Meat & Poultry

Ultimate Trinbagonian Stew Chicken.

trini recipes stew chickenIf you’ve been reading the blog or getting the weekly recipes sent to you directly you’ll know that I’ve been tagging some recipes as being “Ultimate” (Ultimate Curry Goat | Ultimate Curry Chicken), so today I’ll like to add another classic dish to the “Ultimate” series.

I think it was about 4 years ago and we were on the French side of St Maarten for the day. We had booked an all-day beach getaway with a brief tour of the island. It was about 11 am and we had already done the island tour and we had a 1 hr break in Marigot at one of the craft markets before heading off to the beach to spend the day. Our daughters were already getting bored (they hate tourist traps) and according to them..STARVING! As we walked around looking for something for them to eat, they noticed one of the restaurants had  a huge sign up with their daily specials and a stew chicken platter was one of the featured items. Yup! They had found their own little shangrila! They were soon very disappointed and mad at me (don’t ask me why), as it turned out that the restaurant was only just serving breakfast and the lunch dinner menu would not be open until another couple hours. If only steupes (kiss teeth) could kill, that poor girl who told them that, would be dead on the spot. You couldn’t even force feed our daughters croissants even if their lives depended on it. Yea, that was a pretty grumpy day after that. I think their taste buds had already made reservations only to be canceled by the talk of breakfast and croissants.

In this “stew” we’ll be trying to  only use fresh ingredients to truly get that “ultimate” taste at the end, so you’ll notice that I didn’t opt to use some of my already prepared green seasoning mix.

You’ll Need…

4-5 lbs chicken  – cubed into serving size pieces
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 cloves of garlic – thinly sliced or crushed
1 teaspoon fresh  ginger – crushed/sliced
2 tablespoon vegetable oil (one that can withstand high heat)
1 medium onion – chopped
1 medium tomato – chopped
3 tablespoon cilantro (or shado beni) chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 hot pepper (only if you like your food spicy)
1 green onion or chive (scallion) – chopped
2 sprigs of fresh thyme (1 teaspoon dried)
1 lime or lemon or 3 tablespoons of vinegar
1 small shallot

* If you can get Spanish Thyme (aka podina), use 1-2 medium leaves finely chopped with the seasoning of the chicken.
* CHICKEN – I used a whole chicken that I divided into servings size pieces. I like the mixture of dark and white meat, but if you prefer you can use chicken parts such as legs and/or thighs and if you only eat chicken breast (or chicken chest as it’s commonly called on the islands) as one of my good friends does.. basically it’s your choice. If using chicken breast, it’s important that you allow the seasoned meat to marinate at least 2hours to really infuse the meat and to help prevent it being overly dry when cooked.

TIP :  Leave the ginger in large pieces if you’d like to fish out when the dish is done.

Since I don’t have a separate cutting board for meat and vegetables I usually prepare my seasonings first before getting the chicken all over the board. This simply means chopping the onion, pepper,thyme, shallot, cilantro, tomato, garlic and scallion.

seasoning for stew chicken

The next step is to cut, wash and season the chicken. If you’re lucky enough to have drum sticks and thighs there’s no need for cutting the meat into serving size pieces. In a future video I’ll show you how to divide and part-off a whole chicken. Put the pieces of  chicken in a large bowl, squeeze the lime or lemon juice (or vinegar) on it , then add a couple cups of water and wash. Try to remove as much fat and skin as you can. Rinse with a new batch of water and drain. * The water used in washing the chicken pieces is NOT mentioned in the ingredients list.

Now season by adding everything except the sugar, oil and water mentioned in the ingredients list. Mix thoroughly and allow to marinate for a couple hours in the fridge. For best results, marinate overnight.

trini stew chicken

As we’ve done with other “stew” recipes, it’s now time to brown the meat and not only give it a rich brown colour, but give it it’s truly unique taste. If you use the search box above (providing you’re not reading this from an rss feed) and search for “stew” you’ll find the other recipes. On a medium to high heat, put the oil in a heavy and deep pan to heat. Then add the sugar.. move it around until it starts going liquid. Please have the seasoned meat very close and I recommend you use a long handle spoon to avoid getting burn by the splattering oil when you add the seasoned meat. This is all about timing…  if the sugar is “burned” it will give it a bit of a bitter taste. What you’re looking for is small bubbles, which will then start going a bit frothy and go from light to golden/dark brown (see pics below). As soon as you see this happens (refer to pic) start adding the seasoned chicken a few pieces at a time. Remember to stir constantly to ensure all the pieces gets coated evenly.

how to stew chicken

trini stew chicken recipe

cooking stew chicken

the ultimate stew chicken recipe

After you’ve added all the seasoned meat to the pot, turn down the heat to medium/low, cover and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes. You’ll notice that it will spring some of it’s own natural juices. While this cooks, add the 1 1/2 cups of water to the bowl you had the chicken marinating in. Swish it around to pick up any of the marinade that may be stuck to the bowl. We’ll be using this shortly. Remember to stir the pot every 5 minutes or so.

After about 15 minutes, remove the lid and turn up the heat as it’s time to cook-off all the liquid in the pot and to give the chicken it’s final “brown” colour. This can take about 5 minutes and it’s important that you stir constantly so it does stick to the bottom of the pot. When all the liquid is gone, add the water we’ve had sitting in the bowl. Stir and cook on medium heat for another 20-25 minutes (depending on how thick your pieces of chicken is).

trinidad recipe for stew chicken

trinidad stew chicken

I like my stew chicken with a bit of gravy to pour over rice, but I hate it being to thin. So if after cooking for 2o minutes I find it a bit too runny, I remove the lid and turn up the heat to get it to the consistency I like (basically you’re reducing the liquid by about 75%). Remember to check for salt at the end, in the event you’d like to add a bit more.

how to cook trinidad stew chicken

trinidad stew chicken recipe

And here it is with some brown rice and the water cress salad I shared with you a few days ago.

trini recipes stew chicken

stew chicken with rice

So there you go, the Ultimate Stew Chicken recipe. Now I’m sure many of you may have your own unique way of preparing this dish, so I’d love for you to share your tips in the comment box below. This serves about 5-6 people as a side dish to rice, macaroni pie, roti, ground provisions, macaroni and cheese and even mashed potatoes. Besides rice, I love my with the prepackaged (white) mac and cheese. Trust me on this one.

happy cooking

chris…

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Meat & Poultry

Tasty Trinidad style stew chicken recipe.

Though this recipe was not passed down from my mom, the technique and basic principles I did learn from watching her prepare this amazing dish. Quite honestly, this is my favorite dish and it’s cooked at least once a week at home. Served with sliced avocado, cucumber and tomato on a heaping bed of brown rice. Just thinking about it, makes the greedy juices in my mouth flow.

Though you may have heard that “browning” the meat can be difficult, this is a very simple and easy recipe to follow. With the aid of pictures I’ll show you how easy it is to brown or caramelize the chicken, so everything turns out perfect

You’ll need…
1 (4-5 pounds) whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 cloves of garlic – thinly sliced or crushed
1 teaspoon fresh/bottled ginger – crushed. (use 1/2 if it’s ginger powder)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil (one that can withstand high heat)
1 medium onion – chopped
1 medium tomato – chopped
2-3 tablespoon cilantro (or 2 tbs Trinidad green meat seasoning)
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 hot pepper (only if you like your food spicy)
1 green onion or chive – chopped
2 sprigs of fresh thyme (1 teaspoon dried)
1 lime or lemon or 3 tablespoons of vinegar

Lets get started…

Preparing the chicken. Cut or ask your butcher to cut the chicken into serving size pieces. In a bowl empty the cut chicken and squeeze the lime or lemon (or vinegar) onto the chicken, then add some water from your tap to cover the pieces of chicken. Now wash each piece individually, removing skin and any fat (we’ll try to keep this a bit healthy). Now rinse with a new batch of water and drain.

Now in the same bowl with the freshly washed chicken you’ll add ALL the ingredients EXCEPT the oil, sugar and cup of water, we’ll be using those to cook the chicken. Here’s what it should look like (remember to mix everything around and let it sit (marinate) in the fridge for about 1hr before cooking.

seasoned-chicken-for-stew-chicken

seasoned-chicken-for-trinidad-stewing

FYI, you’ve just seasoned the chicken. After about an hour or so it time to get things moving. It’s best if you could find a solid or heavy pan/pot, like a dutch oven for the actual cooking process. The heavier the pan, the better the oil will heat evenly and the chicken will caramelize for you. On high heat, add the oil to the pan. Just before the oil starts to smoke, add the brown sugar. TIP – be sure to have the seasoned chicken handy, use a long handle spoon (it will get hot) and oven mitts to hold onto the pot to turn the pieces of chicken to get it evenly coated. It’s important that you keep an eye on things and be ready to act fast. Next tip – it can get a bit smoky with the high heat at this point, so you may want to turn the exhaust fan over your stove on or open a window in the event you have smoke detectors installed.

Here’s a pic of adding the sugar to the hot oil.

getting-sugar-ready-for-stew-chicken

Move around the sugar in the pot (remember to use a dry spoon with a long handle), until it starts to melt. Now keep a close eye on things here, since you’re looking for the sugar to go a bit foamy, and change color to golden. See pic below. Notice the bottom left of the picture where the sugar appears a bit darker? That’s the exact color you’re looking for before adding the chicken.

browning-sugar-for-stew-chicken

At this point you can start adding the pieces of chicken into the pot with the caramelized sugar. Try to be quick, since you don’t want the sugar to go much darker than in the picture above. Be sure to coat every piece of chicken so it “browns” evenly. Now cover the pot and let simmer for about 5 -10 minutes. you’ll notice that the pot will now have some excess water in it.

browned-chicken-for-trinidad-stew

Remove the lid and turn the heat back up to high. Let’s get rid of that water that formed earlier.We’re ensuring that all the pieces of meat is nice an golden brown at this point. Ensure that there’s no water left in the pot.. it will seems as if it’s starting to stick or burn.

Now add the cup of water to the bowl that contained the seasoned chicken. Swish it around so you get all the seasoning bits that were left back. Add this water to the pot so you can continue cooking the chicken for another 25 minutes or so. Turn the heat back down to a simmer and let cook until the water thickens up to a nice gravy like consistency.

stew-chicken-recipe

Couple points..

Salt – be sure to taste near the end to add extra salt as to your liking.

Sauce – my mom hates allowing any form of sauce with her stew chicken, she like it to “fry down” so it dry. Makes for a more unique and traditional flavor. But I like to leave it with sauce or gravy so I can put it on a bed of brown rice.

Questions? Leave me a comment below and I’ll try my best to help you as best as I can.

Maybe you have a different version of this recipe? Feel free to submit your recipes – let’s make you a famous online chef 🙂