Stewed Chicken
Time: 1 Hour
Serves 4-6
This is a seemingly basic stewed chicken recipe. I served it with homemade tortillas, spiced beans and avocado salsa (recipes to come soon). However, it is great spooned over rice, quinoa, or just about anything else you can find. Other than using nice fresh ingredients and giving the dish plenty of time to cook, there is no trick to getting a nice chicken stew.
3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion sliced thinly
3 bell peppers sliced
6 medium sized tomatoes cut into sixths
4 cloves of garlic
about a half cup corn meal
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
salt, black pepper, and olive oil to taste
Toss the corn meal with paprika, chili powder, salt and black pepper. Find yourself a sauce pan with enough room for all of the chicken to lay flat (this dish splatters a bit, so use a deep pan if you have one-though it is more important for there to be plenty of surface area for the chicken to cook) and get it nice and hot.
Coat the pan in olive oil, once it starts smoking, quickly coat each piece of chicken in the corn meal mixture, and place them carefully in the pan. Sear the chicken for 3 minutes on each side (or until the outside has turned a nice golden brown). Don't worry that the chicken isn't completely cooked through, it is going to have plenty of time stewing.
Remove the chicken from the pan and set it aside. Using the remnant oil and chicken stuff in the pan, saute the onions and peppers until soft. Using the flat side of a large knife, crush the garlic (with the skin on). The skin should effortlessly peel off, although the garlic will break into a few pieces. Toss the garlic pieces and tomatoes into the pan, and season again with salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes.
Stew these ingredients over medium heat for 30 minutes. Add the chicken back in and turn the heat down to the lowest possible setting. Let cook for about 15 minutes.
If you want, you can add black beans, potatoes, corn etc. to this dish to make it heartier and thus nearly a complete meal in and of itself-(I think it would be great with some fresh corn, a few potatoes and served hot on a plate of wilt-able lettuce). Make sure if you do add anything to give it plenty of time to cook and absorb the flavor of the dish.
