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
So I have been looking for a chicken stew recipe that tastes like the stew our local volunteer fire departments make. This is it!!! It’s all good! And my whole family begs for my leftovers! Thanks!
My family and I have made this recipe multiple times now and it never fails. Not even when we make it vegan by substituting chickpeas for the chicken (although the original is the best). I am now going to hoard your cookbooks LOL. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!!! I am so glad to hear you like the stew and LOVE hearing it turns out great as a vegan dish!
Chesty what you have is what is what you call it “chicken stew “pretty much recipe that real chicken stew cookers in Lauderdale County use when you go adding those beans an peas an veg all you have vegetable soup but it is all good.I know lots of discussions goes on about that
Christy, I made this and enjoyed it so very much! Your recipe has given me a tomato based recipe to alternate with a milk based recipe I’ve been using for more than 30 years!
Thank you for this!
Thank you Kimbra, I am so glad you liked it!!!
Hello, I have a question about the instructions. In the directions, it says to simmer potatoes in cp cup of broth, yet the photo shows you adding the potatoes to all of the broth.. it looks like 7 or more cups. Which is the best way? Thanks
I can’t tell you how glad I was when I ran across this recipe.
Ihave searched all over the net, Google, Pinterest, You Tube…all over with not a single red chicken stew coming up.
When I lived in Western New York this or one similar to this stew was sold as a fund raiser. I forget if it was the VFW, or volunteer fire or what but I would buy it by the gallon. I’ve loved it and tried endlessly to find it. Now…HaHaHa, hallelujah. You’ve made me so happy.
I will be making this very soon.
Also I will try to adapt it to the Instant Pot.
If anyone has already done this please contact me or enter it in Facebook’s ‘Instant Pot Community’.
Thanks again, so much!
I made in the instapot today by putting frozen chicken breasts, onion, and potatoes all in at the same time with enough cups of water to cover and cooked on sauté mode. Once the potatoes were tender about 30 minutes, shredded chicken and added all other ingredients (used frozen corn and butterbeans) besides butter which I’ll add right before eating and switched to slow cooker because I wasn’t in a rush to eat. I would imagine you could cook on soup mode for a minute or two for the frozen veggies and to meld the flavor and have the stew in under an hour counting release time.
We’ve ❤d this for most of my life. We call it red soup and we just add tomato sauce rather than a can of tomatoes. Just before serving, a can of cream corn thickens broth.