RECIPE 12#: Fricasseed Chicken (Brown Stew Chicken…?)

So I was told today that I need to slow down. Apparently, I have cooked so much that we have food for days, we can’t eat it fast enough. So I didn’t cook all week. My hands were itching to get to the pot.  I had chicken in the fridge and I went searching for brown stew chicken in The COOKBOOK, but I couldn’t find it.  The only thing I found was  Fricasseed Chicken, the recipe sounds very similar to Brown Stew Chicken, so maybe that’s it?

Here is the recipe from the book

• 1 chicken, 4lb
• juice of 1 lime
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 2 onions
• 2 tomatoes
• 3-4 slices of hot pepper
• 1 whole hot pepper
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2-3 cups water

Wash and dry the chicken, removing any feathers still remaining on it.  Rub it all over with the lime juice.  Cut into joints and place them in a bowl.  Season with salt and plenty black pepper, add garlic, thyme, onions, tomatoes, and hot pepper.  Mix well and leave the chicken to marinate for 15 mins.

Remove the chicken pieces from the bowl, and fry them in oil until very brown.  Fry as many pieces as the pan will hold without overlapping, and when they are all browned, remove them from the pan.  Take the pan off the heat for a minute or so for it to cool a little, then lower the heat, put the pan back, and scape in the seasoning in which the chicken was marinated.  Stir for a minutes or so, then pour the water, bring to a boil, and add the chicken pieces.  Cover the pan and simmer for 1 hour or until the chicken is tender but not falling apart.  Be careful not to break the whole hot pepper.

Taste the juices for salt and if the gravy is too liquid, reduce it by increasing the heat, leaving the cover off, until the excess liquid evaporates.  Remove the whole pepper before serving.

Here is what I did:

First of all, there was noooo way I was plucking feathers of a chicken for the morning. I decided to just use the chicken I had in the fridge, which were just drumsticks. I cleaned it and then seasoned the chicken with all of the spices, (a little extra hot pepper and salt lol) and I marinated the chicken over night.

The next day, I took the chicken out and picked of the seasonings to fry.  If you fry it with the seasonings, such as onion, still attached the seasoning will burn and make the oil pop. It’s an extra step, but very worth it. I used a mix of half oil and half butter.  I fried the chicken, just a few at a time.

I removed each piece, once it was browned on all sides, and continued until the entire batch was cooked.  Then I put them to the side.

I could have eaten them then…if they weren’t still raw.  Don’t eat them yet.. lol

Then I added the seasoning to the pot.

Yumm…Once, those were giving off a delicious aroma, I added a little water. A little less than the recipe called for, because for some reason I am not good at reducing water down.

I added the chicken back to the pot and covered the pot for an hour. The water did reduce well this time.. surprise surprise… the one time I add less water…smh.  Once it was done, yumm.. very flavorful, not too spicy but I didn’t mind. The next day the chicken was even better. I served it with white rice and avocado slices.

Notice..I am working on my plating skills.. LOL!! How am I doing?