Chicken Stew

My soup adventures continue...this was SO good.

Chicken Stew

Total prep/cooking time is about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, so this is a good weekend meal.

5 lbs bone in chicken thighs, skin on or off
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (can add more if needed)
6 Tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely minced
6 Tbsp flour
¼ cup cooking sherry (or substitute ¼ cup water with ½ tsp vinegar added)
6 cans chicken broth (the 14 oz size cans)
2 cups whole milk
½ tsp powdered thyme or 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
2 tsp dried tarragon
3 bay leaves
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1 small box frozen spinach

Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large stew pot. Fry the chicken in batches for approximately 10 minutes (five minutes per side). Transfer chicken to a plate and remove the skin. Pour off the chicken fat from the pot and scrape any leftover skin from the bottom of the pan. Leave some brown bits, but try and get most of the chicken skin out.

Add the butter to the pan and melt, add the onion and cook about 7 minutes until the onion is soft. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the sherry and stir, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan into the onions. Add one can of broth slowly while stirring. Add the rest of the chicken broth, milk, thyme, tarragon, bay leaves, and carrots. Nestle the chicken pieces into the stew. Cook until chicken is fully cooked and tender, about one hour. *Add the peas about a half hour into this cooking time. Taste after an hour, season with salt and pepper if needed.

Remove chicken from the pot, take the meat off the bones and discard the bones. Remove the bay leaves, return the chicken meat to the pot. Add the spinach. Heat through, cooking the spinach. If you want the stew thicker (I did) mix three tablespoons corn starch with ½ cup COLD water. Add that mixture to the boiling stew, cook to thicken. Repeat if it’s still not thick enough for you.