Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew

I, Heidi S. Quinn, am responsible for the content of MANY THINGS. Email me at heidi.quinn@comcast.net.

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Like all stews, there are a variety of ways to approach ingredients. The key to this stew is the sweet potatoes... they add a sweetness that is uncommon to most stews. You can double, triple, quadruple, etc... depending on the numbers you are feeding. Everything is to taste... you can even remove the chicken and use vegetable broth for a meatless dish. (There isn't a vegetable broth sold in the stores that I find palable. If you're using vegetable broth, I suggest making your own, using a recipe from www.epicurious.com.)

Put the family to work helping you cut up the vegetables and chicken before you get started. Having everything ready ahead of time makes cooking move along quickly.

Serves 6 as written

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
2 pounds plus 3 ounces chicken legs & breast meat ( boned and skinned), cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 sticks celery, finely sliced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Small handful of fresh thyme leaves, picked from the sprigs
2 tablespoons flour

2 Tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large pkg sliced mushrooms
1 wineglass white wine or vermouth (I use vermouth)

1 cup chicken broth
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup chopped fresh Basil leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a dutch oven, add the olive oil and butter. Add the chicken, leeks, carrots, celery, sweet potato, and thyme and cook slowly on the stove for 15 minutes. Make sure the chicken is cooked. (If you are making the recipe bigger, do the chicken first, then remove from the oven and cook the vegetables. When the veggies are cooked, add the chicken back in.)

While you're doing that, in a different saucepan, add the second 2 Tbsp of butter and heat it up. Add the garlic and mushrooms, and saute until the mushrooms are brown (@ 5 minutes). Add the white wine and let it absorb/boil away. Add to the dutch oven with the chicken and veggies.

Turn the heat up on the dutch oven, add the flour, and cook for one minute. Add the broth and milk and stir to thicken. (Use more broth if it's not wet enough for your taste.) Add the chopped basil leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve.