Easy Chicken Stew
When you take your first spoonful of this instant chicken stew, it’s hard to imagine that it only cooks under pressure for 8 minutes. Telling my guests that as they enjoy this great warm-up meal is one of my secret pleasures. No-one can believe it! This stew tastes like it’s been simmering for hours on the stovetop, but the pressure cooker is the secret. Pressure cooking really infuses food with flavor and makes foods so tender that the chicken will practically shred itself when the time comes. You’ll see.
Easy to Find Ingredients
This instant chicken stew is also a basic chicken stew. There are no unusual or hard to find ingredients included. It is what it is! You’ll need your basic vegetables – onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and peas – some chicken, a few spices, wine and good chicken stock. I say good chicken stock and I mean it! The chicken stock is going to carry a lot of the flavor for this stew, so either use your own homemade broth or buy a good brand of stock.
Vegetables for Chicken Stew
If you want to add other vegetables to this stew, aside from the basic vegetables I mentioned above, please do! You might like to replace the onion with leek or swap out some or all of the potatoes for parsnips or turnips. You could also decide to add cabbage or Brussels sprouts if you like them. A stew is a blank palette – you can add whatever vegetables you like.
To Shred or To Chop?
As I mentioned above, once the chicken comes out of the cooker, you’ll be amazed at how tender it is. The dark meat especially will just about shred itself when you shoot it a stern glance. I think shredding the chicken adds to the rustic character of the stew, but if you’d prefer to cut the chicken into cubes, please do. Just remember that people don’t tend to eat stews with knives, so make the chicken pieces small enough to fit on a spoon to be eaten politely.
How to Thicken Stew
In a pressure cooker, you always thicken a stew after the fact. While the chicken is cooking, you need liquid to boil to create the steam that is needed to build pressure inside the pot. So, to thicken the stew after it has finished cooking, we use something called a beurre manié. Though it has a fancy French name, it’s really just room temperature butter and flour mixed together to form a paste. This gets whisked into the sauce at the end and when the stew boils again, the flour will thicken the liquid. Because there are pieces of vegetables in the stew, it’s easiest to ladle a little liquid into your bowl with the beurre manié first to loosen it and then add it to your stew. That helps eliminate any lumps of beurre manié.
What to Serve with Chicken Stew
A stew like this is truly a one pot meal. It’s loaded with vegetables and has a good dose of protein, so it really doesn’t need anything else. I do like to serve it with some crusty baguette to sop up the sauce at the end and a green salad dressed with a simple vinaigrette is a perfect side, but all you really need is a spoon.
Question — could this be made in a slow cooker and if so, how many hours would it need to cook? I assume you would still thicken it at the end you would just need to turn the slow cooker to high?
Hi Colleen. You can use the same method in the recipe but instead of pressure cooking, slow cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. During the last 30 minutes of the cooking time, remove the chicken and shred or cut into bite sized pieces and return to the slow cooker for the remaining cooking time. If you slow cooker has a browning function, you can thicken the gravy as directed in the recipe. If not you will have to transfer the gravy to a saucepan and thicken on the stovetop.
can I omit the white wine
Hi Mabel. You can just use extra chicken stock if you want to omit the white wine.
Love all of your recipes!! Can I substitute corn starch for the flour?
Thanks Gerry! You can use corn starch instead of flour but corn starch must be dissolved in cold liquid first. If you want to use corn starch mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of cold stock or water. Add to the stew and bring to a boil to thicken.
How can you adapt this to a slow cooker? Looks delicious
Hi Ann. You can use the same method in the recipe but instead of pressure cooking, slow cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. During the last 30 minutes of the cooking time, remove the chicken and shred or cut into bite sized pieces and return to the slow cooker for the remaining cooking time. If you slow cooker has a browning function, you can thicken the gravy as directed in the recipe. If not you will have to transfer the gravy to a saucepan and thicken on the stovetop.
ML
yummy. I was pleasantly surprised how good this was, I’m new to using the instant pot so was a little unsure of myself – Your instructions were excellent and it really turned out well. The “beurre manie” was perfect to thicken the gravy. I confess to using rotisserie chicken – this was the only thing I cheated on.
Not cheating, Ruthann… I call it being strategic! 😉
Made this last night and everyone loved it. I combined chicken thighs with chicken breasts and it was delicious! And so easy!
Hi I want to try the stew. What changes would make for gluten free foodies? Thanks!!
Hi Carol. You could use gluten-free flour or use cornstarch mixed with water instead of butter and flour at the end to thicken the stew.
Made this in the afternoon before going to work, quick and easy and very tasty!
I made this today. So easy and quick. I used chicken tenders, because that’s what I had. I didn’t have potatoes, so when it was done I stirred in a can of whole small potatoes. Next time I’ll try topping with dumplings. Just delicious. I make a lot of your recipes and refer to your page for ideas. Everything is always so good! I have a few of your books and enjoy you on Facebook. Miss you on QVC.
I made this recipe just now and it’s delicious! I downsized the recipe about 1/3 and added fresh raw turnip cubes ( that I needed to use) Oh, and for the the flour, I used Wondra (which I usually do for thickening lump free) . I too love all your recipes & follow you on IG. Thank you and wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Delicious! Another fabulous recipe – thank you!
I didn’t have any crusty bread on hand so I made your fluffy dinner rolls to accompany the stew. Also, wonderful!
I made the instant chicken stew this evening. It was delicious! Have plenty left over for dinner tomorrow night. Can’t wait! Thanks Meredith!
Fixed this tonight for dinner. Absolutely a hearty delicious stew. Will definitely be making again.
Delicious! I don’t usually comment on recipes because I play with them a bit. I followed this one with only one change (I subbed gluten free flour for the AP flour). This was a big winner! Thanks, Meredith. I have several friends who do not cook but will love to receive this dish for Christmas! <3
I have made this several times and have shared it with my neighbors. It is perfect every time. This recipe is most assuredly a keeper…….
Hi Meredith, This recipe reminds me of your Chicken & Dumplings recipe. I’ve looked at both & have seen a few minor differences. I’m wondering if I could omit the potatoes and add dumplings at the end of cooking? Would I need to add more broth or omit the beurre manie?
Hi Althea. I think you could steam dumplings on top of the stew at the end of cooking with a lid on. If you want to take the safe road and don’t mind if the stew is brothy, omit the beurre manié. You shouldn’t have to omit it, however. As long as there is enough liquid to create steam, there will be enough liquid to steam the dumplings. The dumplings themselves won’t thicken the broth.
Love. Love. Love this soup! It’s comfort in a bowl. Also made the house smell so good when I was making it. I didn’t have white wine…but used extra chicken broth. I will definitely be making this again!
Hi, can this recipe be done on the stove top. Would I have to modify anything? Love all your recipes so healthy and delicious!! Thank you, Mary
This recipe has stovetop and pressure cooker versions. There are tabs above the recipe title that you can click on to get the directions for your desired cooking method.
This stew was fantastic! I made this recipe to the “T” in my Ninja Foodi. It was also super easy to make. Today on 1-2-22 was the first cold day in the Gulf Coast of TX. It was 88 degrees the day before and today was the 38.7. I love soup of stew any time of year, even in 100 degree Summers. But today was the perfect day to stay inside and cook. My family loved it! Another hit recipe from Blue Jean Chef.
Definite keeper. Used rotisserie chicken and changed up to make adjustments as such. Will be making again!
I made the chicken stew on the stove. It took only about 1 hr. And it came out excellent. I omitted the potatoes to cut down on calories and carbs. My husband doesn’t eat chicken so I halved the recipe. Thanks I’ve added this to my recipe box.
Can I just use dried thyme if I don’t fresh?
You can just omit the fresh thyme sprigs and use the dried thyme and sage.
Wonderful recipe! Just the ticket as I recover from illness. I will use a bit less chicken and more veggies next time, but that’s the beauty of this recipe. Almost anything goes! Any thoughts on thickening with pureed beans?
You can certainly use some pureed beans to thicken your stew. White or cannellini beans would work nicely.
Warm and comforting. I used a light hand with the sage and thyme, and it is still very flavorful. I’m so thankful to have stumbled upon your website. I have several allergies and health issues making it difficult to find new recipes with the same old ingredients, thank you for adding some variety to our dinner table!
I made this last week for guests using all chicken thighs, and even though I omitted the onion due to dietary restrictions, everyone loved it. The next day I sautéed some onion and garlic and added to the leftover stew for our dinner. I will definitely be making it again. Thanks for another great recipe!