Ultra tender flesh and super crispy skin smothered in a thick savoury sauce with vegetables. This Chicken Stew is slow cooked in the oven to develop deep, incredible flavours. The smell that fills the house when it’s in the oven is simply wonderful!
Made with skin on chicken thighs and drumsticks, this Chicken Stew recipe is a firm favourite during the colder months along with Beef Stew, Pot Roast and Beef Bourguignon. Mop your bowl clean with Irish Soda Bread, a quick and easy rustic no-yeast bread!
Chicken Stew – with crispy skin!
Anyone else here not a fan of slimy chicken skin??
I don’t care how long it’s been slow cooked. And whether it’s a stew, in soup or Hainanese chicken.
No chicken skin comes near my mouth unless it’s crispy or caramelised.
When my mother reads this, I know she’s going to roll her eyes and think”she’s so childish!!”
I don’t care. I love crispy skin. I want crispy skin. Give me all the crispy skin!!! 😂
Slow cooked in the oven for crispy skin!
Because I’m so anti-slimy chicken skin, I like to make my Chicken Stew in the oven rather than on the stove. And unless someone knows a magic trick, the only way to get crispy skin for a stew is in the oven.
Cook it covered for part of the time, then uncover it to let the sauce thicken, make the chicken flesh super tender, the surface of the veggies and edges of the stew caramelise, and – most importantly in my world – to get that chicken skin super crispy!
Don’t have the time to slow cook?
Try my speedier Chicken Stew – made with boneless chicken thighs, this is on the table in an hour but tastes like it’s been cooking all day!
OK, I think I’ve babbled on enough about the chicken skin. Let me move on.
Under the crispy skin -> tender flesh.
Smothering the crispy skin -> thick savoury gravy sauce.
Around the crispy skin -> tender soft vegetables.
😇😇😇
I’m lucky enough to have a big, shallow casserole pot / dutch oven which is absolutely perfect for these kind of stews that go from stove to oven. But if you don’t have one, don’t worry, just tip it all into a baking pan before popping it into the oven.
And – confession time. The reason I cropped out most of the bowl in the photo below is because I ate the chicken before I took this photo. The side you can’t see just has bones, picked completely clean.
I couldn’t resist! Don’t judge me! 😂 – Nagi x
More Stews
- Faster Chicken Stew – when you need a rich stew on the table in under an hour!
- Classic Beef Stew – fall apart beef in a deep rich sauce
- Irish Beef and Guinness Stew – an incredible dark, rich sauce with incomparable flavour
- Slow Cooked Beef Stroganoff – fall apart beef in a creamy Stroganoff sauce!
- Braised Beef Short Ribs in Red Wine Sauce – truly exceptional, restaurant quality!
- Browse all Stew recipes
Classic dinners we’ll love forever
- Meatloaf – a family favourite forever and ever!
- Spaghetti Bolognese
- Beef Pot Roast
- Beef Stroganoff
- Ultra Tender Roast Pork with Crispy Crackling
Chicken Stew
Watch how to make it
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Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1.5 kg / 3lb bone in, skin on chicken thighs and drumsticks (6 to 8 pieces)
- Salt and pepper
- 2 onions , halved and cut into wedges
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 3 large carrots , cut thick end into 1.5cm / 3/5" pieces, thin end 2.5cm/1"
- 4 celery stalks , cut into 2cm / 4/5" chunks
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine (or water)
- 3 tbsp (35g) flour
- 3 cups (750 ml) chicken broth , low low sodium
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp Worscestershire sauce
- 3 sprigs thyme , or 1 tsp dried thyme (or other herb)
- 2 bay leaves (dried or fresh)
- 600 g / 1.2lb baby potatoes , halved (quarter large ones)
Serving (optional):
- Fresh thyme or parsley (chopped)
- Warm crusty bread
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Brown chicken on both sides until light golden, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Remove from pot. (Do in 2 batches if pot not big enough).
- If there's too much oil in the pot, discard some. Add onion and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add carrots and celery, cook for 1 minute.
- Add wine. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to dissolve the brown bits into the liquid. Cook for 1 minute until liquid is mostly gone.
- Sprinkle flour across surface, stir.
- Add broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and bay leaves. Stir to dissolve tomato paste.
- Place chicken on top, keeping the skin above the liquid level as much as you can.
- Bring to simmer then cover. Bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove lid. Add potatoes, pushing them into the liquid and rearranging chicken so they sit on top (for lovely crispy skin).
- Return to oven without the lid for a further 40 minutes until the chicken skin is deep golden and super crispy, the potatoes are soft and the sauce is thickened.
- Taste sauce and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with warm crusty bread on the side to dunk in the sauce - or go all the way with Garlic Bread! Optional: garnish with extra fresh thyme leaves or parsley.
Recipe Notes:
Originally published May 2018. Updated for housekeeping matters – no change to recipe.
Life of Dozer
Flashback to May 2018 when this recipe was first published when he tore his ACL and had to have a knee operation. Shaved rump, permanent “help me up” harness, and trapped in a play pen for weeks.
Adding a Cone of Shame was just rubbing salt into the wound, isn’t it?
I told him not to scratch the stitches. I warned him about the cone. He did not obey!!😂
Happy to report he is back to normal, chasing birds, leaping off jetties and generally living the high life!❤️ N x
Hi Nagi, planning to make this for dins tomorrow night. Wondering if i can pre-make everything except the last 40 minutes. Have a busy afternoon and just wanted to make everything in the morning so i can just pour in the potatoes and put it in the oven before dinner. Would the skin still crisp up? thanks so much!
Hi Jackie, yes you can, I would bring it out of the fridge, reheat over the stove to get the stew hot and then follow in the oven to finish it off. N x
Dear Nagi,
Hope this finds you well. The dish came out wonderful and was loved by everyone in my family. Thank you very much
Best regards
Rajesh
Greetings from Austria!
I love your recipe and blog!
Thanks so much Lukas!!! N x
Can I make this with boneless thighs?
Hi Cathy, I prefer bone in here as it has more flavour but you could definitely do it with boneless thighs if you prefer. N x
I’ve made this today! My daughter loves your beef stroganoff (it’s the only thing she’ll have for dinner 🙄) so looking forward to a change!
So tasty! Can’t fault it 😍😍
This looks good and tastes great. I like the way my family keep circling the kitchen “how much longer is dinner going to be; when is dinner; what’s this called”!!. I do like your recipes Nagi, as i seem to have the ingredients; never complicated…
Served this at a family dinner. Everyone love it. I now that because they all were quiet while eating and my brothers had seconds. Highly recommend this. Delicious!!!
Hi Nagi,
Going to try the recipe.
Is the oven temperature for a conventional oven, I have a fan assisted oven, would that be set at 160 Degrees?
Thank Nagi for the recipe, it’s easy to follow and best chicken stew I ever made. Keeping the skin does make a difference:) Whole family loves it!
Absolutely delicious. So much flavour. This website is a go to for me.
Probably one of the best recipes I have ever made. So delicious!
Holy mackerel, that was gorgeous. Made it last night (for 2) and served it with crusty tiger bread, made sure I made enough so we can have it again tonight. First thing I do when I wake up is to check if Nagi has put anything new on, high-light of my day 😀 (what a sad life I have) It´s going to be very difficult to leave that food alone until the other half comes home from work. Cheers Nagi x
This is one of my families favourite recipes these days!! Have made it several times and its banging every time!!
Thank you Nagi!!
This is an awesome recipe. I’ve made it several times for my dinner. Only question is…. Can I parboil the potatoes to shorten the baking time?
You really want the stew cooking that full time unfortunately – N x
OMG. How awesome was this dish. The only changes I made was to leave out the celery because I don’t like it and I didn’t have any of the herbs on hand so had to make it without them and it was still to die for. Definitely a keeper.
Hi.what can i use instead of wine? Is chicken bulion will be fine?
Thank you
Hi Agnes, the substitute is listed next to the wine in the ingredients list. N x
A bit Bland needs something more to it.
Not to popular here in Vietnam however they probably expected to be loaded with Fish Sauce and Sugar which it seems they put into nearly every dish:)
For me it was ok but maybe i would add some Rosemary or dare I say some MSG:)
This is the best stew recipe! I’va had to make some chicken substitutions and use breasts instead of thigh a few time, but it still works well every way. It’s also really easy to make!
I’ve made this stew countless times, it’s my go to. Only changes I make is I usually use the water sub for wine (as I don’t regularly have wine in the house) and add a few thyme sprigs in whilst it’s cooking in the oven. Beautiful.
Hey! Am I able to do this recipe in a slow cooker instead of oven? Thanks 🙂
Hi Alanna, not this one sorry – you need the oven to reduce the stew and get that crispy chicken skin 🙂 N x
This looks amazing! I’m not crazy about drumsticks, though; can I use chicken wings?
Hi Zandaria – just skip the drumsticks and use all thighs in their place. N x