup or two of wine – red in this case since that’s what I was drinking. You can add white wine and or stock – even water works, I tell ya.
I also like to add tomato paste along with the flour for a deep rich color but I didn’t have any handy. The stew still came out well.
And if you get anything from my recipes – just know that they are suggestions and not the gospel – once you master some techniques, you can experiment. Don’t sweat or worse, not cook just because you don’t have one ingredient.
Sticking with the lazy or genius theme. I throw in a chopped onion or two and they will cook down just like you sauteed them in the beginning. At this time I like to add some more thyme and more salt and pepper.
Now for 6-8-10 cloves of garlic, crushed and a can of whole, peeled tomatoes, smushed up. Yes, that’s a word 🙂
After the garlic and tomatoes, I covered and simmered the chicken for about 30 minutes and then add the potatoes – cooking for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes and chicken is cooked through.
Next, taste the sauce for salt and adjust to taste.
Sometimes, I will add a few tbs. of wine which I don’t cook out – this gives the stew a unique flavor. Also a couple tbs. of vinegar can be nice in rounding out the flavors.
Serve this in one of many ways – as is with crusty bread, or over rice, pasta, couscous.
I like to make enough t so that I can eat it for a few days in different ways.
I hope you try this and other stews – they basically cook themselves and you get to look like the star in your kitchen.
Until I cook again!
I attempted to make reservations online and learned that they only take reservations if the entire table orders the tasting menu for $62.00
We arrived at 7 PM on a Thursday evening and the place was jam packed. We were told that there would be an hours wait and we were directed to spend that time in a bar across the street where we would get discounted drinks.
I like to put my chicken on a bed of vegetables, which allows them to cook at the same time as the chicken, get flavored by the chicken juices and I like to believe the chicken benefits in flavor by sitting on the vegetables too.
Here is the finished dish – I did drizzle it with a little truffle oil.
At other times. I have added leftovers to these pancakes – in this case leftover shredded chicken, chopped tomatoes, scallions and parsley.
Indian Culinary Center, NYC 