This delicious hearty crock pot chicken stew is a healthy easy dinner recipe for the entire family. With tender chicken, potatoes, and veggies all in a seasoned chicken broth, it will become one of your family's favorite cold-weather meals.
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Introduction and My Rating
Like most of the soup/chili/stew recipes, I'm "cooking for two with leftovers." While this recipe is set for a full-size crock pot and 8 servings, it is a perfect recipe to downsize to a small crock pot (3.5 or 4-quart) and make only 4 servings.
The idea of a crock pot is to make your life easier. Not much is easier than this family-pleasing stew. Using things you probably have on hand anyway, you spend about 10 to 15 minutes preparation time and eat in 8 hours.
This is a simplified version of a slow cooker recipe that appears identically on multiple recipe sites. It is not only delicious but extremely simple to make.
This stew is loaded with chicken and veggies and delicious. It is easy to make with these simple step by step photo instructions.
My Rating:
I liked it a lot, and my wife loved it. It is so easy and really quite excellent for what it is. But all chicken stews are a bit bland.
🐓The Chicken
The amount of chicken, like most ingredients in may soups and stews can vary some. 1 ½ to 2 ½ pound range is fine.
I tend to always use skinless boneless chicken breast, but chicken thighs would be an excellent choice, also.
🧂Spicing Stew
The first thing to realize is that all chicken stews are a bit bland. Yep, chicken stew does not "pop" a lot of flavors, but that is just what a chicken stew is all about.
The original recipes called for one teaspoon of thyme. If you are a big thyme fan, great, but it is a bit much for us. I changed it to optional ½ to 1 teaspoon.
I think the optional tomatoes are a great addition. A can of Rotel has been suggested by some comments on this and other sites. It should be good if you want a little southwest taste (I would skip the thyme then).
Other suggestions would be ½ teaspoon of curry, paprika, or poultry seasoning.
🥄How to Thicken the Stew
The last issue is the thickness of this stew. This is a little thinner than most stews. Here are some options to thicken this stew if you want.
1) Don't add as much broth at the beginning. Just cut it in half. But you will want to replace the chicken taste with a bouillon cube.
2) Make a roux with flour and butter. For this option, with about 1 hour left in cooking, remove 1 cup of liquid from the stew. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When bubbling, whisk in 4 tablespoons of flour. Stir continuously and cook for 3-4 minutes, then add the liquid from the stew and whisk until smooth, add back to the stew and increase the crock pot to high for the last hour.
3) Thicken with potato. You can add ¼ to ½ cup of potato flakes near the end. OR dice one of the potatoes at the beginning of cooking very small. They will fall apart and thicken.
4) Tapioca: For this recipe, I would suggest 3-4 tablespoons of tapioca would be the best if you want thicker. You can add it about 30 minutes before done when adding the peas.
Not Recommended - My Opinion
1) Cornstarch: You could use cornstarch, but reheating can be a problem since it may have a gel-like texture when reheated. Also, there are texture issues when frozen.
2) "Cooking down" the stew. Some will recommend cooking longer or partly opening the lid of the cooker. I don't feel you will get enough effect to do much.
Storage
Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for 2-3 months.
📖Other Crock Pot Soups/Stews
Easy Crock Pot French Onion Soup
Crock Pot Ham Bone and Bean Soup
Extra Thick Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup
This recipe is part of Our Best Soups.
🖼️Photo Instructions
Prepare veggies. Chop one large onion, 4 peeled carrots, and 2 ribs of celery. Next 4-5 medium potatoes peeled and cut into ¾ to 1-inch cubes. Optional- 8 oz. mushrooms cleaned and halved.
Clean, trim, and cube about 2 pounds (about 3-4) skinless boneless chicken breasts.
Add the chicken, prepped veggies, 1 cup frozen corn, 28 oz chicken broth, 1 teaspoon celery seed, ½ to 1 teaspoon thyme, ½ teaspoon pepper, and optionally one 14 oz can diced tomatoes diced.
Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Add peas 30 minutes before the end of cooking. Also, 3 tablespoons tapioca if you want thicker chili. Please see the recipe posts for other options.
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📖 Recipe
Crock Pot Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Skinless boneless chicken breast - about 3– trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 onion - large – diced
- 4 carrots - pealed and cut into 1 inch slices
- 2 stalks celery - diced
- 4-5 potatoes - peeled and cut into ¾ to 1 inch cubes
- 8 oz mushrooms - cleaned and halved-optional
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 28 oz chicken broth
- 14 oz diced tomatoes - drained if you want a tomato based stew
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- ½ to 1 teaspoon dry thyme - to taste... this is a little much for some
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- While this recipe is set for a full-size crock pot and 8 servings, it is a perfect recipe to cut in half for a 3.5 or 4-quart crock pot and make only 4 servings.
- Prepare veggies. Chop one large onion, 4 peeled carrots, and 2 ribs of celery. Next 4-5 medium potatoes peeled and cut into ¾ to 1-inch cubes. Optional - 8 oz. mushrooms cleaned and halved.
- Clean, trim, and cube about 2 pounds (about 3-4) skinless boneless chicken breasts.
- Add the chicken, prepped veggies, 1 cup frozen corn, 28 oz chicken broth, 1 teaspoon celery seed, ½ to 1 teaspoon thyme, ½ teaspoon pepper, and optionally one 14 oz can diced tomatoes diced.
- Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
- Add peas 30 minutes before the end of cooking. Also, 3 tablespoons tapioca if you want thicker chili.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- While this recipe is set for a full-size crock pot and 8 servings, it is a perfect recipe to downsize to a 3.5 or 4-quart crock pot and make only 4 servings.
- The amount of chicken, like most ingredients in may soups and stews can vary some. 1 ½ to 2 ½ pound range is fine. Use either breast or thighs.
- Like most chicken stews, this is a bland recipe. Spice to your taste. Thyme is suggest by most but we usually leave it out. Other possible spicing options ½ teaspoon of curry, paprika, or poultry seasoning.
- This is a thinner stew. In the recipe I used tapioca but I provided 4 options in the post if you want thicker stew.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for 2-3 months.
- Serving size is about 1 ½ cups or a little more if you add the tomatoes.
Nutrition
Editor's note: Originally published January 12, 2011. It has long suffered in need of a rewrite and editing of pictures. It is just a very nice stew. Please enjoy the redo.
Lisa
An easy way to thicken a soup is to take a few scoops out of the pot (meat, veggies and all)
and give it a quick spin in the blender, then add that back to the pot. Even easier-use an
immersion style blender and thicken it right in the pot.
Simple!
Jon
I am curious as to why a crockpot should only be 1/2-2/3 full. I often times fill mine to the brim.
DrDan
For more even cooking and that is how they are designed (I'm told). Have said that, I too have "crowded" the pot almost to the top with little if any detectable ill effect but I think it is a good rule of thumb to determine the size of pot to use.
DrDan
Kim
I have made this multiple times. It always turns out great! I served it to my Mom when she was visiting, to some friends, they all loved it. My teen daughter really loves it. We do not eat red meat, so this is a good alternative to beef stew, particularly when it's cool outside. I can't imagine why anyone would think it was bland, but I just want to say that we love it. Thanks for the easy, great, healthy recipe! BTW, I followed it almost to the T - I just used vegetable broth today because I was out of chicken broth (yes, its cooking now)... : ) on the two days I work at home, I put something in the crock pot before I begin work..
DrDan
Thanks. It is what it is. This is just right for me most of the time but I do have some really spiced up recipes also.
Kristen
I always feel guilty when something so easy to cook tastes good. You feel like you should have worked much harder for such a great result. I pretty much stuck to the recipe and it turned out great. Added a little cornstarch mixed in water to thicken it up with about 30 minutes left in cooking.
DrDan
I feel guilty but not much...
Niyair
Pretty bland i had to add a lot of other seasoning to it to give it some taste. I would cut the broth down also in the future. Smells good though
Dan Mikesell
Yep... a bit bland for some but just right for a lot of people. To spice up some, I would add 1-2 t of chili powder and 1 tsp of cumin. Then if doing tomato add a can of RoTel or 1-2 cups of salsa.
BobRob
Bland, bland, bland. A waste of time. We had one serving and trashed the rest.
Ash
I found the flavor to be good; I didn't have any thyme, but I did have a poultry seasoning blend that listed thyme as the first ingredient so I used it instead. The consistency was very watery though..like a soup instead of a stew. What would you recommend to thicken it up? I tried adding a flour slurry at the same time as the peas but it didn't make a difference. Maybe add the flour from the beginning?
And just a side note, I used both breasts and very well trimmed boneless, skinless thighs because that's what got defrosted. The thighs were much better than the breasts, which I found to be a little dry despite the watery consistency.
Ok one more sidenote, because it sounds like I'm bashing the recipe and I don't mean to. It was good, just needs some tweaking
Dan Mikesell
I have never had much luck thickening in a crock pot. With the usual flour or corn starch, it don't work for me without boiling. I understand arrowroot works at lower temps and may try that some time. You can thicken by reduction, try the top off for the last hour and turn them temp up... Maybe a cup of instant potatoes. Or just cut out a can of broth.
Regarding the breast/thighs, I'm kind of your low fat, doctor type person and has never been a big thigh guy. With the extra fat in the thigh, I would think they might hold up better.
Thanks for the comments
Shandi paul
Made this for the first time ever, husband told me that it was the best stew i've ever made. Thanks, I will be making this again for sure. Only found this site two days ago.
Susenna Singh
I went home during my lunch hour to check on it as it was my first time making and i found it really bland... I followed the recipe exactly ... so im not sure whats happening. Before leaving... I did add a bit of salt and a can of Cream of Broc soup to hopefully give it a bit more flavor. Hopefully dinner will turn out *Yikes*
Gail Keller
Tried this recipe yesterday and I think it would be much better without the thyme. The 1t was way too overpowering (taste and smell) for us. Will try again without the thyme.
Dan Mikesell
There is definitely a thyme taste and smell that I'm fine with but thanks for the comment that may be useful to others with the same taste. Cut it back or out and post a comment about how it went if you would.
Donna Diamond
Ok thanks! I'm preparing it right now, we can't wait to try it!!
Dan Mikesell
I'm going on memory but I believe the 8 severing are 12 -16 oz (1.5 to 2 cups). I don't do small servings... There is a lot.
Donna Diamond
I'm going to try this recipe today! Does anyone know how big a serving size is?
Dan Mikesell
This is one of my favorites. The 5 yr old actually eating second is good stuff.
Carey
Made this tonight... my 5 year old asked for seconds! Which is HUGE!!! Really good stuff! :)
Dr Dan
It came, I thank, from one of the recipe sites. But I found the same identical recipe on many sites. My contribution was to simplify things and I changed from cups of the veggies to the 4 carrots or 2stalks of celery etc. The worcestershire sounds good and I think I will try the flour when I do this again.
Julie
Also, I add a little flour and cold water at the end of cooking, and stir over the heat until thickened to form the gravy.
Julie
I've been using this recipe for a few years and it's one of our favorites. I sear the chicken on both sides and don't cut it into pieces until the stew is finished cooking. Also, we prefer it without the tomatoes, so I'll add a little worcestershire sauce sometimes, as a little acidity really complements it. Thanks for postiing the recipe. The place where I originally saw (what looks identical) is no longer online. :)
Dr Dan
Not as written. This is a 6.5 qt. It is about 2/3 full. Generally a crock pot should be 1/2 to 2/3 full if possible. Cut it in half for the small crock pot.
Diana Rodriguez
Can I use a 4qt crock pot for this?
Carey
I did, and it came out perfect! 4 hours on high.
Dan Mikesell
I assume you mean a 4 qt. I tried to add it up and thought it was just about 4 qts. How full was it?
Dr Dan
This is a 6 1/2 qt. All Clad. I don't think it would fit in anything under 5 qt. The liquid is not much but you have the potatoes, meat and and veggies. I adds up.
I'm just starting a small crock pot series today with a 3 1/2 qt cooker and chicken noodle soup.
Emily
What size crick pot do you use? It doesn't seem like much liquid is called for.
Martha (MM)
And this one too!!
Kelly Anne
I really enjoy all your post and recipes! Keep them coming!
Jeffrey and Juli
Looks yummy!