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
My husband’s family has made a stew similar to this for decades and I do mean decades I have been making it for 30 years myself. We do not use the sugar. There is a county in Texas called Hopkins they had a cook off every year and called Hopkins county Stew. My husband’s father lived there years before she married. She was known in the Cullman AL area for taking this stew to those that she knew that were sick. In the year before she passed away I would make it for her, I am so grateful she shared the recipe with me. I make it now as we have moved around and do the same. We lived in Huntsville twice and spread the stew around the southern end of town. I make a gallon for my husbands sisters and neices and nephew on occassion. One tip for you if you would let the corn cook and get tender before the tomato goes on them they would be better. I learned that from my grandmother that tomatoes cause veggies to stay at the firmness they are with they come in contact with the acid. Inside might get tender but things like corn, peas, butter beans the shell around them will stay too firm
Chicken stew has been in our family for as long as I can remember (which sometimes it further back than yesterday). I have .. when its just for me..used canned chicken and can whip it up in no time… but it does lose a little love when using canned…I prefer this over beef stew…
I too am confused regarding the potato’s and broth. Please clarify, I am anxious to cook this! Thank you!
Cover the chicken with 7 cups of water that will be your soup base. Mama pulls out 1 cup of broth to cook her potatoes then adds it back in. Hope that helps, this soup is very good on a chilly night.
Can you be a little more specific? Happy to help!
I was looking for chicken stew recipes, saw the picutre and KNEW this was the right one! I grew up in Limestone County, so when I read the part about the Fiddlers’ Convention, I smiled! I can’t wait to have the stew! I can already taste it!
I hope you liked it Rebecca!!!
Help! I’m trying to make this tonite and can’t figure out how much broth to use. The pictures say cover chicken and use that broth. But for her Mama’ s stew it only says one cup! Does anyone know???
Love the recipe…like some of the other gals, I use stewed tomatoes…also use some Dale’s steak seasoning (yes, the liquid one in the bottle, made in Birmingham, Al) and some sauted finely chopped banana peppers from the garden-they are milder than bell peppers. We like noodles in ours and I often put some (ok laugh) alphabet noodles in the pot. I don’t care for lima beans…so I use mild butter beans, or even green beans.
Y’all, this is soooo good. Since we now live in Pennsylvania, this sure does bring back wonderful memories from back “home” in Muscle Shoals.
Yessir-serve with cornbread or biscuit, either one.
Yummy.
Love the entire cookbook!!! Big hugs!
I know that it might sound like heresy to even consider such a shortcut, but being that I’m from Athens (the unofficial chicken stew capital of the world), I find that I have tried to take every liberty at least once. So when I’m running super short on time, I will used diced canned potatoes and frozen chopped onions. You just cannot tell the difference. In addition, I always have a bottle of Tabasco sauce handy to spice my bowl up.