Low Calorie French Style Chicken Stew

This stew is low in calories, and the chicken is tender thanks to the addition of white wine as a tenderizing agent.
The alcohol cooks off from the wine, yet the flavor remains with the added bonus that the chicken is far tenderer than when no wine is added.



Ingredients
2 or 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 TB virgin olive oil to sauté the chicken

Red potatoes as desired; scrubbed and cut into spoon sized pieces
orBrown skinned potatoes peeled, washed, and cut into bite sized pieces.

One large carrot cut into rounds.

Half a large yellow onion chopped up,
or
a bunch of green onions(scallions), chopped into small pieces
or
a large piece of a French leek, washed and chopped into pieces.

Soft shelled squashes, yellow crookneck, zucchini, summer, any squash that you like in a soup, washed and cut into rounds or half rounds or bite sized pieces.

Bock Choy either a couple of pieces of the adult sized vegetable or a couple of the whole Baby Bock Choy can be washed and chopped into bit sized pieces, and put into a Chicken Stew because the flavor of Bock Choy is bland, and bland ‘background’ flavors are what you want for a Chicken Stew.

Some fresh garlic, about 6 large pieces cut up
Or you can use some dehydrated garlic, but fresh tastes better.

A few large white mushrooms washed and cut into slices retaining the mushroom shape.

Diced fresh tomatoes or canned tomato bits can be added to this stew. The version pictured in this Blog contains tomato bits but this stew can be made without tomatoes.

Rice an eighth or a fourth cup of rice, depending on how much water you have in your pot. You’ll want the Stew to retain some broth, and too much rice will soak up all of the broth plus it doesn't take a lot of this grain to complement the veggies so the amino acids from both the rice and the vegetables form complete proteins

A small amount of tiny-sea shelled pasta can be added to this stew or any stew, in place of the rice because pasta is wheat based and wheat is a grain.
Rice pasta can also be used and this type of pasta can be found in specialty stores like Whole Foods. Be careful about how much you add to the stew because pasta soaks up the liquid, and you want to retain liquid because this is a stew.

Some white beans can be added to this stew, and can be purchased already cooked in the can. Rince off the canned white beans before you add them to the stew. If using dry beans be sure to rinse them so all of the dirt and or any small rocks that may be in the package of dry beans are removed.

White wine anywhere from a half to a full cup depending on your taste. Add the wine when you add the bottled water. Remember that all of the alcohol in the wine will cook off. The wine tenderizes the chicken and impoves the taste of the finished stew.
Add the bottled water, several bottles.

Method
Cut up the chicken into chunks and sauté in the Virgin Olive oil until the chicken has a nice light brown color or sauté the chicken pieces whole, and then cut them up into pieces.
Remove chicken from pan and add the veggies to sauté and half cook them.
Add the chicken pieces back to the pan.
Add some of the bottled water to prevent over browning of the vegetables.
Add all of the bottled water 4 to 6 cups (2 to 3 bottles) after the vegetables are in a firm-tender state, and add the half-to a cup of white wine

Bring the stove heat up to start a simmer, and then reduce heat so the stew simmers slowly.

Place the pots cover on the pot to reduce the amount of evaporation of the broth, and continue cooking on a low simmer for at least a half hour. Add more water if you need it. When the stew is ready to eat the veggies should still be visible, as pieces of vegetables not dissolved into the broth, and the chicken will be tender from the addition of the white wine. Remember that the alcohol content of the wine will cook off, only the flavor will remain.

This stew needs to be checked every 15 minutes as it cooks, and stirred as it cooks. It needs to be watched so it doesn't stick and burn on the bottom of the pot.

Low Calorie French Style Chicken Stew is quick to make, and is high in whole protein. Each medium sized skinless, boneless chicken breast contains 200 calories of whole protein; the vegetables in the stew add very little calories. I do use 3 TB Virgin Olive oil and each TB of oil is 100 calories so you can reduce calories by using less oil. But then some oil in your diet is important for health; specifically for your nervous system's health.

The trick to making a good Chicken Stew is to add whatever vegetables you like, as long as the flavor of one vegetable doesn’t dominate the flavor of the completed stew. You want a nice blending of flavors in your stew. To thicken this stew, mix 2 teaspoons of cornstarch into some cold water, and stir this mixture until all of the cornstarch is dissolved into the water. Add this corn starch mixture to the hot stew stirring all the while so you don't get lumps.
Add salt and pepper, to your taste.

You may be wondering why I specify and use ‘Virgin Olive Oil’ in my recipes, and not just plain Olive Oil. The Virgin variety is the first press of the olive, and NO chemicals are used to extract the first press. The second press of the olives is called just ‘Olive Oil’ and the second press may or may not use chemical additives to extract the second press of oil. So I prefer the first press, the Virgin Olive Oil because I know for sure that no chemicals are used to extract the first press of olive oil.

Copyright © 2010 by Carol Garnier Dutra

.