15/12/2020

Chicken & Vegetable Stew with leftover chicken

Name: Chicken & Vegetable Stew
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 1 litre chicken stock (preferably made with the bones, skin from a roast chicken or use low salt stock cubes); 2 medium onions (roughly chopped); 1 medium parsnip (finely chopped); 2 sticks celery (finely chopped); 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped); 500 g potatoes, peeled (100g finely chopped, 400g in bite sized chunks); 400 g carrots (100g finely chopped, 300g in bite sized chunks); 1 large leek (cut in half from top to bottom. Half finely chopped, half roughly chopped); salt & pepper; 300-400 g leftover roast chicken, skin & bones removed (chopped into bite sized pieces); 120 g frozen peas; 2 tbsp chopped parsley (optional)

Chicken & Vegetable Stew is an economical, delicious way to use up leftover roast chicken.

The equivalent of a couple of chicken legs is enough to feed four people when you add plenty of vegetables and good chicken stock.

To make the stew even more nourishing and tasty, as well as naturally thickening it, I craftily add extra whizzed up veg.

In this post I also show you how to use every last bit of a roasted chicken with zero waste.

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I’ve made this easy but so satisfying Chicken & Vegetable Stew regularly, every Autumn and Winter, for lord knows how many years.

It’s a perennial favourite because, despite the simple ingredients, it packs in an amazing amount of flavour.

THE INSPIRATION: MUM’S STEWS

Growing up, my mum would often make a similar stew.

Sometimes it would be with leftover roasted meat, just like my Chicken & Vegetable Stew.

However, with a household of nine, there was usually very little leftover anything. So, more often, she’d use cheap stewing cuts like scrag end of lamb.

But those stews were so full of flavour and so warming that I think they were always at the back of my mind as my own version developed over the years.

However, there’s one pretty big difference between mum’s stews and mine. And that’s how they’re thickened.

Mum would use a packet soup mix, something like oxtail. Not only do I not want all that maltodextrin, palm oil, emulsifiers and whatnot, but they’re totally unnecessary.

Instead, I use vegetables to thicken and give extra flavour to the stew.

DOUBLE UP THE VEGGIES

You can hopefully see from the images that they are plenty of chunky vegetables in my Chicken & Vegetable Stew.

But what you probably can’t tell is that there are loads more thickening the gravy.

I start the stew off by bubbling chicken stock with onions, celery, garlic and seasoning. Craftily, though, also in there are finely chopped versions of the chunky veg I add later.

For me, that will usually be carrot, leek and potato. I include finely chopped parsnip too, although I don’t include this in my chunky veg as I find the flavour too strong in larger pieces.

When the veggies are really soft, I go in with my stick blender and whizz everything together until almost smooth. And that’s the base for the stew. Neat eh?

All that’s left to do then is add chunks of veg and cook until tender. The leftover chicken, plus handy frozen peas, are put in near the end to heat through.

As you can see, the stew is really simple. But I want to talk a bit more about that all important chicken.

RESPECT YOUR ROAST CHICKEN

I’m still haunted by the image of seeing, many years ago now, a woman on some TV programme carving the breast from a roast chicken, serving it up to her family for Sunday lunch then promptly chucking the rest, untouched legs, carcass and all, straight into the bin!

I’m pleased to say there’s zero chance that will ever happen in my house!

On taste and animal welfare grounds, I only buy free-range chickens. Of course, these don’t come cheap. But nor should they. The costs associated with producing free-range chickens are higher than that for quick, intensively reared ones, and farmers deserve to be paid fairly for them.

As there’s only 2 of us at home, after roasting a chicken I take off the breasts and serve these, one each. With smaller chickens, I take the legs off, set aside, then cut the rest of the bird in two (kitchen scissors are easiest), serving half per person.

To prevent waste, and to get the most for my money, there’s a series of steps I then go through to use up every bit of the chicken.

GETTING THE MOST FROM A CHICKEN

Pour the fat from the roasting tin into a jar. I keep this in the fridge and use it for cooking potatoes, eggs, greens or just about anything else that will benefit from its rich flavour.
Quickly whip off the crispy skin from the legs and wings and eat it: cook’s privilege!
Remove the meat from the legs, wings and carcass. I put this in the freezer to use another day for meals like Chicken & Vegetable Stew or Chicken Croquettes.
So that absolutely none of the flavour from the roasting tin is wasted, I pour in boiling water and scrape up any brown bits. I use the tasty, fatty water as the basis for chicken stock (see below). I use it in recipes like Chicken & Vegetable Stew.
Let the dog lick any remaining chicken traces from plates, chopping boards and pressure cooker insert so not a smidgen goes to waste!

HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN STOCK

Put the picked bones, carcass, bits of skin etc. into a large saucepan or pressure cooker. Add an onion, garlic cloves, a carrot, celery sticks, the green end of a leek and parsley stalks if you have them, peppercorns, and a pinch of salt.

Adding vinegar when making stock is said to help release the goodness from meat bones. I’ve no idea if this is true but, as it doesn’t affect the flavour, I usually add a splash of cider vinegar anyway.

I make my stocks in an Instant Pot, cooking at high pressure for 60-80 minutes depending on how much time I have. If you want to make stock in a saucepan on top of the stove, simmer for 2-3 hours with a lid on.

When the time’s up, strain the stock and discard the bones and veg. Divide into batches if necessary and freeze any stock you’re not going to use in a day or two.

CHICKEN & VEGETABLE STEW

This simple, economical stew is one I make again and again. Because it’s the perfect easy stew. Packed with flavour and hearty vegetables, it means I can make the very most of a roasted chicken.

Satisfying enough to eat on its own, you could serve it with bread if really hungry.

The recipe is also infinitely adaptable. Change the proportions of vegetables or swap in your own favourites such as swede, turnips or add some dark greens near the end.

To stretch the chicken even further, you could stir in a tin of beans such as haricot or cannellini. Or add a handful or two of split red lentils right at the start.

You could also replace the chicken with other leftover cooked meats such as lamb or beef. I’m writing this in the run up to Christmas and no doubt some of my leftover turkey will end up in a version of this stew too.

Have you made this Chicken & Vegetable Stew?