Hello! Wow what a winter it has been! (Or rather a really long fall) Is it just me or did winter not get cold here in SC? The one day it did get cold brought me back to growing up on my grandparent's farm. Meme raises chickens, Papa sticks to watermelons. Every spring the hens would hatch a whole slew of baby chicks, and inevitably there were a handful of extra roosters we didn't need. By the fall, when it started to cool down, we'd have Stewed chicken. I'm quite proud to say this soccer mom knows how to snap a chicken's neck and pluck and clean her own poultry! Take that corperate chicken farms! Anyone who doesn't know: Roosters over 4 weeks old are tough as shoe leather to eat. The only way to cook them is to stew'em. And since I come from a proud heritage of farmers we've had the Stew chicken recipe for generations. This recipe was passed from my great grandmother to Meme to my mom and finally it has come to me! You can adjust it to feed the number of people you want to feed just by adjusting the pieces of chicken in the pot. The best part is it's really hard to mess up. The only thing is you'd better not call it Chicken stew...It is Stewed Chicken and anything else is just crass.
You will first need to figure out how many people you will be serving.....Any crowd less than that figure 1 piece of chicken to every 2 people (not counting the wings)
And a little side note: this recipe does not work very well in a crock pot, It requires a little babysitting.
Second side note: DO NOT USE BONELESS SKINLESS CHICKEN!!!! It will NOT turn out right. You will be able to remove the bones and skin after the stew is finished but you will NOT be able to touch it until I say so, OK? OK! Now....
Here's how it goes:
Stewed Chicked- recipe written will be to serve 15+
In a Large stewing pot-
-1 Whole stewing hen/rooster cut into pieces and put back into the pot (every single piece, even the back bone...don't make that face at me, just do it!)
-add enough water to cover all the pieces of chicken by at least 2 inches
-Salt/pepper (we use a TON of pepper. You can use whatever you like)
-If the organs are included in your hen add them
-Boil......and boil....and boil....
I usually let it go at a medium boil for about 30 minutes before checking on it.
At the 30 minute mark check water level and fill it back up to the 2 inch mark
Give it a taste. make sure there's not too much salt. (if there is throw a whole peeled potato in the pot - the potato will absorb the extra salt and you can remove the potato later)
Toss 3 or 4 eggs in the pot - we're gonna let them hard boil
Make sure it comes back to a boil and let it go for another 15 minutes.
At the 15 minute mark check the water level again. It's ok it it drops from this point on, as long as the salt isn't too much, cause we want the sauce to thicken.
Turn the heat down to a simmer.
Take out your eggs. Peel and chop them finely and add them back to the pot.
Fish out the bones. They sould have parted from the meat by now. If not take out the meat, and pick it from the bones. (you can now toss out the bones)
You can also take out the organs and chop them finely and toss them back in the pot. Don't you dare throw them out! That's really good flavor right there!
Now is a good time to add any additional flavors you want. I usually throw a teesy bit of garlic in there and some chopped dried onions.
Add 3 tablespoons of flour and 1/2 cup if milk and let it simmer for 10 minutes (be careful to not let the flour clump- that's nasty)
Serve this over rice. Although I don't advocate overly processed products my Meme would kill me if I said to serve it over anything except Uncle Ben's. (You do what you want, but this is an Uncle Ben's moment for me)
Now just sit back and absorb the yummy creamy goodness that is Stewed Chicken and day dream about that free-range chicken farm I've been dying to get started.....Ahhh... bliss!
