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.
I am going to start this post off by asking a favor of you all. Please make this chicken stew. It’s that good. I mean, it’s so good that it actually bothers me to think that some of you might only look at the photos, read the tutorial, and never make it. It’s so good that if I could, I would seriously arrange a time and place for all of us to meet up under a tent somewhere in the middle of the country just to serve you this chicken stew. It’s just, well folks, it’s just so good!
My mother got this recipe out of a 1974 issue of Good Housekeeping. There was a photograph of a little old lady next to the title and Mama said “She just looked like her food would be really good”. Since then, I cannot even begin to tell you how often we make it. Everyone in my family makes this and loves it. My in-laws are coming in from Georgia this weekend for the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddler’s Convention as they do every year and this stew is always a request for their first meal. Tonight I’m serving it with Dixie Cornbread.
Once you make this a time or two, you’ll have no more need for the recipe. It will be ingrained in your heart, your taste buds, and your stomach. If you need more reasons to give this southern chicken stew recipe a go, it refrigerates well, freezes well, and can easily feed a crowd simply by adding more potatoes. I always try to make a double batch and my family happily eats a bowl of this supreme dish whenever they need a quick meal all week long!
Recipe Ingredients
- Potatoes
- A chicken
- Crushed tomatoes
- Corn
- Onion
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Sugar
- Margarine
Helpful Kitchen Tools
Cover your whole chicken with water and cook over medium heat until it’s done. When chicken is done, remove it from the broth and set it aside to cool a bit. Reserve broth.
If you prefer to 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 potatoes. Also, peel and dice your onion.
Add potatoes to the broth.
Add diced onion as well. Cook these until your potatoes are tender.
Cook until potatoes are tender. Remove about a coffee cup’s worth of potatoes.
Like this.
With a fork, mash those potatoes in the cup. We are going to add this back to the stew and it will thicken it.
You can also just use a bit of instant mashed potatoes here if you want, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post. (I truly believe soup thickening is about all they are good for… except for when I make this crust out of them for our Taco casserole… but that is a recipe for another day).
Place back in the saucepot along with the .
Add the can of tomatoes.
Now, you can use any type you want here. I tend to use crushed because my husband (who I have oft mentioned was dropped on his head as a child) doesn’t like to actually bite into a piece of tomato in his stew. However, I prefer diced if I’m going with canned. Nothing though, NOTHING is better than homegrown tomatoes from my freezer if I have them!
Add corn.
I often use frozen corn if you prefer that.
Add salt…
And pepper.
Then add the sugar. I know sugar sounds a bit odd in a stew, but trust me on this.
Simmer slowly with the lid off for about forty-five minutes.
Just before serving, stir in margarine. YUM!!
Storage
As I said, 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.
Recipe Notes
- Serve your homemade chicken stew with saltine 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.
- If you’d prefer slow cooker chicken stew, follow the steps but once the potatoes, chicken, and onions are cooked in the broth, you’ll want to transfer everything to a slow cooker before adding the can of tomatoes and the remaining ingredients. Then cook on high for 4 to 6 hours.
Check out these other sensation stew recipes:
Beef Stew Recipe for Slow Cooker
Lentil Stew (Budget-Friendly & Delicious)
Ground Beef Stew (with a secret!)
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
Nutrition
I made this in my crock pot. Cooked on low for 8 hours & it came out fantastic. I used boneless skinless breasts & chicken bone broth I had made a few days prior. Added white & red onion, Yukon & purple potatoes, but followed the rest of the recipe to a T. My daughter made fresh cornbread to go with and we served with warm butter and honey. Big hit!
Oh that sounds fabulous!!!
Omg!! I made this and didnt change a thing.it is the best stew I’ve ever made.I love trying new recipes and I love stew best of all.so therefore.I have made several stews, none touches this one….wow!!!! Delicious. ….my two girls whom are picky and my husband loved it as well.its a keeper for sure……they have requested it again four days later after we had this the first time..8>] thats how wonderful it is..yum..thanks a million. I love your site and want your cook books so bad….
I am so glad to hear it was such a big hit!!!
OMG, The best recipe ever and I think my grandmother probably got the same recipe years ago because this is how she always made hers. We like serving ours with cheddar cheese and crackers, or a grilled cheese sandwich! oh and a hunk of onion . Im making this when im off this weekend.
This was delicious!!! Thank you so much!! Im alwas looking for new ideas as I am pregnant and need to keep trying new things or I get sick of the same type of thing over and over. I learned a lot about cooking a whole chicken with this and this has helped expand my cooking repertoire even more. Plus me and my hubby loved it!!!
So glad you liked it Kathryn!! When are you due??
I’m so sorry to be a naysayer, but I made this stew yesterday and didn’t like it. Objectively, it tasted “good” but I just don’t like the taste of tomatoes in things unless they are more masked.
The recipe makes A LOT. I did not want to waste it. Therefore, today, I sauteed some onions, garlic, chopped red pepper, and andouille chicken sausage. I added oregano and cumin and then some chili powder and topped that off with two cans of great northern white beans. It was quite thick, but I added about a 1/2 cup of beer and it was a delicious chili which I plan to freeze for future meals. I sprinkled the chili with chopped cilantro. It will be great on rice or by itself with some grated cheese.
That doesn’t make you a naysayer, it just makes you someone who like different tastes 🙂 Glad you got creative and made it work for you!:)
So I decided to make this stew last Friday for a coworker who’s recently had surgery, and I wanted to make enough to have some for myself so I doubled the batch, thinking it would be just enough. Man, I was so wrong – I’m not sure how much it actually made, but I think I have gallons of soup still in my freezer. I’ve been eating soup all week! The great thing is that it just keeps getting better as it sits in the fridge. I had shredded five medium-sized chicken breast, used two onion soup mixes for flavoring, as I had no onions, and simmered both cauliflower and potatoes in the soup broth and whipped those to thicken it a bit. While the stew is still a little thicker than I prefer, it is excellent! The thinner broth really complements the brightness of the corn. I also chopped up some carrots and threw them in, because what’s a stew without carrots? Thanks for the recipe, Christy! Lots of love from Alaska!
I meant the stew’s thinner! It’s all this heat, it’s melted my brain… 🙂
I don’t like tomatoes or onions, so I took that out. I added string beans and rice.. Mmmmm yummy.. Thanks for the recipe.. It was amazing
I am so glad you liked it Jasmine!!