Stew Chicken (Belize) Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What is Jamaican brown stew chicken made of? ›

In Jamaica, what defines brown stew chicken is that the chicken is seared in oil and then braised in a brown gravy with sweet bell peppers and a kick of Scotch bonnet, although the specific recipe can vary from kitchen to kitchen.

A stewing hen's lean meat contains a high level of connective tissue, which works wonderfully for slow cooked dishes such as stew, soup, and chicken and dumplings.

The specific jerk spice, which is native to Jamaica, is typically dry rubbed on various meats (famously, jerk chicken), which gives it a hot and spicy, truly unique taste that is hard to forget and difficult to resist.

The meal's origins are Jamaican; in “Caribbean Cooking,” John DeMers even refers to stew peas as the country's national dish. Red peas, as kidney beans are known in Jamaica, are cooked down and mellowed with coconut milk, then stewed with beef, pork or even vegetarian alternatives.

The flour helps to thicken a stew as it cooks. Whisk a teaspoon of flour in a little cold water to make a slurry, then stir into the stew as it's cooking. Don't add dry flour directly to the stew as it may clump. After adding the slurry, bring the stew to boil.

For most types of stew, it takes time to develop great flavor. Stew uses collagen-rich, tough cuts of meat, which need at least two hours to break down. If you try to rush it and boil the stew, the muscle fibers will shrink and become tough. So give yourself a few hours to let it do its thing.

Vinegar can add depth of flavour to soups, sauces, and stews. Especially great for tomato-based recipes, you can add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar towards the end of the cooking process to amplify the flavours of your other ingredients.

The egg laying chickens are called stewing hens once they are butchered. They also earned the nickname, “tough old birds”, for their tougher than average meat. These chickens, like those of the past, have needed to be cooked for long periods of time in order to unlock their tasty and nutritionally dense magic.

Unlike these others, stewing hens need to be cooked low and slow with liquid like broth or water to have a tender texture. These hens tend to have meat that is a bit on the tougher side, and the liquid helps tenderize the meat with a low and moist cooking method.

What is the difference between a stewing chicken and a regular chicken? ›

Stewing chickens are usually laying hens that have passed their prime. They are older and their meat is usually tougher and more stringy. This type of chicken is best used in stews (as the name implies!)

Common chicken stew seasonings include bay leaves, fresh thyme, minced garlic (or garlic powder), and salt and pepper. Stewed chicken recipes have less liquid than a chicken soup and you can make the dish in Dutch oven or saucepan on your stovetop, or even in a slow cooker.

Stewing – Adding Liquid

To prevent burning, add some additional water, stock, broth or wine, just so the bottom of the pot is covered in liquid. When using foods with a high water content like tomatoes, you can spare on the amount of liquid added.

Spices and Seasonings: A blend of dark brown sugar, browning sauce, fresh thyme, sweet paprika, ground ginger, chili powder, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, ground allspice, and dried bay leaves, each contributing to the rich, complex flavor profile of the stew.

Freshly grated ginger, brown sugar, nutmeg, allspice berries, cinnamon, dried thyme (or fresh), salt and black pepper. Chicken. You can use any cuts of chicken to make jerk chicken.

Jamaican browning sauce combines brown sugar and hot boiling water to form a syrup-like sauce and it's used to enhance the flavors of many dishes like stews, gravy, cakes, etc. In addition, it give a rich color to your dish.