One of my best friends is taking 6 months out of her Vancouver life to ride her bike to Mexico with her boyfriend. They are still enroute, but after weeks of cycling in the rain and wind and cold, they certainly appreciate a home-cooked meal and basic shelter. Central heating wouldn’t be amiss, either. What’s all this got to do with food? This may not be a vegan post (Kristen & her boyfriend are vegans), but it is a post that features some truely comforting food. And I’m sure something hot and home-cooked would go down nicely while riding down a cold, wet highway.
Comfort food ain’t pretty, but pleasing the belly is sometimes more important than pleasing the eye and this stew fits the bill perfectly. It’s nothing fancy. The flavours are simple, the directions are straight forward and once you add the ingredients, the dish pretty much takes care of itself. Nice. This recipe is also pretty flexible. You can add different vegetables (some rutabaga would be great) and you can control the amount of gravy by the amount of liquid and flour you use. And if you want to pull out all the comfort stops, certainly some dumplings cooked in the pot during the last few minutes wouldn’t hurt a thing.
paprika chicken & vegetable stew
6 chicken thighs, skinned
2 T smoked hot paprika
1 T olive oil
4 medium potatoes, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 c mushrooms
2 T flour
2 c chicken broth (+ more water or broth, if needed, to generously cover vegetables)
1 T dijon mustard
1 t dried sage
1/2 bottle of beer
1/2 c frozen peas1. Sprinkle chicken on all sides with paprika, salt, and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot and add chicken. Saute until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Add vegetables (except the peas….those come in later) and saute for a few minutes. Sprinkle vegetables with flour and stir to coat. Stir in broth and beer.
2. Return chicken and any juices to the pot. Add dijon mustard and sage. Stir to combine and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Add frozen peas during the last 10 minutes of cooking time. Serve with rice or crusty bread.
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hag, i drank the other half of the beer! i can’t believe you had to ask. it’s the perfect way to relax while dinner is cooking!
beautiful. not in an obvious way, it´s true comfort food ain´t pretty. It´s impossible to draw, I find.
lobstersquad, drawing brown blobs would definitely not be a pretty thing! but if anyone could make it beautiful, it would certainly be you!
oooh comfort food…it really is the best! I think comfort food IS pretty! It’s pretty on the inside!
I also think that dumplings would be the icing on the cake…that or a good loaf of crusty bread. Good luck to your friends…quite an adventure.
BTW what do you do with the other half of the beer?
Smoked paprika is totally my secret weapon.
this sounds so yummy! a new recipe just in time for fall!! 🙂
Hiya!
I tried your cheeky ‘cherry jam’ salad dressing…what a flavour explosion!
I tried your ‘not so humble crumble’…with mango and blueberries and apples….de-lish!
And, I also tried to make the rice pudding with brown rice and rice milk – no eggs…let’s just say “yuck” to my re-invention of rice pudding.
I will try this one-pot wonder soon!…I’m still plugging away at the ‘no wheat-no dairy’ regimen.
Wow, a bike ride from Vancouver to Mexico. That’s pretty hardcore!
maven, smoked paprika rocks! tho i’d say my own secret weapon is chipotle powder! hiiiiya!
acaligurl, it’s a perfect fall dish!
yup, my friends are hardcore, duane. but most of my friends have taken crazy-ass long bike rides.
joanne, i guess you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the love of dairy! your rice pudding experiment doesn’t sound very good at all.
I made this dish today!!
Of course I had to eliminate some ingredients like the flour and the beer but overall it tasted good…a bit soupy…but good 🙂
joanne, it was pretty soupy but with the addition of flour (sorry!), it created a nice thick gravy. glad you liked it and i hope you had some rice to soak up all the sauce.
I had a cold and it was raining out so I wanted to make some chicken soup. I checked out a few different blogs but they wanted me to take 2-3 hours to make soup. At that stage in my cold (in my life), I couldn’t commit the time. I found this recipe and loved it. Paprika is one of my favorite spices. Plus, I’m back at work feeling better. Thanks!