Our Family’s Southern Chicken Stew Recipe
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Featuring tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and chicken, this flavorful and hearty southern chicken stew recipe is a firm family favorite.
I am going to start this post off by asking a favor of you all. Please make this chicken stew. It’s that good. I mean, it’s 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. It’s 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. It’s just, well folks, it’s 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.
Once you make this a time or two, you’ll have no more need for the recipe. It will be ingrained in your heart, your taste buds, and your stomach. If you need more reasons to give this southern chicken stew recipe a go, it 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 a bowl of this supreme dish whenever they need a quick meal all week long!
Recipe Ingredients
- Potatoes
- A chicken
- Crushed tomatoes
- Corn
- Onion
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Sugar
- Margarine
Helpful Kitchen Tools
Cover your whole chicken with water and cook over medium heat until it’s done. When chicken is done, remove it from the broth and set it aside to cool a bit. Reserve broth.
If you prefer to use boneless skinless chicken breast for this recipe, just add some chicken bouillon cubes to your water to make sure your chicken broth is rich enough.
Peel and dice potatoes. Also, peel and dice your onion.
Add potatoes to the broth.
Add diced onion as well. Cook these until your potatoes are tender.
Cook until potatoes are tender. Remove about a coffee cup’s worth of potatoes.
Like this.
With a fork, mash those potatoes in the cup. We are going to add this back to the stew and it will thicken it.
You can also just use a bit of instant mashed potatoes here if you want, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post. (I truly believe soup thickening is about all they are good for… except for when I make this crust out of them for our Taco casserole… but that is a recipe for another day).
Place back in the saucepot along with the .
Add the can of tomatoes.
Now, you can use any type you want here. I tend to use crushed because my husband (who I have oft mentioned was dropped on his head as a child) doesn’t like to actually bite into a piece of tomato in his stew. However, I prefer diced if I’m going with canned. Nothing though, NOTHING is better than homegrown tomatoes from my freezer if I have them!
Add corn.
I often use frozen corn if you prefer that.
Add salt…
And pepper.
Then add the sugar. I know sugar sounds a bit odd in a stew, but trust me on this.
Simmer slowly with the lid off for about forty-five minutes.
Just before serving, stir in margarine. YUM!!
Storage
As I said, this southern chicken stew recipe refrigerates and freezes well. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating in the microwave.
Recipe Notes
- Serve your homemade chicken stew with saltine crackers, homemade drop biscuits, or cornbread. You could also serve it with a simple side salad, like an easy Greek salad.
- For a little kick, serve your stew with some hot sauce. Alternatively, before simmering add a teaspoon of paprika or a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning.
- Want to add more vegetables? Add in a cup of frozen peas or green beans when you add the corn. You could also add diced carrot, , or celery to your stew.
- If you’d prefer slow cooker chicken stew, follow the steps but once the potatoes, chicken, and onions are cooked in the broth, you’ll want to transfer everything to a slow cooker before adding the can of tomatoes and the remaining ingredients. Then cook on high for 4 to 6 hours.
Check out these other sensation stew recipes:
Beef Stew Recipe for Slow Cooker
Lentil Stew (Budget-Friendly & Delicious)
Ground Beef Stew (with a secret!)
Ingredients
- 1 chicken
- 2 large onions chopped
- 7 cups water
- 4 cups canned tomatoes
- 6 medium potatoes peeled and diced
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 5 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
Instructions
- Cook the chicken until done in water. Remove the chicken from the broth and discard its skin. Separate the meat from the bones and then shred the meat.1 chicken, 7 cups water
- Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.
- Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in a covered saucepan until done and do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.6 medium potatoes
- Add corn, onions, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to broth.2 large onions, 4 cups canned tomatoes, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn, 5 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons pepper
- Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add potatoes and chicken pieces and simmer slowly with the lid off for at least 45 minutes.6 medium potatoes, 1 chicken
- Right before serving, stir in the butter and let it melt. This chicken stew is best if made a day ahead and reheated to serve.2 tablespoons butter
Nutrition
If you are going to use canned tomatoes (and canned are better than non-ripe store tomatoes) use the whole ones and crush them with your hand. Not only is it fun, but they used the best tomatoes for the whole ones. Canned tomatoes are pretty good because they let them ripen on the vine and can them pretty much in the field.
Thank you.. will be making this for the crew very very soon. I can make it ahead for the guys to take when they go to deer camp!
This soup was soooo delicious. I helped hubs through it and it turned out great. One of the boys is now sick and he has asked me to make him the “sick soup”. Ha!
Hey Cee!!
Oh, I don’t know if anything beats a good fundraiser chicken stew. If that’s what you’re craving, this’ll hit the spot for sure though!
I’m so glad you read Southern Plate! I actually thought about you this weekend at the Fiddler’s. You know they always have great chicken stew there, too!
Stephanie Hey! I am always amazed at how inexpensive a whole fryer is compared to the boneless skinless breasts and the broth they make just can’t be beat! I think you could likely feed a family endless meals if you just have corn, tomatoes, and potatoes on hand!
~blushes~ thank you! I am working on getting a good “mug shot” done to use in print and such and doing a trial run. It’s so hard having photos made of yourself!! I appreciate your compliment GREATLY!
Bill HEY! Tomatoes are SUPER easy to put up in the freezer.
What I do is this:
*Get on a large pot of water to boil.
*Set out a 9×13 pan on the counter (they cool faster and its easier to chop them in that)
*Once the water is boiling, drop a few tomatoes at a time in it. Wait just a minute or two and the skins will split open. Remove them and put them in the 9×13 pan and let them cool until you can handle them. Just grab hold of that skin and it will come right off! Throw away the skin and cut off the tops and throw that away too. Then, I just take a large knife and coarsely chop them up a bit before filling quart sized freezer bags with the tomatoes, juice and all!
Deanna Let me know if your husband makes this for you! My husband is doing good to be able to boil water – seriously. He is an engineer and is completely lacking in common sense when it comes to cooking. Everything is made to be a hundred times more complicated then necessary. Once, I was in the middle of making chicken and dumplings and got to feeling very sick rather suddenly. The kids were hungry and wanting their supper so I called him in there just to shred the chicken and put it in the dumplings –that’s all there was left to do.
I’ll never forget eating chicken and dumplings with perfectly cubed one inch squares of chicken in it. It was – odd. No telling how long it took him to do that. Bless his heart.
Donna Oh yes, it was so good. I froze the leftovers and sent it with my in laws back to Georgia. Not to sound too selfish, but I’m kinda regretting doing that now! I sure do want a bowl!
Cara Hey! Thank you so much!!! I hope to keep you happy and coming back for a very long time! Let me know if you have any questions or special requests!
Gratefully,
Christy
Your recipes are great! I keep coming back for seconds!! Love the emails to! Can’t wait to try this one with cornbread!
That looks like good old fashioned Southern comfort food for a cold rainy day. Add some of that cornbread of yours and you have a feast. Yuummmm!
Oh, yum! I have been sick for a week and the only thing that sounds good is warm soup to soothe my sore throat. I am going to tutor my hubs through this recipe so we can have this for supper. Thanks so much! I’ll help him whip up some of the cornbread. He’ll be such a happy camper because he and boys will have it all to themselves!