Faster Chicken Stew (Casserole)

This is the faster way I make Chicken Stew – using boneless chicken thigh fillets cut into large pieces, simmered with vegetables until tender in a rich, dark stew sauce. It’s a Chicken Casserole made in an hour, but tastes like it’s been simmering all day!

More chicken stew options: Slow Cooked Chicken Stew, Coq au Vin and Chicken Fricasée (creamy French Chicken Stew, reader favourite!).

Chicken Stew – faster!

I feel like the word “stew” conjures up visions of slow cooked goodness that’s been simmering on the stove all day. And our patience is always rewarded with the deep flavours you can only achieve through slow cooking. Beef Stew, Guinness Stew, slow cooked Chicken Stew and Pot Roasts.

This speedier Chicken Stew is for all the days when you want the slow cooked flavour – fast! It takes under an hour to make, and it’s loaded with plenty of veggies and potatoes swimming in a rich stew sauce!

This speedier Chicken Casserole tastes like it’s been simmering all day… look at that rich sauce!!

Flavour Tricks

Here are the things in this recipe that ups the flavour quota even without slow cooking for hours:

• boneless chicken thigh fillets which are juicy enough to withstand the simmering time needed for the sauce to develop beautiful flavours, but cook quicker than using bone-in chicken pieces;

• beef broth (stock) instead of chicken broth – beef broth has deeper flavours than chicken stock AND it gives the sauce a deeper brown colour without having to slow cook for ages;

• red wine – a good slug adds depth of flavour and again, adds to the rich brown colour of the sauce; and

• BACON. Need I explain this point? 😂

There’s a decent amount of veggies in this, so you can serve it as a meal without extra veg sides

How to make Chicken Stew

The total simmering time here is 40 minutes, compared to 1.5 hours for classic Chicken Stew made using bone-in chicken pieces.

Nothing tricky or unusual with this speedier Chicken Stew – we start off browning the bacon and chicken to get all those tasty brown bits on the bottom of the pan which will form part of the flavour base for the sauce.

Then cook off the veggies, add all the stew sauce ingredients, simmer for just 30 minutes until the chicken is tender, then lastly add the mushrooms and greens which don’t take long to cook.

And this is what comes off the stove:

• juicy pieces of chicken;

• soft vegetables that have sucked up the flavour of the sauce;

• little pops of bacon (the BEST bite!);

• loads of thick, rich, dark, savoury, herb infused stew sauce.

Seriously. Just tell everyone you’ve been slaving away all day. They’ll totally believe you! – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Chicken Stew (Casserole)

Author: Nagi

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 50 mins

Total: 1 hr 5 mins

Mains

Western

4.97 from 52 votes

Servings5

Tap or hover to scale

Print

• 548
• 12163

Recipe video above. This is the faster way to make a chicken stew (casserole) that's done in an hour but tastes like it's been simmering all day! The trick is to use boneless thigh fillets, beef instead of chicken broth, a good slug of red wine and BACON!

Ingredients

• ▢ 0.5 tbsp olive oil
• ▢ 150g/5oz bacon , chopped
• ▢ 750g/ 1.5lb boneless skinless chicken thighs , cut into 3cm / 1.25" pieces (Note 1)
• ▢ 1/2 tsp salt and pepper , each
• ▢ 3 garlic cloves , minced (1 tbsp)
• ▢ 1 onion , sliced
• ▢ 3 carrots , peeled, halved lengthwise, sliced 1cm / 1/3" thick
• ▢ 2 celery stalks , sliced 1cm / 1/3" thick
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups (375ml) red wine (Note 2)
• ▢ 4 tbsp flour
• ▢ 3 cups (750ml) beef stock/broth , low sodium (or chicken, Note 3)
• ▢ 400g/ 14oz crushed tomato , canned
• ▢ 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ▢ 1/2 tsp salt and pepper , each
• ▢ 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• ▢ 2 dried bay leaves
• ▢ 350g/ 12 oz baby potatoes , halved
• ▢ 200g/ 6oz mushrooms , halved (large quartered)
• ▢ 150g/ 5 oz green beans , trimmed and halved

Instructions

• Place oil and bacon in a large heavy based casserole pot over high heat.
• When the oil is heated and bacon releases some fat, add chicken.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, until chicken and bacon is browned.
• Add garlic and onion, cook 1 minute.
• Add celery and carrot, cook 2 minutes.
• Add red wine, allow to simmer rapidly 2 minutes until the winey alcohol smell is gone.
• Add flour, mix until incorporated.
• Slowly pour in half the beef broth while stirring, then pour the rest in.
• Add tomato, Worcestershire, thyme, bay leaves, salt, pepper.
• Stir, add potato.
• Cover, simmer 30 minutes.
• Remove lid, add mushrooms and green beans. Simmer without lid* for a further 10 minutes.
• Serve with crusty bread, sprinkled with parsley if desired!

Recipe Notes:

* Video error - I showed putting lid back on! Lid needs to stay off to thicken sauce.

1. Chicken - boneless thighs best because they stay juicy after the simmering time required for the sauce to develop beautiful flavours. I don't recommend chicken breast, but if you have no choice (or really insist!) then don't put the breast into the broth until the last 5 minutes or so, just to finish cooking through.

Bone-in pieces: Just add water and simmer for longer. But note my personal preference when making chicken stew with bone-in, skin-on pieces is to use this slow cooked oven Chicken Stew recipe because it makes the skin CRISP!

2. Red Wine adds incredible extra flavour into this quick stew, making up for the short cook time! Any dry, full bodied red wine is fine here - Cab Sauv and Merlots are ideal. Just avoid light ones like pinot noir.

Guinness or Stout will also work great here too - they are dark beers, labelled as such on the cans. Use some, drink some - or tip the whole can in and simmer for longer with the lid off! If you love Irish Beef Guinness Stew, you'll know what the Guinness does to add flavour into stews.

Non alcoholic sub - brown the bacon well first, remove. Brown the mushrooms, remove. Then brown chicken, and proceed with recipe (add bacon in once chicken browned, mushrooms at end per recipe). These multi-stage browning will create an intense "fond" on the base of the pan (ie the brown stuff) which will add great flavour into the stew sauce, making up for absence of wine.

3. Beef vs chicken broth/stock - I like to use beef here for this quick cook stew because it's got a bit more flavour than chicken AND gives the sauce a deep brown colour (with chicken, it's a more pale brown). But chicken is just fine to use too!

4. Nutrition per serving.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 510cal (26%)Carbohydrates: 29g (10%)Protein: 40g (80%)Fat: 20g (31%)Saturated Fat: 5g (31%)Cholesterol: 162mg (54%)Sodium: 1231mg (54%)Potassium: 1654mg (47%)Fiber: 5g (21%)Sugar: 8g (9%)Vitamin A: 6550IU (131%)Vitamin C: 23.3mg (28%)Calcium: 104mg (10%)Iron: 6mg (33%)

Keywords: Chicken Casserole, Chicken Stew

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Life of Dozer

I’m so grateful that food doesn’t move…..😂😂😂