There is nothing like a bowl of Crock-Pot chicken stew on a rainy fall day. It's flavorful, it's comforting, and relatively healthy for this type of dish. Best of all, it takes barely any effort to make. On days like that you just want to curl up under a blanket and read a book, or catch up on your favorite TV shows, not stand next to the stove for an hour or two.
I made this recipe use chicken breasts instead of the usual chicken thighs. White chicken meat is healthier is one reason. The other reason is that I prefer white chicken meat nine times out of ten. Don't most of us as this study shows? You can substitute the breasts for the thighs if you desire, but let me tell you, you don't want to do that. Chicken breast meat in this dish comes out very tender and juicy, and just falls apart, like pulled pork.
There are two ways to cook this dish, the easy way and the super easy way. The easy way gives you a little more flavor and requires first quickly browning the chicken breasts, the onions, the garlic and the carrots over high heat. This adds about 15 extra minutes of work.
The super easy way - just drop all of the ingredients into the Crock-Pot and come back when it's done. The chicken stew will be just as delicious, albeit slightly less flavorful.
If you don't own a Crock-Pot Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 6 boneless chicken breasts cut into 1-2 inch cubes
- 2 large carrots peeled and sliced
- 2 stalks of celery sliced
- 1 large onion diced
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 sweet peppers membrane and seeds removed, and sliced
- 4 large boiling potatoes peeled and cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 2 Tbsp fresh dill chopped
- 2 Tbsp fresh scallions chopped
- 4-6 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp kosher salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of oil. Over high heat, brown chicken breast cubes until lightly lightly golden brown. Remove the chicken and set aside. You may want to do this step in two or three batches, adding one tablespoon of oil each batch.
- Add one more tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Cook chopped onions and garlic, constantly stirring, until golden brown. Remove the onions and set aside.
- Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet and cook sliced carrots and celery over high heat, constantly stirring, for about 2 minutes.
- Toss chicken breasts, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, sweet peppers, and potatoes into the slow cooker. Add 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour to hot chicken stock and stir well to disperse the flour in the chicken stock. Pour the chicken stock into the pot. Cook on the lowest setting for about 6 hours. Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, one tablespoon of chopped scallions and one tablespoon of chopped dill 20 minutes before the stew is done and stir. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
- Garnish with the remaining chopped scallions and dill and serve.
Maxine says
One of the reasons I use a crockpot is as a labor saving device. I do understand searing a chunk of meat first but I don't understand why you also precook everything else and then leave it in the crockpot for 6 more hours.
victor says
More flavor. You can skip that if you want.
Marianne says
Great recipe! I didn't add the dill as I'm not a fan. I also used rotisserie chicken and added a can of corn and some fresh spinach! Oh yeah, I also added some dried Thyme.
victor says
Thank you. I vary spices myself depending on the day and what I feel like. Makes the dish exciting every time. Corn and spinach sounds fantastic.
Jodie says
Hi there! We're going to try this in our huge, cast-iron, soap pot outside. I'll let you know how it goes!
victor says
Please, do. I love cooking outside in my CI jambalaya pot.