Our Family’s Southern Chicken Stew Recipe
Featuring tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and chicken, this flavorful and hearty southern chicken stew recipe is a firm family favorite.
This Southern Chicken Stew is a must-try. Rich, comforting, and packed with flavor, it’s a dish that quickly becomes a household favorite. It’s simple to prepare, easy to customize, and perfect for feeding a crowd.
Originally published in a 1974 issue of Good Housekeeping, this recipe has stood the test of time. It’s a staple for family meals, gatherings, and cozy nights in. The hearty combination of tender chicken, potatoes, and a flavorful broth makes it both satisfying and versatile.
Once you’ve made it a couple of times, you’ll likely have the recipe memorized. It stores well in the fridge, freezes beautifully, and can be easily stretched by adding more potatoes. A double batch ensures a warm, homemade meal is always on hand for the week. This budget friendly, hearty meal is going to be your new favorite!
What You’ll Need to Make Southern Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- potatoes
- whole chicken
- crushed tomatoes
- corn
- onion
- salt
- black pepper
- sugar
- butter
How to Make Southern Chicken Stew
In a dutch oven, cover the whole chicken with water and cook over medium heat until it the thickest part of the breast registers 165°F (74°C) on an instant read thermometer. When done, remove the chicken from the broth and set it aside to cool a bit. Reserve broth. You can 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 the potatoes and onions.
Add diced onions and potatoes to the reserved broth. Cook until the potatoes are tender.
While the potatoes are cooking, remove the chicken meat from the bones and shred.
When the potatoes are very soft, remove approximately a coffee cup’s worth. With a fork, mash these potatoes in the cup.
Add the mashed potatoes back into the dutch oven.
Then add the .
Next, add the can of crushed tomatoes. You can use diced tomatoes or even fresh garden tomatoes in place of the crushed tomatoes.
Next add salt and pepper.
Finally, add the sugar. Sugar acts to enhance flavor and offset the acidity of the tomatoes.
Simmer slowly with the lid off for about forty-five minutes.
Just before serving, stir in the butter. Adding butter just before serving makes for a creamy, velvety texture.
Ladle stew into bowls and serve. 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.
Notes on Making Southern Chicken Stew
- Serve Southern Chicken Stew with saltine or oyster 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.
- You can use chicken that is already cooked and shredded (rotisserie chicken works well), but you will need to use chicken stock to cook the vegetables.
- If you want to make Southern Chicken Stew in a crockpot, cover and cook the chicken on low for 6-8 hours, add the potatoes and onions a couple of hours into cooking. When chicken is cooked and tender, remove from crockpot and shred, remove the potatoes as instructed above and then add everything back to the crockpot and cook on high for a couple of hours or until warmed through.
More Stew Recipes You’ll Love
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
I use the same recipe every year I have to google your blog every time. Im from South Carolina but my husband and I are stationed in Texas, and tomorrow is actually going to be a cold day here. Making my first pot of the season freezing some and saving it for him when he comes home from deployment. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
Rebecca, where in tx are you stationed? I’m making this today in Wichita falls
Wow me too!! Have lived in wichita falls for ten years but my family has lived here forever!! Made this today and it was wonderful!
Just made this! I added some mozzzarella on top so gooooooooooooood later ill probably eat it with a small bed of rice 🙂
I am so glad you enjoyed it Allexis!!
try adding some baby lima beans to this recipe. My mother and grandmother made this when I was a kid..I am 74 and I still make it now!!!
Thanks for sharing your tip Frank!!
This delicious!
Trust her on the sugar amount! It does something that adds to this stew!
Best I have ever had.
I’m making this tonight! I have made chicken stew maybe once in my married life and it wasn’t hearty at all the way I remember my papa’s being. So this morning I googled “Southern Chicken Stew” and yours was the first that popped up. It looks so much like what I remember eating on Sunday’s growing up. What’s even more comforting is my husband and I are from North Alabama as well, though we currently live in Southern GA for the next couple of years. It always feels nice to find a little bit of home when you’re so far away.
A bit of home is always a nice thing isn’t it Victoria! I hope you enjoy the stew, I can’t wait to hear if you like it!
I loved it! It’s nearly identical to what I grew up eating!
I am so glad to hear that Victoria!!
Can you do this recipe in a crock pot? I don’t have a large pot to cook on the stove. If so, how long would you cook the chicken? And on high/low?
I did this just this past weekend. What I did was put my chicken in the slow cooker, covered in water, before I went to bed. I cooked it all night on low. Then in the morning, I removed the chicken and set it aside to cool a bit. Added in all other ingredients and gave it a good stir and let it cook on low a few hours. During that time, as soon as my chicken was cool enough to handle I shredded it and added that in, too.
It will be done in about 4 hours on low, half that if on high, but you can easily just put it on low and let it cook all day til supper 🙂
Christy, I grew up in Lauderdale County, and “Chicken Stews” were always prepared at holidays (even 4th of July) at schools and sold as money makers for the school. I can remember my daddy going to Wilson School and helping prepare huge pots. (I think they cooked it in big old iron pots like they used in the “old days.” People from the community would bring gallon jars to fill and eat on holidays. Such happy memories!
Oh WOW!! What great memories!!