CHICKEN STEW – Comfort Food Remedy on a Cold Day

It was a dark and stormy day….the rain fell in torrents leaving running streams and rivers along with ponds and puddles in the roadways and yards. The wind turned raindrops into miniature ice needles pelting against your skin as you ran from the safe cover of your vehicle to the warmth of your house. You felt chilled to the bone and longed for a nice hot bowl of something that could warm your body, mind and soul. You search through your cookbooks but they fall short of exactly what you think you are looking for until you come to an old spiral bound cookbook your mother gave you many years ago called big mama’s Old Black Pot by Ethel Dixon. As you paw through the recipes desperately searching for the perfect one that will jump out at you as the one that can warm you up, you come across “Grandpa Shorty’s Rabbit Stew”. You do not have access to rabbits at your fingertips, but you did just purchase a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are sitting in the fridge and you think, “Hmmm….they could work”. You use Grandpa Shorty’s recipe as a basis for your “Chicken Stew”, tweak it here and tweak it there, and begin your quest for the perfect steaming hot bowl of Chicken Stew as your cold day remedy.

You take:

1 pkg. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Cover them with water and add

½ sweet Vidalia onion, chopped fine, and sprinkle that with

Salt and pepper – bring all that boil and cook until chicken is tender

You then add:

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained

1 14 oz can of sweet white corn, drained

3 slices of salt pork, chopped fine – bring all that to boil again, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes –

You then add a chicken bouillon cube and

3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into ½ inch pieces. You then cover and cook until potatoes are tender –about 30 to 40 minutes. You use two forks to pull apart the tender chicken breast meat, if they have not already fallen apart. You then add a thickener, like butter mixed with flour, or cornstarch mixed with water and thicken up your stew - if, or as much as, you like.

Finally, you ladle up a bowl of your Chicken Stew, add a couple of warm dinner rolls with lots of creamy butter, a glass of sweet tea and dig in. When you take that first steaming bite, you melt away the cold from that rainy, stormy day and warm up your insides – body, mind and soul. Who knew? Chicken Stew –the perfect comfort food remedy for a cold day!