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
Chicken Stew
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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Delicious! Thank you. :)
Hi Holly, (I think it’s Holly)
I am an older lady who has had to dump frozen meals because I have edema.These dinners are loaded with salt! So, even tho I am 85 I have had to go back to old fashioned cooking. I love your recipes AND I am learning so much about the finer tips of cooking, ie, browning, thickening, herbs for flavor, etc. As a young person, you are pretty savvy!
So I am starting to make your recipes. I love the photos! I could eat the pictures, they look so good. I used to cook years ago but am rusty.
So thanks again, keep up your good work! I love Spend with Pennies! Virginia.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Virginia! I’m so glad to hear you are enjoying our recipes. Happy cooking! ❤️
Filling and satisfying meal! My husband said it was “ridiculously delicious” and he doesn’t usually go for dishes with so many vegetables :)
I did think it needed a little extra “zing” so I added extra wine AND a splash of vinegar. I suppose that’s just my personal taste. Either way, it’s good hearty comfort food!
Nice, basic recipe, but it tasted a little bland at the end. I added a splash of lemon, about 1/4 cup sour cream, and a tablespoon of horseradish mustard. Did the trick!
You don’t put green beans into a chicken stew useless.
You can definitely leave them out if you prefer!
You can put anything you want in a chicken stew!
We really enjoyed this and it was easy to make. I used 1 1/2 cups of carrots, and 1 1/2 cups of celery. Also, 1 teaspoon table salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper were “to taste” for us.
Just made this and it was great. I wondered why I always prepare beef stew when this is so much better. I added mushrooms and rutabaga. Also sliced garlic with onions, carrots and celery. Will make again. I really like your recipes thank you
Sooooo disappointed. I made two slurrys, one with flour and one with corn starch and simmered the heck out of it and I still have watery soup. I wanted a thick hearty stew.
I am sorry to hear that, Joanne! We recommend adding the slurry at the end and just until it reaches consistency. If over simmered the starch may break down and the soup may thin out again. You can double the slurry if needed, but we haven’t found it necessary.
I’m making this right now. I’m going to dust the chicken in a bag, flour, tiny bit of salt.
I’m using a crock pot so I’ve tripled all ingredients. I’m also using diced chicken breast.
This is my second attempt of making stew. I made beef stew about three weeks ago and it was wonderful.
I like stew with a thick sauce. I added a little more baking powder to make a slurry. Also Bay leaves only four for the crock pot.
Let us know how it turns out for you, Patrick!
So glad you put down the chicken weight of 1.5 lbs for your 8 thighs. My 8 thighs are 6.5lbs ☺️
was looking for something new to try using chicken since it’s cheap and I’m pretty poor. this is simple, inexpensive and delicious. I made it exactly as the recipe instructed and my family went wild! definitely keeping this one on the dinner rotation.
This is a good recipe. It generated a lovely stew with my alterations in seasoning and thickening at the end. Really the only thing I did much different was to create a flour and butter ball with equal parts of flour and butter and mix that in at the end. I served with homemade biscuits and my kids loved it. Thank you for the guidance.
This soup looks fantastic! can I use frozen boneless chicken breasts in this recipe, or do they have to be thawed?
I would thaw the chicken first!
I added some frozen corn and some cayenne and it was absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to make this again. Such a perfect recipe.
I used spinach instead of beans and added it at the end with cream. I also used left over roasted fingerling potatoes and added at the end as well. This recipe was easy and didn’t take very long to make.
I have made this recipe several times, as presented, and I keep coming back to it. It is wonderful, thank you!
This is hands down my favorite go-to recipe. It’s easy and lends itself to adjusting to whatever might be in the kitchen. I toss in all kinds of winter veggies, whatever I have and it’s always a hit. Thank you so much!
An excellent recipe absolutely delicious!. I am an very good cook entertained at US Embassies around the world!This recipe surpassed any other recipe for chicken stew! Thanks!
Are these fresh herbs? They look like it in the picture but one of the comments said they are dried.
You can use whatever you prefer or have on hand, Pam. We used dried herbs in the stew and fresh for garnish on top.
Wow!! Really, really good. I love coming across recipes that end up in the ‘keeper’ category, and this one certainly does. Even my fussy, picky husband of 46 years liked it! One thing I did differently is that I brined the chicken for about an hour before I started cooking. This is a great recipe. Thanks!