Our Family’s Chicken Stew Recipe
Its that good. Its so good that it actually bothers me to think that some of you might only look at the photos, read the tutorial, and never make it. Its so good that if I could, I would seriously arrange a time and place for all of us to meet up under a tent somewhere in the middle of the country just to serve you this chicken stew. Its just……..its…..well folks, its just so good!
My mother got this recipe out of a 1974 issue of Good Housekeeping. There was a photograph of a little old lady next to the title and Mama said “She just looked like her food would be really good”. Since then, I cannot even begin to tell you how often we make it. Everyone in my family makes this and loves it. My in laws are coming in from Georgia this weekend for the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddler’s Convention as they do every year and this stew is always a request for their first meal. Tonight I’m serving it with Dixie Cornbread.
This stew refrigerates well, freezes well, and can easily feed a crowd simply by adding more potatoes. I always try to make a double batch and my family happily eats it whenever they need a quick meal all week long!
Once you make this a time or two, you’ll have no more need of the recipe. It will be ingrained on your heart, your taste buds, and your stomach.
Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 1 chicken
- 2 lg onions, chopped
- 7 cups water
- 4 cups canned tomatoes
- 6 med.potatoes, peeled and diced
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn
- 2 Tablespoon butter
- 5 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
Instructions
- Cook chicken until done in water. Remove chicken from broth and discard skin. Separate meat from bones and shred meat.
- Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.
- Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in covered saucepan until done, do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.
- Add corn, onions, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to broth.
- Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add potatoes and chicken and simmer slowly with lid off for at least 45 minutes.
- Right before serving, stir in butter and let it melt. Best if made a day ahead and reheated to serve.
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Ingredients
- 1 chicken
- 2 lg onions, chopped
- 7 cups water
- 4 cups canned tomatoes
- 6 med.potatoes, peeled and diced
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn
- 2 Tablespoon butter
- 5 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
Instructions
- Cook chicken until done in water. Remove chicken from broth and discard skin. Separate meat from bones and shred meat.
- Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.
- Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in covered saucepan until done, do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.
- Add corn, onions, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to broth.
- Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add potatoes and chicken and simmer slowly with lid off for at least 45 minutes.
- Right before serving, stir in butter and let it melt. Best if made a day ahead and reheated to serve.
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*This has been our family’s favorite stew since my mother got the recipe in 1974. No one has to use the recipe anymore because we have all made it so much.
*I’ve added a “Freezes Well” category to Southern Plate, beginning with this stew. I’m going to go back this weekend and add all of my dishes that freeze well to that category for your convenience!
Thank you for reading Southern Plate! I better get back to my company!
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Oct 3 2008. Filed under Chicken, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Freezes Well, Main Course, Soups and Stews, Southern Classics.
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This chicken stew is perfection! I added okra and everything else was by the recipe. Thank you! Can’t wait to try something else!! Yummy
I do LOVE reading your website! I have purchased many copies of your cookbook for my friends and family. You are like a long lost sister in my family! I have never seen this recipe written down (haven’t thought to look for it!). i shouldn’t have been surprised to see it here. When I was a little girl, the churches, volunteer fire departments and many other groups would make this in huge batches outside in a huge iron pot that was stirred with a big wooden paddle. Everyone would bring some of the ingredients and it was sold for around $10 per gallon as a fund raiser. I just made a pot last week for friends who had never had it and my roommate of 7 years (although we haven’t live together since we were married!) always asks for this and I try to send it to her whenever possible. My Mom made it for her when we were in college. I just wanted to share my memories! I also put elbow macaroni in mine at least a half hour or so before serving. I love to eat with pickles and some sort of cheese – either in it or on the side! Delicious!!! Thank you so much! I’ll have to see if this is in your cookbook. If not, I’ll send it to my (former) roommate. Thank you, again!
I know that it might sound like heresy to even consider such a shortcut, but being that I’m from Athens (the unofficial chicken stew capital of the world), I find that I have tried to take every liberty at least once. So when I’m running super short on time, I will used diced canned potatoes and frozen chopped onions. You just cannot tell the difference. In addition, I always have a bottle of Tabasco sauce handy to spice my bowl up.
Love the recipe…like some of the other gals, I use stewed tomatoes…also use some Dale’s steak seasoning (yes, the liquid one in the bottle, made in Birmingham, Al) and some sauted finely chopped banana peppers from the garden-they are milder than bell peppers. We like noodles in ours and I often put some (ok laugh) alphabet noodles in the pot. I don’t care for lima beans…so I use mild butter beans, or even green beans.
Y’all, this is soooo good. Since we now live in Pennsylvania, this sure does bring back wonderful memories from back “home” in Muscle Shoals.
Yessir-serve with cornbread or biscuit, either one.
Yummy.
Love the entire cookbook!!! Big hugs!
Help! I’m trying to make this tonite and can’t figure out how much broth to use. The pictures say cover chicken and use that broth. But for her Mama’ s stew it only says one cup! Does anyone know???
I was looking for chicken stew recipes, saw the picutre and KNEW this was the right one! I grew up in Limestone County, so when I read the part about the Fiddlers’ Convention, I smiled! I can’t wait to have the stew! I can already taste it!
I hope you liked it Rebecca!!!
I too am confused regarding the potato’s and broth. Please clarify, I am anxious to cook this! Thank you!
Cover the chicken with 7 cups of water that will be your soup base. Mama pulls out 1 cup of broth to cook her potatoes then adds it back in. Hope that helps, this soup is very good on a chilly night.
Can you be a little more specific? Happy to help!
Chicken stew has been in our family for as long as I can remember (which sometimes it further back than yesterday). I have .. when its just for me..used canned chicken and can whip it up in no time… but it does lose a little love when using canned…I prefer this over beef stew…
My husband’s family has made a stew similar to this for decades and I do mean decades I have been making it for 30 years myself. We do not use the sugar. There is a county in Texas called Hopkins they had a cook off every year and called Hopkins county Stew. My husband’s father lived there years before she married. She was known in the Cullman AL area for taking this stew to those that she knew that were sick. In the year before she passed away I would make it for her, I am so grateful she shared the recipe with me. I make it now as we have moved around and do the same. We lived in Huntsville twice and spread the stew around the southern end of town. I make a gallon for my husbands sisters and neices and nephew on occassion. One tip for you if you would let the corn cook and get tender before the tomato goes on them they would be better. I learned that from my grandmother that tomatoes cause veggies to stay at the firmness they are with they come in contact with the acid. Inside might get tender but things like corn, peas, butter beans the shell around them will stay too firm
Going to try this one.I am like your husband, not want big bites of tomato. So I run them thru the blender. Do the same when making spaghetti sauce. Also, that little bit of sugar cuts some of the tomato acid.
This is INSANELY DELICIOUS. I added a bunch of crushed red pepper for spice and swapped one of the tablespoons of sugar for a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar because I love vinegar, and it tastes SO GOOD. Also, used 1 small can crushed and 1 small can diced tomatoes. Amazing.
Christy, I will try this. I have made the Courtland Chicken Stew recipe for years which is in Cotton Country, Decatur’s Junior League cookbook. But this looks a little less labor intensive and would be just as good. The butter or margarine is crucial. Las time I made chicken stew I was adjusting the seasoning and just couldn’t get the flavor right. So I went ahead and added the butter and bam! Just what it needed. When you heat up some for lunch the next day, it’s great with a grilled cheese.
Oh goodness yes, now you’ve done gone and made me hungry
Gratefully,
Christy
This looks & sounds just like the chicken stew my ex-boyfriend’s mother made – It was the best!! I regretted that I didn’t get the recipe before we broke up… but now it looks like I can still make it after-all!! Thanks!!
This is similar to a family recipe that has been passed down for generations. We call it Rabbit Stew because the originial recipe lists rabbit instead of chicken.
My husband is sick, and instead of chicken soup, I am going to try this stew for him tomorrow! Looks fabulous, can’t wait to taste it!
I WILL make this tomorrow night, calling for rain and cooler temps here in Texas!! (finally) I probably will omit the sugar also, as Rheada Haynes mentions. Sound SO, SO yummy!!! Maybe I’ll make it tonight!!
1. Cook chicken until done in water. Remove chicken from broth and discard skin. Separate meat from bones and shred meat.
By “cook” I assume you mean at a full boil?
And roughly what time frame does it take to get “done” ?
Everything sounds ambiguous to a novice like me
Thanks for the recipe.
Looks interesting. I’m always looking for receipes that I can Remix for my picky family. It’s cold here in Denver so chicken stew will be right on time. I might keep the stew but make a little jasmine rice and serve it like that! I’m always adding carrots to things too. They are filling and cheap and good for you. I have a family of 15 to feed!
We didn’t have can crushed tomatoes when we made this so we used can rotel tomatoes (2 cans) and it was like a southwest version of what you had..delicious!
Great idea Martha!!!!
This made for a pretty good chicken soup. I made it as directed (except I forgot the butter at the end), but it seemed rather thin for me to call it a stew I tend to think of a stew as more hearty, thick, and stick-to-your-ribs(ish), and I don’t think the lack of butter was what made the difference.
I added an extra bag of frozen carrots at the end to add some more texture to it, and served it over some egg noodles.
Thanks for the recipe. It made a ton of soup that will sit happily in my freezer for those really cold days!
I use Publix vegetable soup mix veggies (corn, carrots, okra, lima beans, onions, potatoes), a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of creamed corn for mine. I cannot eat enough of it.
I sure took the liberty of making this recipe my own. I cut the recipe in half, dumped frozen vidalia onions, my last three potatoes, last can of corn, last can of tomatoes (plum tomato strips) and my last can of chicken, tap water, small peice of chicken buillon cube to make up for flavorless chicken, last pat of butter in the dish and some salt and pepper into my stew pot and simmered it uncovered till it was thick. Every time I stirred it , I mashed some of the tomato, potato and chicken against the side of the pot which helped to thcken it. I have to say my husband had a second helping. That means it was really good!!!! Thanks for helping me with dinner. All your recipes are great. The best part is I have enough for 2 more meals. That’s a very good thing!!!! Love you Christy!
I am so glad you and your husband enjoyed it Ruth!!!
I also added some sugar. Now I need to do some shopping so I can make more.
i made this tonight just added the stew mix also ..it was very good thank you
I am so glad to hear you liked it Judy!!
Oh my goodness..I can’t believe this! My Aunt Zulee…I called her “Ticky”, used to make almost this identical recipe. I have always loved it, and at age 69 I still make i, and still love it. We serve it with “soda crackers” as we call saltine crackers. I don’t use butter, and have started using chicken stock instead of water. I just love your blog…you are as cute as a speckled pup! The recipe is listed on my blog http://pattycakescooking.blogspot.com listed as Chicken Soup…if you have a minute, check it out.
I Love your nickname for you aunt!! I will make some time and go check it out Patsy!! Hope you have a great day!
Made this tonight for supper and it was delicious. I even got to use tomatoes from my freezer. I also pinned this on Pinterest too.
I am so glad you liked it Rachel, it is one of my favorites!
i made this today the only thing i did different is my diced tomatoes were italilon with basil,oregano,and marjorum. It gave it a good flavor.I thought I had put the chicken in too quick but it was ok.I also added a cup of baby lima beans. It was delicious.
I made this tonight and it was delicious. Served it with tomato flatbread crisps topped with parmesan. Next time I’ll mash up more potatoe to make the broth thicker. Did add a bit of red cayenne pepper but think tabasco would have been better. The broth and veggies, I think, would make a great base for a fish stew with the chicken broth. I had stock in the freezer that I used and added some chicken to it, but probably could have used more. All in all, a great base to begin with and customize, and to me, that’s what cooking is all about.
This is the best! My husband loves “red chicken stew” which is a bit different, but I don’t. I think this is a great, in-the-middle compromise that the whole family enjoys:) Thanks for sharing all of your recipes!
I must say, as a northern gal but southern at heart, I never tried Chicken Stew, but am anxious to join you southern belles & make some of this stew. I know my family will love it just by reading the recipe & looking at the picture of the finished product. So nice to try something new! Thanks Christy for sharing this!
Christie this is pretty much the same recipe my family uses and my daughter always asks for it for all special occasions. She also request godd ole Peach Cobbler to go with it!
I also add red pepper flakes, worchestershire sauce – a dash or two and yellow mustard. Gives it a little zip. I love all your recipes. Your family reminds me so much of mine. Good hard working honest people that love good southern food. Some families have riches to leave behind we have recipes. One recipe that my mom and I cannot seem to replicate is for a sweet potato cobbler. Do you have one to share? My grandmother sure did make a wonderful sweet potato cobbler. Miss her so much. Love your site.