Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken

Jamaican brown stew chicken (also called stew chicken or fricasseed chicken) is a classic Caribbean dish that is popular in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and other English speaking Caribbean islands. This stew consists of chicken that is cooked in a rich and flavourful gravy. You can use whole chicken for this dish. However, for simplicity, I like to use chicken thighs and sometimes chicken legs. It’s best to marinade the chicken overnight, so plan ahead when making this dish.

How to Make Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken

To make Jamaican brown stew chicken, you will off course need chicken (I used 6 chicken thighs). For the marinade, you will need the following ingredients: 3 stalks of green onions (coarsely chopped), 4 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 teaspoon of ginger (minced), 3 teaspoons of paprika, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

For the sauce, you will need: 1 medium yellow onion (chopped), 1 red bell pepper (sliced), 1 green bell pepper (sliced), 1 large tomato (diced), 2 stalks of thyme (de-stemmed), 1 teaspoon of allspice, 1 tablespoon of hot sauce, 1 tablespoon of ketchup, 1 teaspoon of browning (can be purchased from a Caribbean grocery store or where they keep the gravy in your local grocery store), 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of paprika, 1 cup of chicken broth (plus more if needed), salt (to taste), and ¼ cup of canola oil.

I know that washing meat is a contentious issue. Personally, I like to wash my meat, but I know that some people don’t because of contamination concerns, so my advice is to do what you feel comfortable with. Prepare the chicken thighs (and/or legs) by removing the skin, wash the chicken in a bowl (if you’re comfortable doing this) and pat the chicken dry using paper towels. Place the chicken in a mixing bowl, add the ginger, garlic and green onions to the chicken to marinade. Mix together the rest of the ingredients for the marinade in a small mixing bowl and add it to the chicken. Use kitchen tongs to gently turn and cover the chicken with the marinade. Cover the bowl and place it in the fridge to let the chicken marinade overnight.

When you’re ready to make the brown stew chicken, use the kitchen tongs to take each piece of chicken and shake off the green onions from the chicken. You can tosh out the green onions but I like the preserve it for the sauce. Set the chicken aside on a plate. Heat the canola oil in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Place the chicken in the pot and brown the chicken on all sides (about 3 minutes for each side). Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside on a clean plate. Scrape the brown bits at the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.

Place the onions, green and red bell peppers into the pot and saute until softened. Pour the tomatoes, green onions (if including), browning, hot pepper, ketchup, thyme, all the spices, and chicken stock into the pot. Stir everything together, cover the pot and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes on low-medium heat. Add the chicken back into the pot. Cover the pot and let simmer on low-medium heat for 40 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked (each thigh should have an internal temperature of 165°F) and the gravy has thickened to your liking. Turn the sauce and flip the chicken over about halfway through the cooking process to prevent burning. You can add more chicken stock to the gravy if it gets too thick for your liking. Serve with Jamaican rice and peas or white rice. Enjoy!

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