Everyday Dorie: Chicken and Beer Stew

March 25, 2022 at 5:27 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, soups | 4 Comments
Tags: everyday dorie, savory, stew

This Chicken and Beer Stew is really supposed to be Beef and Beer Stew, but as I don’t eat read meat, I made some mods so I could try it, too. I actually nominated it for this month, thinking it would be good for St. Paddy’s day, when really it’s based on a Flemish carbonnade. I’m all over the place.

I swapped boneless, skinless chicken thighs, turkey bacon and chicken stock for the other meaty stuff, but followed all the flavorings (spices, mustard, a bit of brown sugar, dark Belgian ale, etc) and flavor-building steps (browning the meat, caramelizing the onions forever, etc) Dorie had listed. I did not, however do the multi-hour oven braise for my dish, because I knew the chicken thighs didn’t need that. I just kept everything on the stove-top for cooking. Following Dorie’s “chockful of vegetables” suggestion, I added in some carrot and baby potato chunks, and let everything low-bubble braise on the stove for 30-45 mins. When the saucy stuff was reduced a bit and everything else was tender and stewed, I called it done. Well, almost. My stew was kind of pale in comparison to the dark color of a beef one. I stirred in a dash of super-dark mushroom soy sauce, my secret ingredient for boosting color and umami when I am doing red to white meat replacements.

The weather is always up and down here in March, but the past several days have been chilly, so it was a nice cozy dinner for last night. I didn’t bother to cook noodles as Dorie suggests, since I had those potatoes in my stew. I like the little bit of sweetness the dish has, but I did save adding the splash of cider vinegar to the pot until after it was off the heat, so it would cut that and brighten the flavors up a bit. I’m looking forward to round two tonight, as stuff like this usually gets better the next day.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.

4 Comments »

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This looks fabulous. I love that you showed us how to do it with chicken and the tips for getting a deeper color, etc. Carrots in stew are a must here at our house…and potatoes would be more appreciated than noodles with Mark for sure. Great post, I learned a lot.

Comment by Kayte— March 25, 2022 #

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I would have enjoyed your version much better, but my husband loved the beef one! Great job on the modifications!

Comment by isthisakeeper— March 27, 2022 #

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Great substitutions and I am glad you enjoyed it.

Comment by Diane Zwang— March 27, 2022 #

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Who says the beer stew has to combine with red meat? I get a kick when I get the method right and then apply that with adaptations of my own. You make a stew that’s uniquely yours.

Comment by Shirley @ EverOpenSauce— March 28, 2022 #

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