Brown Stew Chicken

The story

Brown Stew Chicken is a Jamaican main with a clear sense of place. Brown stew chicken is a Jamaican home-style classic in which seasoned chicken is intentionally browned hard before braising. The dark colour is both visual identity and flavour development. The recipe below keeps the defining ingredients and technique intact while giving practical metric quantities and enough detail for a home cook to judge texture, seasoning and doneness rather than simply follow a timer.

Ingredients

• 1600 g bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 25 ml Jamaican browning sauce
• 30 ml soy sauce
• 180 g onionsliced
• 80 g Spring onionssliced
• 120 g red peppersliced
• 200 g tomatochopped
• 15 g Garliccrushed
• 4 piece fresh thymesprigs
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 piece Scotch bonnet chilliwhole
• 550 ml chicken stock
• 35 ml neutral oil

Method

1. Season chicken with browning sauce, soy, allspice,

   Season chicken with browning sauce, soy, allspice, half the onion and spring onion and half the garlic. Marinate 1 hour if possible.

   Tip: Pat or scrape the chicken relatively dry before browning, while saving the marinade to add later to the gravy. Avoid: Wet chicken will steam instead of brown; too much commercial browning sauce can taste bitter; high braising heat makes chicken stringy.

2. Scrape excess wet marinade from the chicken

   Scrape excess wet marinade from the chicken and reserve it. Brown chicken in hot oil in batches until darkly caramelised on several sides. Remove.

   Look for: darkly caramelised on several sides

3. Add remaining onion, spring onion, pepper, tomato

   Add remaining onion, spring onion, pepper, tomato and garlic and cook 5 minutes, scraping the browned bits from the pot.

4. Return chicken and reserved marinade, add thyme,

   Return chicken and reserved marinade, add thyme, whole Scotch bonnet and stock. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 30 minutes.

5. Uncover and simmer another 12–15 minutes until

   Uncover and simmer another 12–15 minutes until the chicken is tender and the gravy darkens and reduces. Remove the chilli before it breaks if you want controlled heat.

   Look for: the chicken is tender and the gravy darkens and reduces

6. Rest 5 minutes, skim excess oil and

   Rest 5 minutes, skim excess oil and spoon gravy over the chicken. Serve with rice and peas or plain rice.

   Look for: Chicken is tender at the joint and the gravy coats the meat with no raw tomato or thin watery phase.

Nutrition

per serving

Estimated from the listed ingredients and default serving size. Actual values vary with brands, trimming, absorption and cooking losses.