Our Family’s Southern Chicken Stew Recipe
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Featuring tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and chicken, this flavorful and hearty southern chicken stew recipe is a firm family favorite.
This Southern Chicken Stew is a must-try. Rich, comforting, and packed with flavor, it’s a dish that quickly becomes a household favorite. It’s simple to prepare, easy to customize, and perfect for feeding a crowd.
Originally published in a 1974 issue of Good Housekeeping, this recipe has stood the test of time. It’s a staple for family meals, gatherings, and cozy nights in. The hearty combination of tender chicken, potatoes, and a flavorful broth makes it both satisfying and versatile.
Once you’ve made it a couple of times, you’ll likely have the recipe memorized. It stores well in the fridge, freezes beautifully, and can be easily stretched by adding more potatoes. A double batch ensures a warm, homemade meal is always on hand for the week. This budget friendly, hearty meal is going to be your new favorite!
What You’ll Need to Make Southern Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- potatoes
- whole chicken
- crushed tomatoes
- corn
- onion
- salt
- black pepper
- sugar
- butter
How to Make Southern Chicken Stew
In a dutch oven, cover the whole chicken with water and cook over medium heat until it the thickest part of the breast registers 165°F (74°C) on an instant read thermometer. When done, remove the chicken from the broth and set it aside to cool a bit. Reserve broth. You can use boneless skinless chicken breast for this recipe, just add some chicken bouillon cubes to your water to make sure your chicken broth is rich enough.
Peel and dice the potatoes and onions.
Add diced onions and potatoes to the reserved broth. Cook until the potatoes are tender.
While the potatoes are cooking, remove the chicken meat from the bones and shred.
When the potatoes are very soft, remove approximately a coffee cup’s worth. With a fork, mash these potatoes in the cup.
Add the mashed potatoes back into the dutch oven.
Then add the .
Next, add the can of crushed tomatoes. You can use diced tomatoes or even fresh garden tomatoes in place of the crushed tomatoes.
Next add salt and pepper.
Finally, add the sugar. Sugar acts to enhance flavor and offset the acidity of the tomatoes.
Simmer slowly with the lid off for about forty-five minutes.
Just before serving, stir in the butter. Adding butter just before serving makes for a creamy, velvety texture.
Ladle stew into bowls and serve. This Southern Chicken Stew recipe refrigerates and freezes well. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating in the microwave.
Notes on Making Southern Chicken Stew
- Serve Southern Chicken Stew with saltine or oyster crackers, homemade drop biscuits, or cornbread. You could also serve it with a simple side salad, like an easy Greek salad.
- For a little kick, serve your stew with some hot sauce. Alternatively, before simmering add a teaspoon of paprika or a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning.
- Want to add more vegetables? Add in a cup of frozen peas or green beans when you add the corn. You could also add diced carrot, , or celery to your stew.
- You can use chicken that is already cooked and shredded (rotisserie chicken works well), but you will need to use chicken stock to cook the vegetables.
- If you want to make Southern Chicken Stew in a crockpot, cover and cook the chicken on low for 6-8 hours, add the potatoes and onions a couple of hours into cooking. When chicken is cooked and tender, remove from crockpot and shred, remove the potatoes as instructed above and then add everything back to the crockpot and cook on high for a couple of hours or until warmed through.
More Stew Recipes You’ll Love
Ingredients
- 1 chicken
- 2 large onions chopped
- 7 cups water
- 4 cups canned tomatoes
- 6 medium potatoes peeled and diced
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 5 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
Instructions
- Cook the chicken until done in water. Remove the chicken from the broth and discard its skin. Separate the meat from the bones and then shred the meat.1 chicken, 7 cups water
- Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.
- Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in a covered saucepan until done and do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.6 medium potatoes
- Add corn, onions, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to broth.2 large onions, 4 cups canned tomatoes, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn, 5 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons pepper
- Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add potatoes and chicken pieces and simmer slowly with the lid off for at least 45 minutes.6 medium potatoes, 1 chicken
- Right before serving, stir in the butter and let it melt. This chicken stew is best if made a day ahead and reheated to serve.2 tablespoons butter
If you are going to use canned tomatoes (and canned are better than non-ripe store tomatoes) use the whole ones and crush them with your hand. Not only is it fun, but they used the best tomatoes for the whole ones. Canned tomatoes are pretty good because they let them ripen on the vine and can them pretty much in the field.
Thank you.. will be making this for the crew very very soon. I can make it ahead for the guys to take when they go to deer camp!
This soup was soooo delicious. I helped hubs through it and it turned out great. One of the boys is now sick and he has asked me to make him the “sick soup”. Ha!
Hey Cee!!
Oh, I don’t know if anything beats a good fundraiser chicken stew. If that’s what you’re craving, this’ll hit the spot for sure though!
I’m so glad you read Southern Plate! I actually thought about you this weekend at the Fiddler’s. You know they always have great chicken stew there, too!
Stephanie Hey! I am always amazed at how inexpensive a whole fryer is compared to the boneless skinless breasts and the broth they make just can’t be beat! I think you could likely feed a family endless meals if you just have corn, tomatoes, and potatoes on hand!
~blushes~ thank you! I am working on getting a good “mug shot” done to use in print and such and doing a trial run. It’s so hard having photos made of yourself!! I appreciate your compliment GREATLY!
Bill HEY! Tomatoes are SUPER easy to put up in the freezer.
What I do is this:
*Get on a large pot of water to boil.
*Set out a 9×13 pan on the counter (they cool faster and its easier to chop them in that)
*Once the water is boiling, drop a few tomatoes at a time in it. Wait just a minute or two and the skins will split open. Remove them and put them in the 9×13 pan and let them cool until you can handle them. Just grab hold of that skin and it will come right off! Throw away the skin and cut off the tops and throw that away too. Then, I just take a large knife and coarsely chop them up a bit before filling quart sized freezer bags with the tomatoes, juice and all!
Deanna Let me know if your husband makes this for you! My husband is doing good to be able to boil water – seriously. He is an engineer and is completely lacking in common sense when it comes to cooking. Everything is made to be a hundred times more complicated then necessary. Once, I was in the middle of making chicken and dumplings and got to feeling very sick rather suddenly. The kids were hungry and wanting their supper so I called him in there just to shred the chicken and put it in the dumplings –that’s all there was left to do.
I’ll never forget eating chicken and dumplings with perfectly cubed one inch squares of chicken in it. It was – odd. No telling how long it took him to do that. Bless his heart.
Donna Oh yes, it was so good. I froze the leftovers and sent it with my in laws back to Georgia. Not to sound too selfish, but I’m kinda regretting doing that now! I sure do want a bowl!
Cara Hey! Thank you so much!!! I hope to keep you happy and coming back for a very long time! Let me know if you have any questions or special requests!
Gratefully,
Christy
Your recipes are great! I keep coming back for seconds!! Love the emails to! Can’t wait to try this one with cornbread!
That looks like good old fashioned Southern comfort food for a cold rainy day. Add some of that cornbread of yours and you have a feast. Yuummmm!
Oh, yum! I have been sick for a week and the only thing that sounds good is warm soup to soothe my sore throat. I am going to tutor my hubs through this recipe so we can have this for supper. Thanks so much! I’ll help him whip up some of the cornbread. He’ll be such a happy camper because he and boys will have it all to themselves!