Chicken Stew is a delicious meal with chicken, potatoes and sweet potatoes, onions and carrots. It’s all simmered in a rich seasoned chicken broth until tender. It’s one of our all time favorite meals (along with beef stew)!
A recipe like this chicken stew is a meal unto itself… full of protein, healthy carbs and veggies. We serve it with a salad or Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits to sop up anything left in the bowl. It’s true chicken soup perfection.
Chicken soups are truly the ultimate comfort food from Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup to belly warming Chicken Rice Soup. This easy chicken stew fits the bill perfectly.
How To Make Chicken Stew
This simple chicken stew recipe is fully loaded with tender chicken and vegetables simmered in a deliciously seasoned broth! I use thighs because they tend to hold up better to the simmering but breasts can work well in this recipe too!
If you’re using chicken breasts, I would suggest browning the chunks and then adding in the last 20 minutes or so. If you have other veggies you love (root vegetables are especially great) add them in!
- Brown chicken at a high temp. No need to cook it through, you just want the caramelization and flavor.
- Soften onions/carrots/celery and add flour (to thicken a bit).
- Add broth, herbs and veggies. Homemade chicken stock or store bought work just fine.
- Simmer.
Crazy easy right? I add a bit of heavy cream at the end to make this chicken stew just a little bit creamy. You can skip the cream if you prefer or add extra if you’d like.
How To Thicken Chicken Stew
Sweet potatoes are a great addition to this hearty chicken stew recipe and they do soften quite a bit, this helps thicken it. The flour added at the beginning will thicken this chicken stew but you can certainly thicken it more if you’d like!
You can use a mixture of either cornstarch or flour with broth or water. I find cornstarch is less likely to be lumpy but flour tends to reheat/freeze better so the choice is yours! You can also add instant potatoes to thicken a little bit at a time.
How To Make a Slurry
Combine 2 tablespoons flour with 1 cup of water or broth (I prefer broth) and shake very well. Pour the slurry a little at a time into the boiling chicken stew while stirring. Once your stew is thickened, allow it to boil for a couple of minutes.
You’ll want to make sure your flour mixture has no lumps before you add it, I use a shaker jar or mason jar and shake really well.
Can You Freeze Chicken Stew?
Chicken Stew can be frozen! If you plan on freezing it, I’d suggest using flour as a thickener (not cornstarch) as it will have a better consistency. I personally freeze in individual servings because they defrost faster and I can take out as many as I need to serve.
More Chicken Soup Recipes You’ll Love
- Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
- Easy Chicken Taco Soup
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup (no cream)
- Chicken Barley Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs about 8 thighs, diced 1-inch
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 carrots diced
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour divided
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ¼ teaspoon ground sage
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 ½ cups diced potatoes peeled if using russets or baking potatoes
- 1 ½ cups diced sweet potatoes peeled
- ½ red bell pepper finely diced
- ¼ cup white wine
- 4 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
- 1 cup green beans cut into 1-inch pieces, or frozen peas, thawed
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- In a large pot or dutch oven, brown chicken in 1 tablespoon olive oil (it doesn't have to be cooked through). Remove from pot and set aside.
- Cook onion, carrot and celery in remaining olive oil for about 3 minutes or until onion is slightly softened. Stir in 3 tablespoons of flour, seasonings and salt & pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes.
- Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, red pepper, white wine, browned chicken and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
- Remove lid and stir in green beans and cream. Thicken if desired (below) and simmer an additional 10 minutes uncovered.
- To thicken: In a mason jar combine remaining 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup water or broth. Shake very well (ensure there are no lumps) and add a little at a time to boiling stew to reach desired consistency.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Main Course, Soup
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Wow. Bombdiggity, as it were. One of the best online recipes that I’ve attempted. I used breast tenders. I bet thighs are even better.
So happy you enjoyed it, Wes! We think it’s the bomb diggity too! :)
I have made this several times. It’s one of our favorites. Usually use milk instead of heavy cream and use cornstarch to thicken since I don’t freeze it. I have used Poultry seasoning as it contains the others but it is better with the separate spices. I use dried sage and thyme and fresh rosemary as that is what I have.
Hello, how many quarts is the pot you used?
Hi Brad, this pot is about 3.5 quarts.
Do you have to use fresh herbs? Or would dried ones work as well?
Dried herbs would still work. You can find out how to substitute dried for fresh herbs here.
This smells and tasted sooo good! I didn’t have celery but had everything else. Definitely a keeper! It’s easy and quick and perfect for those chilly nights. Thank you!
An amazing recipe made it today but used Turkey breast instead of chicken everyone loved it
This chicken stew is sooooo delicious! I made it for dinner tonight and my only substitute was half & half instead of cream. My husband said, “Save that recipe!!” I sure will!! :)
Just happened to have all the ingredients on hand! This came out great!!
Excellent! I used homemade broth that I put in the freezer which made this super easy. Also, used two frozen chicken breasts and threw them in the cooking broth. I took them out and chopped them after 15 min. – plenty of chicken. Thank you! This is a keeper!
This really is delicious. We used fresh green beans. I think next time I will put in a tad more of each seasoning and see how it comes out. Served it with homemade bread and butter and it was really so good!
Just Outstanding!!!! Tastes like it it was cooked by a gourmet chef!!!!!
Hi…did you use fresh green beans?
Hi Maggie, you can use fresh or frozen green beans in this recipe.
Hi ,
If using fresh green beans, do you still throw them in near the end?
If the green beans are uncooked they’ll need a bit longer to cook, I would let them simmer about 15-20 minutes.
My kids are picky eaters, however this is one of thier favourite meals! Thank you!
Amazing recipe! Everyone loved it. You should make it at least once.
I made this recipe on today and tweaked it a little, added seared cut up chicken breast cooked my veggies red & orange sweet peppers, celery , onions,carrots,made my slurry using low sodium chicken broth, 2tablsp flour mixed with 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch and ranch dressing yogurt added parsley flakes, thyme s&p, added petite baby potatoes, simmered . The Best tasting Chicken Stew!
So delicious! I left out the wine and used half and half instead of heavy cream. It smelled so good when it was cooking I kept wishing for time to go faster. Think this maybe my favorite new recipe.
I want to try this. Do you have to add wine…..is there a substitute? Thanks
You can leave the wine out and just use broth if you’d prefer!
Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll try it.
❤️
I love great, new recipes!
This recipe is so yummy! I used fresh thyme instead of dried and may have added more white wine than what the recipe calls for, but it was still awesome. I didn’t make any dumplings but rather used fresh baguette or french bread. I teared the bread into bite size pieces and placed it at the bottom of the bowl and then poured the stew on top of it. Heavenly bliss……. Definitely going to make this again!
I’m going to make this today!