Comfort food

Autumn is that time of year that most people lean towards more comforting foods. Gone are the salads and light dinners. In are stick to your ribs soups and stews. We have had rain here - finally - and it has been rather cool. Autumn is surely here!

I like soups and stews of all sorts and I will be posting many of them as time goes by. I like a good beef stew, but DS does not care for beef. He will eat hamburger occasionally, but no steak or roast or sadly, beef stew. So, in order to fulfill my stew craving and still get him to eat it, I make chicken stew quite a bit.

Served over top of big, fluffy buttermilk biscuits, it is comfort food at its finest. Add a cold glass of milk and some sliced ripe tomatoes - now you're eatin'!

Chicken Stew
Serves 6

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or you can use breasts)
Seasoned flour, for dredging
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced (I leave mine in big pieces so DS can fish them out)
3-4 large cloves garlic
chicken broth
carrots, cut in chunks, about 2 medium-large
potatoes, cut in chunks, about 3 medium
1 cup frozen peas
1 can mushrooms, drained

flour and water, for thickening

Seasonings to your taste, thyme is good, black pepper a given

Chop your chicken thighs into pieces, not too small. Dredge them in well-seasoned flour and brown in the olive oil - set aside. Cook them in 2 batches, 1 tablespoon oil per batch. Add onion and garlic (cut in slivers) to pan and saute lightly. now pour about 3/4 cup of broth in your pan and deglaze it. In a large pan, combine chicken, onion, garlic, carrots and potatoes. Add Broth. How much broth you use is up to you, I covered my ingredients with it. Simmer for about an hour on low heat. Then add the peas and mushrooms. Take some of the broth off and stir in some flour - I don't measure this, just eyeball it. I used about a heaping 1/4 cup. Stir that together and then stir it back into the stew. Let it get good and bubbly to thicken it. Season well to your taste with salt, pepper, etc.



This is also good made with frozen mixed vegs. The left-overs can be used for chicken pot pie. Or you can put biscuit dough (refrigerated or homemade) on top and stick it in the oven. Or you can use pie dough and put it inside and make pasties.

It is best made the day before and reheated.

When I was working out of the home, I would throw my frozen chicken in the crockpot, along with frozen peas and carrots and frozen diced hashbrowns and some broth. I would let it cook all day. Then when I came home, out came the chicken to be diced up, in went the peas and mushrooms and thickening while the biscuits went in the oven. Worked a charm. Or you can use just plain water and drain it off and then throw in a can or jar of chicken gravy.