Brown Stew Chicken

Son of a Southern Chef

This week we have the brown stew chicken to go with the rice and peas we made last week!

I would definitely do some things differently, making this again, but the results were delicious. It was not the spicy dish I was expecting knowing the Caribbean origin, which for my family is a good thing. (If you do want spice, you can always add your favorite hot sauce!) I don't know how authentic this is, since this cuisine is out of my usual wheelhouse. If you know better, let me know in the comments!

You can watch Lazarus Lynch make this recipe himself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDHxcgn-cos

Watch me make the rice and peas: https://cookwithheather.com/Son-of-a-Southern-Chef-Rice-and-Peas/

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we are going to be
[00:09]: working from lazarus lynch's uh son of a
[00:12]: southern chef cookbook once again and we
[00:15]: are going to be making brown stew
[00:17]: chicken
[00:19]: this is not actually
[00:20]: a stew but it's more of a braised
[00:23]: chicken dish
[00:24]: and
[00:26]: you should serve it with rice and peas
[00:27]: which we will also be making today but
[00:29]: that will be in a video that hopefully
[00:30]: you'll have seen before and i'll link it
[00:32]: up here
[00:33]: um
[00:35]: so first thing we have to do
[00:38]: is
[00:39]: um
[00:40]: marinate our chicken so it's about
[00:43]: one o'clock on the day we want to eat
[00:45]: you can do this overnight or just at
[00:48]: least two hours in the refrigerator but
[00:50]: i've got everything ready so we'll have
[00:52]: plenty of time we'll probably start
[00:53]: cooking at about five o'clock so we'll
[00:54]: get about four hours
[00:56]: in the refrigerator
[00:58]: so
[00:59]: um
[00:60]: one of the things that i had to buy
[01:02]: specifically for this recipe is called
[01:04]: browning sauce so in the book he says
[01:07]: there are several different
[01:10]: brands and stuff but this is the one
[01:11]: that he suggested this is a grace
[01:13]: browning sauce i just bought it off the
[01:15]: internet because i couldn't find it in
[01:17]: any of my local grocery stores it might
[01:19]: exist it just i couldn't find it online
[01:21]: and i didn't want to go searching all
[01:24]: over everywhere for it um
[01:27]: but it was easy to buy and it was not
[01:29]: super expensive it's probably cheaper if
[01:31]: you could find in a grocery store but
[01:32]: anyway there's another ingredient i also
[01:34]: had to to get online from this same
[01:37]: company
[01:38]: that i had never heard of or seen before
[01:39]: so we'll talk about that in a little bit
[01:42]: um
[01:44]: but this is going to be the marinade so
[01:46]: this is not a very
[01:48]: wet marinade it's
[01:50]: a bunch of vegetables i assume
[01:52]: salt and
[01:53]: spices will and sugar will sort of draw
[01:55]: some of the water out of the chicken but
[01:58]: we're doing it according to the recipe
[02:00]: so
[02:02]: um
[02:03]: i'm going to add all of the ingredients
[02:06]: into this plastic bag and then we're
[02:07]: gonna put it in our chicken and i'll
[02:08]: talk about that when we get there so
[02:10]: we've got
[02:11]: some diced onion
[02:17]: and
[02:18]: some chopped scallions
[02:24]: there we go
[02:26]: um we have some minced garlic
[02:30]: i may have gone a little heavy on the
[02:31]: garlic but not too bad
[02:35]: could never be enough garlic in my
[02:37]: opinion
[02:38]: um we have some brown sugar this is dark
[02:41]: brown sugar and there's not a whole lot
[02:42]: of it
[02:43]: um
[02:44]: [Music]
[02:45]: we need i'm gonna do this last so we're
[02:48]: gonna have some time i chopped it up a
[02:51]: little bit my time is not looking so
[02:53]: great right now but i got as much off as
[02:55]: i could and
[02:56]: that should be fine
[02:58]: um we have some
[03:00]: dry spices we have some paprika some
[03:03]: ground ginger so this is
[03:05]: um dried ground ginger not the fresh
[03:08]: stuff specifically calls for
[03:10]: ground ginger
[03:11]: and
[03:12]: some a little bit of chili powder
[03:15]: in there
[03:16]: um i'm gonna go ahead and do salt
[03:18]: because that's a nice dry ingredient try
[03:21]: to get the
[03:24]: brown sugar off my
[03:26]: spoon
[03:28]: got some salt
[03:36]: and then i'm just gonna guess with the
[03:37]: pepper
[03:42]: okay
[03:43]: it'll be fine
[03:45]: and the last thing we put in here is
[03:47]: this browning sauce
[03:49]: it seems to be like caramelized sugar
[03:52]: and salt and
[03:54]: um he does say that if you absolutely
[03:57]: must you can use kitchen bouquet which i
[03:59]: have used in the past and is more
[04:01]: available around here but
[04:04]: i just
[04:06]: got this instead since he says this is
[04:08]: his favorite
[04:12]: i'm gonna try to get as much out as i
[04:14]: can into the bag
[04:17]: there we go
[04:19]: and
[04:20]: we are going to combine it i'm just
[04:21]: going to
[04:23]: mix this up a little bit before i add
[04:25]: the chicken
[04:27]: and see this is not at all a wet
[04:30]: marinade
[04:32]: so
[04:34]: now the chicken he calls for
[04:36]: um boneless skinless chicken just eight
[04:40]: pieces of it um
[04:42]: i did not want chicken breast
[04:45]: because
[04:46]: with stewing method often it will end up
[04:49]: kind of dry
[04:50]: um i don't know if that's what he
[04:52]: normally uses he just says any chicken
[04:54]: pieces
[04:55]: so i just picked up or i had my
[04:58]: assistant go to the grocery store and
[04:60]: picked up um
[05:01]: boneless chick skinless chicken thighs
[05:04]: so
[05:06]: we have these here
[05:08]: and i'm gonna figure out how to open the
[05:10]: package
[05:11]: maybe
[05:12]: [Music]
[05:13]: there we go
[05:21]: so i just use my hands for this so i can
[05:22]: um and i'll
[05:25]: wash my hands after this before i
[05:26]: massage the bag just because i didn't
[05:28]: want to dirty another piece of equipment
[05:31]: so these are just going in whole
[05:33]: directly from the package
[05:49]: okay so hands washed now all i have to
[05:51]: do is close this up
[05:53]: and massage
[05:57]: the marinade into the chicken
[05:59]: and toss it all up really well to make
[06:02]: sure they're all
[06:03]: coated
[06:13]: there we go and this goes in the
[06:14]: refrigerator for
[06:16]: at least two hours up to overnight and
[06:18]: we'll be back when it's time to cook
[06:22]: so our chicken has been marinating
[06:24]: for oh it's much later than i said
[06:26]: serves like five hours or so
[06:29]: and now we're gonna take it out
[06:30]: he says to line your baking sheet line a
[06:34]: baking sheet with parchment but it's not
[06:36]: going in the oven and we're supposed to
[06:39]: um
[06:42]: uh
[06:44]: pat this dry with paper towels
[06:46]: so i just
[06:50]: put paper towels on it so i'm just
[06:52]: taking out
[06:53]: my chicken pieces
[06:55]: i'm trying to get as much of the bits of
[06:57]: the marinade off as i can we are going
[06:59]: to use those
[07:01]: later so we're reserving this marinade
[07:04]: [Applause]
[07:08]: we're supposed to take this off and dry
[07:10]: it off
[07:12]: that's all of our chicken pieces
[07:14]: i'm going to put my marinade to the side
[07:17]: because we're gonna use it again pretty
[07:18]: soon but we we're gonna pat this dry
[07:21]: with paper towels and then we're gonna
[07:23]: let it sit for about
[07:24]: 10 minutes to warm up a little bit
[07:26]: before we use it
[07:29]: so um i do have everything else that i
[07:32]: need for this recipe already
[07:35]: laid out here almost everything i'm also
[07:37]: going to need some chicken stock that i
[07:38]: don't have here it's behind me um we
[07:40]: have some carrots some
[07:43]: bay leaves some ketchup
[07:45]: some tomato and then a little bit of
[07:47]: ground allspice goes in here so
[07:51]: so i'm gonna pat this dry with paper
[07:52]: towels and we'll see you in it again in
[07:54]: about 10 minutes when we're ready to
[07:56]: cook it
[07:58]: i've got
[07:59]: a
[08:00]: this is a large
[08:03]: heavy bottomed
[08:04]: pot or a dutch oven this is what i've
[08:07]: decided to cook mine in today
[08:11]: um i've got some
[08:13]: grapeseed oil any kind of vegetable oil
[08:18]: any kind of neutral vegetable oil would
[08:20]: be fine canola oil or vegetable oil is
[08:22]: what he says
[08:23]: heating on medium high heat first we're
[08:27]: going to brown our chicken so
[08:31]: as soon as this gets
[08:32]: pretty warm
[08:35]: let's get in there
[08:37]: um i'm going to try to brown it on all
[08:40]: sides
[08:41]: so
[08:42]: uh i'm gonna wait till it gets pretty
[08:44]: warm because
[08:46]: boneless skinless chicken was gonna
[08:48]: stick in my opinion so we'll see
[08:53]: let's see
[08:57]: there we go
[08:60]: i can fit maybe two or three of these in
[09:03]: at one time probably three
[09:09]: and so i'm going to be trying to get
[09:11]: these golden brown and delicious and
[09:13]: then i'm going to put them on the plate
[09:14]: until they're all ready because i cannot
[09:17]: fit them all
[09:18]: um
[09:19]: in the bottom
[09:20]: of this pot at once to brown them so we
[09:23]: don't want to crowd it and
[09:25]: not
[09:26]: not get the brown
[09:28]: then they'll steam
[09:30]: my chicken is sticking pretty bad in
[09:32]: this pan
[09:34]: but that's okay because we're gonna add
[09:35]: some stock and some other things and we
[09:37]: can get up all of the little brown bits
[09:39]: and
[09:40]: it'll be fine
[09:44]: so you can see that uh some of the
[09:46]: little
[09:47]: bits of the chicken have pulled off
[09:49]: we're not trying to cook it right here
[09:51]: we're just trying to brown it
[09:52]: and i'm about ready to call this brown
[09:55]: and it's just that brown um
[10:04]: okay
[10:06]: all of my ingredients laid out
[10:07]: and
[10:08]: [Music]
[10:13]: i'm going to add
[10:15]: some stock this is what i chose um this
[10:18]: i need the whole
[10:20]: whole thing
[10:21]: yes we need the whole thing
[10:36]: it's quite a bit of chicken stock
[10:38]: we're going to add um the reserved
[10:41]: marinades this is all of the basically
[10:43]: onions and a little bit of spices
[10:45]: and
[10:48]: scallions green onions and that grace
[10:51]: browning sauce
[10:56]: okay
[10:57]: that would be fine
[10:59]: yep we have some carrots some bay leaves
[11:02]: i just sliced the carrots
[11:04]: we have some tomato
[11:08]: diced up
[11:09]: um some ground allspice i've measured
[11:12]: this before
[11:14]: and
[11:15]: some ketchup
[11:18]: we're just gonna
[11:22]: stir this sort of all together i had a
[11:25]: really dark layer of brown stuff on the
[11:28]: bottom
[11:29]: which i'm hoping all of this will just
[11:31]: loosen up from the bottom of my pot
[11:35]: but
[11:37]: we're going to bring this
[11:40]: i'm going to cover it
[11:42]: and bring it to a boil
[11:44]: for about 10 minutes he says
[11:47]: i don't know if that's
[11:49]: bring it to a boil and boil it for 10
[11:51]: minutes or bring it to a boil about 10
[11:53]: minutes
[11:55]: so we're going to bring this to a boil
[11:57]: he says about 10 minutes i don't know if
[11:58]: he wants us to boil it for 10 minutes or
[11:60]: not
[12:01]: i'm gonna bring it to a boil
[12:03]: then we take the lid off
[12:05]: reduce the heat to low
[12:08]: put the lid back on
[12:11]: and
[12:12]: cook it for about 45 minutes at a simmer
[12:16]: until the chicken is tender and the
[12:18]: sauce is reduced by about half i'm not
[12:21]: sure the sauce will reduce very much
[12:23]: with the lid on because this is a pretty
[12:25]: tight fitting lid it's not gonna
[12:27]: not a lot of um
[12:29]: of the steam is gonna escape this lid
[12:30]: but we'll see we're gonna follow the
[12:33]: directions
[12:34]: but uh we'll see you back here
[12:36]: in about 45 minutes
[12:40]: plus a little bit
[12:42]: and see what it looks like when it's all
[12:43]: done
[12:44]: okay my chicken timer still has a few
[12:46]: more minutes on it but i thought i would
[12:48]: take the lid off and see where we are
[12:50]: with the whole
[12:51]: reducing of the sauce and
[12:54]: as i expected the sauce is pretty much
[12:58]: exactly where it was before so i think
[13:00]: i'm going to turn the heat up a little
[13:01]: bit
[13:03]: i'm sure the chicken is done and
[13:04]: everything's ready but i just want to
[13:06]: reduce the sauce right now so i'm going
[13:08]: to turn the heat up a little bit and let
[13:09]: it go for a little while longer
[13:11]: and i'll let you know what we think in
[13:14]: just a minute
[13:22]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:23]: with heather you watched me make the
[13:25]: brown stew chicken from lazarus lynch's
[13:28]: son of a southern chef cookbook
[13:32]: now
[13:34]: i had a
[13:35]: small problem with this uh
[13:38]: recipe in that
[13:41]: at the end it tells you to reduce the
[13:43]: sauce
[13:45]: but the lid is on it so
[13:48]: remove the lid reduce the heat to low
[13:50]: and then cover and cook it until it's
[13:52]: tender and the sauce is reduced my sauce
[13:54]: did not reduce at all with the lid on it
[13:56]: so afterwards i had to
[13:59]: um
[14:00]: cook it longer and until my chicken
[14:02]: basically was all falling apart a little
[14:04]: bit stringy
[14:06]: still tasted delicious um
[14:09]: but it the kids really loved it um we
[14:12]: liked it just fine
[14:14]: i was expecting so my husband was
[14:17]: talking with his
[14:20]: one of his physical therapists about
[14:22]: this she's from st thomas i believe and
[14:26]: it's a family thing that they make there
[14:29]: and he was expecting there to be a lot
[14:31]: of spice in this
[14:33]: but there was none
[14:34]: like spices in heat like a habanero or a
[14:37]: scotch bonnet or something like that and
[14:39]: there's not that in
[14:41]: this recipe
[14:42]: um
[14:43]: you are supposed to serve it with rice
[14:45]: and peas which we did make and there
[14:47]: we'll talk about that
[14:49]: in that video if we've already made it
[14:51]: i'll link it up here um
[14:54]: but uh
[14:55]: there's no spice in this recipe no no
[14:58]: heat in this recipe so the kids loved it
[15:00]: and um it was it was really delicious
[15:04]: we barely had any leftovers
[15:07]: another problem i have with a lot of
[15:10]: cookbooks
[15:11]: is when
[15:13]: the picture
[15:14]: doesn't match
[15:16]: the result that you get from the recipe
[15:19]: and that's that is the case here and for
[15:21]: both of these dishes in in this dish the
[15:24]: chicken has bones it also has he's also
[15:28]: eating a plantain and the
[15:30]: rice and peas that you serve it with
[15:32]: does not look anything like what his
[15:34]: recipe will make
[15:37]: i understand that it's
[15:39]: prettier and all of that but it does not
[15:41]: it kind of annoys me when um
[15:44]: you're making a recipe and the picture
[15:46]: in the book
[15:47]: it just can't be what
[15:51]: you make is not what the the
[15:53]: instructions
[15:55]: lead you to so
[15:58]: that being said
[15:60]: we really did like it i think we would
[16:02]: prefer it as the adults with a little
[16:04]: bit of spice in it and definitely i
[16:06]: would um
[16:09]: cook the chicken
[16:10]: in the sauce with the lid off next time
[16:13]: so we didn't have to overcook it so much
[16:15]: now luckily we chose um
[16:17]: dark meat chicken so it doesn't really
[16:18]: overcook and it was still delicious it
[16:20]: was still fine but uh yeah
[16:24]: that's all it's a pretty easy recipe uh
[16:27]: the only
[16:28]: hard thing let's see
[16:31]: uh
[16:33]: was the browning sauce
[16:35]: we
[16:35]: there's probably a place i can get it
[16:37]: around here but it's just not a common
[16:39]: ingredient in the grocery store here so
[16:44]: that ingredient aside everything was
[16:47]: pretty easy uh present pretty easy to
[16:49]: get and there were no
[16:51]: really difficult techniques in this so
[16:54]: anyway if you enjoyed watching me make
[16:56]: this please give me a thumbs up hit the
[16:58]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[16:60]: me make something else next week