Let’s make mouth watering chicken stew

The must-have chicken stew

Are you an Indian foodie like me? I love cooking, it has been my passion ever since I was a child and I enjoy sharing my experimental recipes with my friends and family. Now that I have started my own blog, I would love to share my passion with you, along with some tips and tricks to make cooking easier and the dishes tastier. Today, I am going to explain the process of making a lip-smacking, irresistible chicken stew.

Chicken stew is definitely an important dish that you will see in Kerala during festivals and events. There is no event cuisine without some form of the stew added into it. And the best part of the dish is that it is so easy to make this dish.

Chicken stew is a favourite dish in my family, and everyone loves it for breakfast, and thoroughly relishes it when I make it for dinner. Chicken stew is a nostalgic dish for me, I learnt how to make the dish from my mother. She also taught me some of her tips to make the dish special.

My kids love chicken, and I always try to experiment with chicken, trying different varieties and recipes. I have shared some of them through my cooking videos malayalam channel, Kalavara.

But when I am in a hurry, and would like to prepare something simple without much effort, I prefer to make a simple stew. It would give my family a wholesome dish made with vegetables. Throw in some chicken and you have a protein and veggie infused side dish that no mom would resist making. Chicken is often a comfort food for me, and making the chicken stew really sums up my cooking task for the morning in a matter of minutes.

The combination of succulent chicken, and the aroma of it getting cooked with the traditional Kerala spices makes it irresistible for everyone. If you are finding it difficult to get your kids to have their breakfast every day, I suggest this dish. It would not only appeal to them, but would also be a wholesome meal. It would give them the energy and strength they need for the whole day.

I am sure that the chicken stew is a favourite side dish among all non-vegetarians, making it an integral one among Kerala recipes Malayalam. It is economical too because it can be made with a few ingredients and of course, with chicken you always have that healthy dose of protein.

Cooking always had a calming effect on me. And on mornings when it is cold and raining outside, preparing a soup or a stew just feels right. Stews and soups are considered energising and healthy side dishes suitable for everyone; yummy, nutritious and easy to prepare. These piping hot preparations are indispensable using cold winter months and a comfort food at other times. Of all the stew preparations, the stew, with some non-veg additions, makes a comforting and hearty dish. And so here I am going to make chicken stew in Kalavara, my Kerala Style Cooking Recipes channel, and explain how we can do it easily.

That said, wouldn’t you like to know how the stew came to be popular among Malayalam cooking recipes? A little history of how the dish came to Kerala would be just about right here.

A little history of the dish

The stew is really an ancient dish. It is believed that the classic chicken stew originated from Portugal. The stew was an integral part of Portuguese cuisine. Some claim that the stew was founded in Japan during the Jōmon period, but I am not sure if this is true. If you check online, you will see different stories. But one thing was for sure. In the olden days, the stew was considered a sustaining dish where a combination of two or more ingredients simmered in a liquid and cooked to perfection.

And in Kerala, the dish was popularised by the Syrian Christian families and eventually this spread to other cultures too, becoming a very important one among nadan cooking malayalam recipes.

Now to the making of the chicken stew

I am going to explain the easiest and tastiest way to prepare a stew for breakfast. There are plenty of ways in which the stew can be prepared because you can try various ingredients apart from the ones I am mentioning. You can try it in a way that seems convenient to you.
For the chicken stew, it would be ideal if you could get boneless chicken for this dish.

In my recipe here, I have explained the preparation of the chicken stew, and the ingredients you can add. Yes, you can add any veggies of your choice, but ideally, the dish is prepared using two ingredients, potato and carrot, apart from, of course, chicken. You can always tailor the stew to your liking and make it unique.

In this recipe, I started by marinating the chicken first, and then prepared the gravy for the stew, using potato and carrot.

I prefer to marinate the chicken first, and I leave it marinated for about 30 minutes since it would help release maximum flavour into the gravy. I used just salt and pepper to marinate the chicken. While the chicken was marinating I prepared the carrots and the potato for the gravy.

I started preparing the dish by sauteing the fresh spices first, in a kadai. The addition of Kerala spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf adds to the special twist to the stew.

I just love the aroma of fresh spices as they get roasted in coconut oil. Once the spices were roasted, I added one big onion (cut into small pieces), five green chilis ( 3 raw and 2 ripe) slit vertically and three-fourth teaspoon of salt. No need to overcook this. Now add some curry leaves. Once the onion is cooked well, you can add the marinated chicken. If you are in a rush, you can add raw meat, but marinating the chicken at least 30 minutes before the preparation will make it tender and soft.

Be careful here because all you need to do is to let the pink colour of the chicken change. Once the colour has changed, you can add a medium sized potato and a small carrot into the kadai.

To this add one and half teaspoon lemon juice. Lemon juice adds to that extra twist and flavour of the dish. Close the lid and let it cook in flow flame for five minutes.

When the ingredients are getting cooked I will add the second pressed coconut milk for the gravy. And when the ingredients are all cooked well, just add the first pressed coconut milk, and that’s it. The recipe is done and the dish ready to eat.

This is just how I usually make it for my family. Of course, you can swap the chicken with other meat items like beef, mutton or just add more veggies like paneer or green peas. You can try your own variations of the stew by making it thicker or creamier with cornflour, but I usually make it with coconut milk because I find that tastier.

Here’s one thing I wish to share with you:

I have seen people adding tomatoes to the stew. That is perfectly fine if you want to have a reddish tint to your dish. But I prefer not to add tomatoes. You can add diced tomatoes or even tomato paste if you wish, but that’s perfectly a personal choice. Try both ways and you can see which appeals to you.

The stew is a very interesting dish, and a wholesome one, especially when you are rushing to work after your kitchen chores. It is a quick and simple one to make when you have a hard day at work, and want to prepare something easy, wholesome and filling for the whole family.

If you feel that getting the coconut milk part of this recipe is too time consuming, you can buy either coconut cream or coconut milk powder, mix it with water and then add it to the dish.

You can add two cups of hot water to the coconut milk powder and mix them well to get ‘second pressed milk’. You can decide on the consistency of the coconut milk and add the powder accordingly. You can do the same for getting ‘first pressed milk’, but with less amount of water.

Here are some tips you can add to make your chicken stew yummier:

If you have chicken stock, you can add that to the dish to add flavour. It will give a wonderful depth of flavour, making it irresistible.
It is always best to go for boneless chicken cut into large cubes. This is because chicken or any other meat for that matter will shrink about 25% when they are cooked.
I have crushed a few potato pieces to thicken the gravy. This was because I didn’t want to add cornflour and gum up the stew with too much starch.
Add the potato and carrot about 20 minutes before the stew is done. Your stew will be done when the veggies are tender.
Adding lemon juice will spice up the dish and give it that much needed tinge to your palette.
The addition of Kerala spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf adds to the special twist to the stew.

These are a few things I noted during my preparation so thought I would share them with you.So now that your chicken stew is ready, you can serve them with appam, idiyappam or bread. My family likes the stew with their palappams and there is definitely no fuss at home during chicken stew mornings.

You can make small changes to my Kerala recipes Malayalam, and make them your go-to recipes as well. Share your comments after trying this recipe because I would like to know your thoughts.

chicken stew

The must-have chicken stew

A little history of the dish

Now to the making of the chicken stew

Here’s one thing I wish to share with you:

Here are some tips you can add to make your chicken stew yummier:

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Never Miss a Recipe!

The must-have chicken stew

A little history of the dish

Now to the making of the chicken stew

Here’s one thing I wish to share with you:

Here are some tips you can add to make your chicken stew yummier:

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Never Miss a Recipe!