Our Family’s Southern Chicken Stew
Warm, rich, and bursting with flavor, this Southern Chicken Stew has earned its place as a family classic! We’re talking chicken, corn, potatoes, and tomatoes, all slow-simmered in a broth so good you’ll want to mop it up with one of my Southern Cathead Biscuits. It’s simple to prepare, easy to customize, and perfect for feeding a crowd.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Southern Chicken Stew
- Serves: 4
- Main Ingredients: chicken, onions, water, canned tomatoes, potatoes, sugar, frozen or canned whole kernel corn, butter
- Why You'll Love It: Featuring tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and chicken, this flavorful and hearty southern chicken stew recipe is a firm family favorite.
How do you make Southern chicken stew?
Cook a whole chicken in 7 cups of water, then shred the meat and skim the broth. Simmer 6 diced potatoes in a cup of the broth until tender and mash them slightly. Add corn, chopped onions, 4 cups canned tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper to the broth and simmer 20 minutes, then stir in the potatoes and chicken and simmer uncovered at least 45 minutes. Finish with 2 tablespoons of butter.
The Chicken Stew That’s Been in Our Family for Decades
Originally published in a 1974 issue of Good Housekeeping, this Southern chicken stew recipe has stood the test of time. It’s been a staple for our family meals, gatherings, and cozy nights in for as long as I can remember, and is often served alongside my Deep South Buttermilk Cornbread. You really just can’t beat the hearty mix of tender chicken, potatoes, and a flavorful broth, which makes it both satisfying and versatile.
This stew is so straightforward that 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, much like my Cozy Potato Corn Chowder, can be easily stretched by adding more potatoes. A double batch keeps a warm, homemade meal on hand all week. And did I mention that it’s budget-friendly too? Honestly, the more you learn about this stew, the better it gets!
Ingredients
- Bone-in chicken breast (pre-cooked or rotisserie works too)
- Onions
- Canned tomatoes (or fresh diced tomatoes if that’s what you have!)
- Potatoes
- Sugar
- Frozen or canned corn (whole kernel)
- Butter
- Salt & pepper
Tips Before You Get Started
- For a little kick, try serving your stew with hot sauce on the side. Or, if you like it spicy, just toss in a teaspoon of paprika or a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning before you let it simmer!
- Feel free to bulk it up with more veggies! I love throwing in a cup of frozen peas or green beans when I add the corn. You can also add diced carrots, bell pepper, or celery. Whatever you’ve got in the fridge works great.
- To make this in a crockpot, cover the chicken and cook on low for 6-8 hours, adding the potatoes and onions a couple of hours in. Once the chicken is tender, pull it out and shred it, remove the potatoes as usual, then add everything back in. Cook on high for a couple more hours until it’s all warmed through.
How to Make Southern Chicken Stew
1. Cook the Chicken
In a Dutch oven, cover the whole chicken with water and cook it over medium heat until the thickest part of the breast hits 165°F (74°C) on an instant-read thermometer.
Once it’s done, take the chicken out of the broth and let it cool for a bit. Don’t throw out that broth – you’ll need it later!
2. Cook the Potatoes
Peel and dice your potatoes and onions, then toss them into the reserved broth. Cook everything until the potatoes are nice and tender.
3. Shred the Chicken
While the potatoes are cooking, go ahead and pull the chicken meat off the bones and give it a good shred.
4. Mash the Potatoes
Once the potatoes are very soft, scoop out about a coffee cup’s worth and mash them up with a fork. Stir the mashed potatoes back into the Dutch oven, then add in your shredded chicken.
Note: We’re only mashing a portion of the potatoes here, not all of them. The mashed potatoes help thicken the stew, while the remaining whole potatoes add a hearty texture. It’s the best of both worlds!
5. Add Ingredients & Simmer
Next, add your can of tomatoes, then add in the corn.
Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the sugar.
Let everything simmer slowly with the lid off for about 45 minutes.
6. Add Butter & Serve
Just before serving, stir in the butter. Adding butter just before serving makes for a creamy, velvety texture.
Time to serve up this hearty stew! We love soaking it up with our 2-Ingredient Easy Homemade Biscuits. Enjoy!
Storage
This Southern chicken stew recipe refrigerates and freezes really well. You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave.
Southern Chicken Stew FAQs
You sure can! I would just recommend adding in some chicken bouillon cubes to your water to make sure your chicken broth is rich enough.
The secret to better chicken stew is all about layering flavors! While this recipe doesn’t call for it, one way to boost the flavor is by searing your chicken thighs in the Dutch oven first to get a beautiful golden crust, then deglaze the pot to pick up all those tasty browned bits from the bottom. Then you’d add your broth and cook your onions and potatoes from there.
Saltine crackers, some buttery cornbread, or homemade drop biscuits are some of my top choices! Honestly, nothing beats dunking a warm, buttery biscuit into a hearty bowl of stew. If you’re looking for something a little lighter on the side, I’d also recommend throwing together an easy Greek salad.
I hope this stew warms your heart as much as it does ours! Rate it below and tell me how you made it your own.
Southern Chicken Stew
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 in water until done.1 chicken, 7 cups water
- Remove the chicken from the broth and discard its skin. Separate the meat from the bones, then shred the meat. Skim off as much fat from the broth as possible.
- Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in a covered saucepan until done. 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, 5 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons pepper
- Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and chicken pieces, then 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
Christy, I made this recipe a couple of years ago. It just didn’t turn out great. We ate it, but the flavors just didn’t come together. For some reason, two weeks ago I decided to try it again. This time it turned out wonderfully! It made a gallon of stew and it’s just my husband and me, so we ate a LOT of it. I froze some of it and have been heating it up for lunch, finished the last bowl of it today! I made it according to the recipe both times, so I have no idea why I experienced such different results, but I loved it and it’s now on my short list of favorite soups. So glad I decided to give the recipe a second try.
I made this in my crock pot. Cooked on low for 8 hours & it came out fantastic. I used boneless skinless breasts & chicken bone broth I had made a few days prior. Added white & red onion, Yukon & purple potatoes, but followed the rest of the recipe to a T. My daughter made fresh cornbread to go with and we served with warm butter and honey. Big hit!
Oh that sounds fabulous!!!
Omg!! I made this and didnt change a thing.it is the best stew I’ve ever made.I love trying new recipes and I love stew best of all.so therefore.I have made several stews, none touches this one….wow!!!! Delicious. ….my two girls whom are picky and my husband loved it as well.its a keeper for sure……they have requested it again four days later after we had this the first time..8>] thats how wonderful it is..yum..thanks a million. I love your site and want your cook books so bad….
I am so glad to hear it was such a big hit!!!
OMG, The best recipe ever and I think my grandmother probably got the same recipe years ago because this is how she always made hers. We like serving ours with cheddar cheese and crackers, or a grilled cheese sandwich! oh and a hunk of onion . Im making this when im off this weekend.
This was delicious!!! Thank you so much!! Im alwas looking for new ideas as I am pregnant and need to keep trying new things or I get sick of the same type of thing over and over. I learned a lot about cooking a whole chicken with this and this has helped expand my cooking repertoire even more. Plus me and my hubby loved it!!!
So glad you liked it Kathryn!! When are you due??
I’m so sorry to be a naysayer, but I made this stew yesterday and didn’t like it. Objectively, it tasted “good” but I just don’t like the taste of tomatoes in things unless they are more masked.
The recipe makes A LOT. I did not want to waste it. Therefore, today, I sauteed some onions, garlic, chopped red pepper, and andouille chicken sausage. I added oregano and cumin and then some chili powder and topped that off with two cans of great northern white beans. It was quite thick, but I added about a 1/2 cup of beer and it was a delicious chili which I plan to freeze for future meals. I sprinkled the chili with chopped cilantro. It will be great on rice or by itself with some grated cheese.
That doesn’t make you a naysayer, it just makes you someone who like different tastes 🙂 Glad you got creative and made it work for you!:)
So I decided to make this stew last Friday for a coworker who’s recently had surgery, and I wanted to make enough to have some for myself so I doubled the batch, thinking it would be just enough. Man, I was so wrong – I’m not sure how much it actually made, but I think I have gallons of soup still in my freezer. I’ve been eating soup all week! The great thing is that it just keeps getting better as it sits in the fridge. I had shredded five medium-sized chicken breast, used two onion soup mixes for flavoring, as I had no onions, and simmered both cauliflower and potatoes in the soup broth and whipped those to thicken it a bit. While the stew is still a little thicker than I prefer, it is excellent! The thinner broth really complements the brightness of the corn. I also chopped up some carrots and threw them in, because what’s a stew without carrots? Thanks for the recipe, Christy! Lots of love from Alaska!
I meant the stew’s thinner! It’s all this heat, it’s melted my brain… 🙂