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!
More chicken stew recipe options: Faster Chicken Quick Stew (using bite size chicken pieces), Coq au Vin and Chicken Fricasée (creamy French Chicken Stew, reader favourite!).
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
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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
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Meatloaf – a family favourite forever and ever!
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
Can I use bone in chicken breast?
Easy and very delicious. My family loved it! My quartered baby potatoes were not soft enough after 40min too but the harder texture was nice change from the usual mushy ones.
That’s wonderful to hear Gemma! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂 N x PS Thanks for the tip re: potatoes, so odd not soft at 40 min but will up the cook time to be safe 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi
The oven temperature in the recipe is 180°C. Does that refer to both conventional and convection ovens?
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I needed a little more cooking time with the potatoes. I’d be tempted to put them in there from the start. As it was they were a little aldente. I prefet them to abosb some of the liquid and be a little softer. Great taste. Crusty bread is the perfecy serving suggestion. Gonna let mine reduce a little more.
Hi Peter! Were your potatoes large?? 40 minutes in the oven for halved baby potatoes should be sufficient to make them soft 🙂 N x
Made this for my family tonight and it was a big hit. Had to cook it for about 20 min longer to let the potatoes finish cooking, but it was delicious. Crusty bread is definitely recommended
Hi Nagi,
I am going to try this recipe but I need to ask you something. I noticed you put the potato last so by the time it’s finished the other stuffs will they be over cooked?
Thank you,
After reading all the comments I had to try this, so easy to prepare, it’s in the oven right now, can’t wait to try it, got a big fresh breadstick to have with it!
PS All your recipes I’ve tried so far have been fantastic 🙂
PS Best casserole I have made EVER!
Hi Nagi,
I tried this recipe tonight. It is a Winner! The chicken skin was as promised crispy. The sauce was awesome. We wiped out everything in the pan. Thank you for this great recipe.
Glad to hear you enjoyed this Evytan!! Thanks for letting me know 🙂 N x ❤️
Hi. Love the crispy skin of chicken in your stew. May I know at what temperature do I bake the chicken at?
it says 180 Celsius/350 Fahrenheit
Hi Nagi, oh my this was delicious! Only thing I changed was I only had beef stock. We all loved it and so easy. Family fav 100% 👍👍👍👍
Hi Nagi, when I place a chicken back in the oven without a lid, my chicken is burn 🙁 I remove the burn and it still tastes great! Thanks for the recipe.
Tried recipe simply brilliant
Hi Nagi,
This was absolutely superb! Just about to make it again, and wondered if it freezes well?
Regards,
Alan
Hi Alan! It will freeze great but you’ll lose the crispy skin unless you pop it under the broiler to recrisp when you reheat!
Another win! Fantastic recipe with SUCH great flavor :-). Your recipes have such a command of the ingredients. My husband kept trying to guess “all the complicated ingredients” to create the delicious sauce… he wouldn’t believe me when I gave him the short list haha. New staple in our house for sure!
I LOVE HEARING THAT!!!!!! N xx
Can I serve it over rice?
Yes of course! 🙂
Hey Nagi!
If I use skin off boneless thighs, can I do the whole cooking time on the stove top with a lid?!😋
Cheers!
Hi Jax! Those will only need 40 minutes simmering to be crazy tender so what I would do is simmer for the whole time on the stove with the lid off 🙂 If chicken gets too tender, take it out and get the sauce consistency to your taste. Hope you love it! N xx
Sounds grand, cheers muchly!😁
Can it be made a day in advance?
Yes for sure, but pop the chicken back in the oven to recrisp the skin!
Yes I cooked the chicken today and it was very good!!!
I cooked this on July 7th, this was a great receipe, my fiance almost killed himself. 🙂
😂 Best compliment EVER!!!
I going to try that chicken stew.
Hope you do!
Could boneless thighs be used?
Sure thing, please see the notes! 🙂