Chicken stew is a delicious, warming meal. It is simple to make and you can make a lot of different variations of this tasty dish. Chicken stew actually has a fascinating history and this dish has been enjoyed for many centuries.
A stew is a combination of two or more foods simmered in a liquid. Coq au vin, Hungarian goulash, beef bourguignon, and beef stroganoff are all examples of stews.
The oldest cookbook ever found, the "Apicius de re Coquinaria", contains stew recipes, although these are fish and lamb stews rather than chicken stews. The identity of the author is unknown although there were three Romans with that name between 1 BC and 2 AD and the book is believed to date from that era.
It is possible to go back even further. Primitive tribes boiled foods together, which is what a stew is. Amazonian tribes used turtle shells to cook in and boiled the turtle entrails with other ingredients. Clam shells and similar were used by other cultures as cooking pots. This kind of cookery is proved to go back seven or eight thousand years with the archeological evidence we have access to. Pottery was invented about ten thousand years ago and this would have made cooking easier, especially dishes like stew.
Chicken has been domesticated for thousands of years and chicken stew recipes have been enjoyed throughout history too. Different cultures have different types of chicken stews. Examples include spicy Indian curry chicken stew and the chicken in black bean sauce, which is favored in Cuba.
Different Types of Chicken Stew
One type of chicken stew, which is a couple of hundred years old, is chicken booyah. This is like a thick soup or a thin stew and is eaten in northeast Wisconsin. The first Belgian immigrants came to Wisconsin in 1853 and they spoke a language called Walloon, which is nothing like English or French. It is thought that the Belgian wrote down booyah because he did not know how to spell bouillon and the name stuck.
Southern Chicken Stew
You might have heard of southern chicken stew too and it is still a very popular dish in some states, especially North Carolina. To make this dish, a whole chicken is parboiled in a milk or cream based broth and butter, salt, and pepper are added as well as other ingredients. This stew varies from thin to thick in consistency and from white to yellow in color, depending on the amount of butter or margarine used. Saltine crackers are often served with this dish.
Southern chicken stew is often served in the coolest months of the year and the phrase "chicken stew" can refer to the gathering itself rather than the food. A chicken stew recipe is usually thought of as a comfort food because these recipes are cheap to make, enjoyed by nearly everybody and they are warming and flavorful. This is a common dish served at social gatherings such as church fellowships, family reunions, and community fundraisers.
The chicken stew at these events will often be made in a big cast iron or stainless steel cooking pot, maybe outdoors over an open fire. You might get coleslaw, a grilled cheese sandwich or rice served with the chicken stew.