Chicken Stew is a delicious meal with chicken, potatoes and sweet potatoes, onions and carrots. It’s all simmered in a rich seasoned chicken broth until tender. It’s one of our all time favorite meals (along with beef stew)!
A recipe like this chicken stew is a meal unto itself… full of protein, healthy carbs and veggies. We serve it with a salad or Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits to sop up anything left in the bowl. It’s true chicken soup perfection.
Chicken soups are truly the ultimate comfort food from Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup to belly warming Chicken Rice Soup. This easy chicken stew fits the bill perfectly.
How To Make Chicken Stew
This simple chicken stew recipe is fully loaded with tender chicken and vegetables simmered in a deliciously seasoned broth! I use thighs because they tend to hold up better to the simmering but breasts can work well in this recipe too!
If you’re using chicken breasts, I would suggest browning the chunks and then adding in the last 20 minutes or so. If you have other veggies you love (root vegetables are especially great) add them in!
- Brown chicken at a high temp. No need to cook it through, you just want the caramelization and flavor.
- Soften onions/carrots/celery and add flour (to thicken a bit).
- Add broth, herbs and veggies. Homemade chicken stock or store bought work just fine.
- Simmer.
Crazy easy right? I add a bit of heavy cream at the end to make this chicken stew just a little bit creamy. You can skip the cream if you prefer or add extra if you’d like.
How To Thicken Chicken Stew
Sweet potatoes are a great addition to this hearty chicken stew recipe and they do soften quite a bit, this helps thicken it. The flour added at the beginning will thicken this chicken stew but you can certainly thicken it more if you’d like!
You can use a mixture of either cornstarch or flour with broth or water. I find cornstarch is less likely to be lumpy but flour tends to reheat/freeze better so the choice is yours! You can also add instant potatoes to thicken a little bit at a time.
How To Make a Slurry
Combine 2 tablespoons flour with 1 cup of water or broth (I prefer broth) and shake very well. Pour the slurry a little at a time into the boiling chicken stew while stirring. Once your stew is thickened, allow it to boil for a couple of minutes.
You’ll want to make sure your flour mixture has no lumps before you add it, I use a shaker jar or mason jar and shake really well.
Can You Freeze Chicken Stew?
Chicken Stew can be frozen! If you plan on freezing it, I’d suggest using flour as a thickener (not cornstarch) as it will have a better consistency. I personally freeze in individual servings because they defrost faster and I can take out as many as I need to serve.
More Chicken Soup Recipes You’ll Love
- Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
- Easy Chicken Taco Soup
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup (no cream)
- Chicken Barley Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs about 8 thighs, diced 1-inch
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour divided
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ¼ teaspoon ground sage
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 ½ cups potatoes peeled and diced
- 1 ½ cups sweet potatoes peeled and diced
- ½ red bell pepper finely diced
- ¼ cup white wine
- 4 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
- 1 cup green beans or peas
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
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In a large pot or dutch oven, brown chicken in 1 tablespoon olive oil (it doesn't have to be cooked through). Remove from pot and set aside.
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Cook onion, carrot and celery in remaining olive oil for about 3 minutes or until onion is slightly softened. Stir in 3 tablespoons of flour, seasonings and salt & pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes.
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Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, red pepper, white wine, browned chicken and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
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Remove lid and stir in green beans and cream. Thicken if desired (below) and simmer an additional 10 minutes uncovered.
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To thicken: In a mason jar combine remaining 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup water or broth. Shake very well (ensure there are no lumps) and add a little at a time to boiling stew to reach desired consistency.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine American
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This was SOOOO delicious!!! Can it be frozen… I made a lot!
Chicken Stew can be frozen! If you plan on freezing it, I’d suggest using flour as a thickener (not cornstarch) as it will have a better consistency. I personally freeze in individual servings because they defrost faster and I can take out as many as I need to serve.
I replaced cream with coconut milk and some corn starch to make it creamy.
I am glad that worked. Thanks for sharing, June!
thanks for the amazing recipe!
Like a pot pie without the dough. This is very good, tasty.
Amazing chicken stew ,super easy my wife and kids loved it. I added rosemary , thyme, bay leave and tarragon leaves. Served with toasted sourdough bread. Mmmmmm
Amazing!
I liked the idea of adding sweet potatoes. Added extra carrots and a parsnip. Yummy
It will take more than fifteen minutes on prep for this stew. You need to cut up 2 potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, an onion, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery. Also shred or chop the chicken. It was very tasty but time consuming. Definitely worth it in the end.
This is delicious. Will definitely make again!
Omitted the red bell pepper and used peas instead of green beans. Seasoned chicken and veggies with salt and pepper while browning, used herbs of provence and made my own stock from the trimmed chicken thighs. I’m excited to make this again, next time with some garlic and coconut cream!
Thank you for the recipe :D
Muy Bien!
I too doubled the recipe and added garlic
plus a bit of Sugar. I dropped the celery though.
Thanks so much!
Would shredded chicken work here? Thanks.
It would work, I would suggest adding it during the last 5-10 minutes so it heats through without overcooking. You may need to add a little extra seasoning (or a pat of butter) if you skip browning the chicken.
Making this tonight, but don’t have any heavy cream. Do you think adding cream cheese instead will work?
I think it’d be a good substitution. For easy mixing, you can blend some of the broth with cream cheese until smooth and then add it back into the stew. Let us know how it goes!
Loved this recipe! Great flavour
Pure comfort food!
I had some chicken thighs, carrots, and celery that needed to be used, decided to try this stew, and boy am I glad I did!
I didn’t have any green beans, so I added some spinach instead, and added some corn.
Other than that, followed the recipe.
Yummy!
Made this and my Husband loved it. So did I. Definitely is on my favorite stew list.
Thank you for sharing,❤️
Made this for the first time today and it turned out amazing. I will definitely be making it again. Thanks for sharing.
I made this for dinner tonight. I left out the red pepper as I don’t really like cooked peppers and I served it with brown basmati rice. It was absolutely delicious and my teens had two helpings each. There were no leftovers. Thanks for a great family recipe.
This was so good. I had leftover Rotisserie chicken which I boiled to get broth from and the meat. I used this instead of cooking chicken and adding broth. I also do not use wine so I substituted apple cider vinegar. Being gluten free, I thickened it with potato starch. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you!
Corrections in quantities for doubling or tripling recipes have been made!!
love this recipe and highly recommend.
Made the Chicken stew today. It’s very good! I did add a garlic clove to the sautéed onion and carrots. After cooking the chicken and veggies, I transferred everything to a slow cooker. I didn’t have peas of any sort, so I used a can of garbanzo and added chopped parsley for the color. thanks for the recipe! Carole.