Chicken Stew

Sooooooo, I wanted to make chicken pot pie, but I noticed our flour was infected by bugs =( so I ended up just making the good stuff that goes into the chicken pot pie.... hence, chicken stew.

I used one of Ina Garten's recipe as a guideline since I didn't have everything on hand...



Here's what I used:

4 cups cooked shredded chicken
7 cups water
6 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup rice flour
1 cup milk
1 cup peas
1 cup chopped squash
1 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup panko (breadcrumbs)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper

First, I made the chicken. The drumsticks (it was that or thighs and the drumsticks were already thawed...) were brined for a couple hours or more and then placed in a cast iron and baked at 400°F for 45 minutes. Then set aside to cool. Then all the veggies were chopped. The chicken should have cooled down enough by now to pull the meat from the bones. 7 drumsticks gave me 4 cups of meat.

Then, make the chicken stock with water and chicken bouillon and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat up a pan and melt the 4 tbs of butter. Cook the carrots and onions until the onions are translucent. Then stir in the rice flour 1/4 cup at a time. It'll look pretty crumbly. To help with this, I ladled some of the chicken stock into the pan and stirred until most or all of the rice flour lumps dissipated. Then, it was poured back into the chicken stock, carrots and all. The shredded chicken was then added. Then the milk (I didn't have heavy whipping cream on hand as it was all turned into whipped cream), salt, pepper, panko and other veggies went in as well.

It ended up tasting pretty delicious but I wished it was more thick. I should've add a LOT more panko to thicken up the stew. Nonetheless, the stew was quite tasty and hearty. Yum!

The hubster even said it tasted like the stuff that goes into a chicken pot pie. :D Yay!