With green peas and steamed rice and fresh thyme on top, this brown stew chicken is fantastic. Since I adore recipes for braised or stewed chicken, especially those that use ingredients similar to jerk chicken, I’ve been wanting to create this dish for a while. This turned out wonderfully nicely, albeit there are a few changes I might make the next time.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 4 hrs |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup sliced green onions, white and green parts separated, divided
- 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced habanero pepper
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 8 (5 ounce) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 4 cups chicken broth
- ⅓ cup ketchup
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup sliced carrot
- 1 cup quartered baby bell peppers
Instructions
- Whisk together garlic, white parts of green onions, brown sugar, thyme, habanero, vinegar, ginger, salt, pepper, paprika, and allspice in a large mixing bowl.
- Make 2 cuts, about 1-inch apart, into the skin side of each thigh, perpendicular to the bone, cutting all the way down to the bone. Add chicken thighs to marinade; mix until evenly coated. Cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate, at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours. If possible, flip thighs several times while marinating.
- Remove chicken from marinade. Scrape off any chunks of marinade from chicken into the bowl and reserve for later.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large, deep, heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Working in batches, brown the chicken all over, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to the marinade bowl; set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the same pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt; cook until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon brown sugar and cook until onions are dark brown and caramelized, 3 to 5 minutes more.
- Add chicken broth, ketchup, and bay leaves to the pan; bring to a boil. Add carrots, bell peppers, browned chicken thighs, and reserved marinade.
- Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until chicken is tender and no longer pink in the center and sauce has reduced and thickened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Skim excess fat that floats to the top; baste chicken occasionally with sauce.
- Taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in green parts of green onions.
- If you prefer a less sweet flavor profile, use only 1 tablespoon of brown sugar in the marinade. You can get away with marinating the chicken for only 4 hours, but longer is better.
- You can use diced tomatoes instead of ketchup, and any seasonal vegetables that you like.
- If the chicken finishes cooking before the sauce reduces, remove the thighs and keep them warm while the sauce continues to simmer. If the sauce reduces and thickens before the chicken cooks, add a splash of water and continue to cook until chicken is done.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 343 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 14 g |
| Cholesterol | 91 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1319 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This recipe is awesome, even though I made a few changes to use stuff from the garden. We’re making it for a second time tomorrow.
Excellent, delicious recipe. I’m not a great cook, but followed the directions and it’s perfect. It’s addictive. This one is going in the permanent file.
This was very good overall. I did make some changes to the taste profile, because I felt like it had too much of an American stew taste, and not enough of the Caribbean vibe. I made my sauce thicker at the end with a little corn starch, and I also added some Grace jerk seasoning to take away the original stew taste and add more island flair. That is the only reason I did not rate it 5 stars, With a little bit of tweaks to your own families taste this dish will be a guarantee hit.
Wonderful recipe, very easy to follow and turned out perfectly. Normally I add a lot more herbs and spices than a recipe calls for when I can see it will be a bit bland for my taste but this didn’t need any tweaking. Very flavorful result just following directions. Recipe definitely requires a bit of work from the cook but it’s 100% worth it.
This recipe was amazing! It can be served as an entrée with a side of carrots and cabbage steamed. You can even toast some Jamaican Coco bread to elevate the dish even more. I could not have been more pleased with the outcome. It was absolutely delicious I will certainly make this dish again and again.
This got 5 yums up from the picky eaters convention that is my dining room table. I used what I had—boneless/skinless thighs—and ended up marinading them for about 27 hours. Went the diced tomatoes route and served it on couscous. DELICIOUS. Oh, and I completely forgot about the green onion tops and served it with cilantro. ♀️
Incredibly flavorful and delicious, filling and comforting. It had just the right amount of heat for my tastes– a pleasant, buzzy, medium spice. I made four chicken thighs instead of eight and marinated for about a full day. The extra sauce was great for the white rice I served with the dish. I simmered the chicken for about a full hour and it was the perfect amount of time; the chicken basically fell off of the bone. The sauce took about another full hour to reduce, so in the end it did feel like quite the process. I do think that I didn’t heat the oil quite enough to really brown the chicken the way it did in the video, so I would try to remedy that next time. I also forgot to add the extra green onions at the end and accidentally used the dark parts in the marinade. But no matter, this still turned out to be an A+ dish.
This was good but not as great as Chef John’s magical Jerk Chicken marinade,
All I will say is if you follow the instructions as shown… Babyyyyyy your dinner will come out just as you anticipated it would! I had to pop my hand to stop going back for sneak tastings. 5 stars!!
Made this tonight and followed recipe. My entire family loved it and they are picky. thank you.
Really delicious wit a rich Caribbean flavour. I customised it by spicing it up a bit and it was perfect!! Went down really well with family and friends at Christmas dinner
Yes, I used diced and fresh tomatoes, green, red, yellow peppers, less sugar, additional spices, crushed pepper flakes
This is an exceptionally flavorful stew! It was a massive hit and has already been requested again. The sauce is delicious and was perfect over top rice. It was also great to reheat for lunch the next day. I would increase the spice a little bit and maybe add some spicy peppers and more bell peppers. A wonderful dinner that will be enjoyed again soon!
Amazing. I’ve made a lot of Jamaican food and this is something I tried for my family. They absolutely loved it. My girlfriend said it’s the best chicken dinner she’s had from me. Will definitely be one of my dishes I’ll definitely cook every week. Didn’t have any scotch bonnet so replaced it with hot cayenne pepper powder as it wasn’t spicy enough. Thank you whoever put this up .
A delicious stew which can be easily adapted to your heat/sweet taste preferences. I skipped the habanero pepper because of a guest with a sensitive stomach but otherwise made as directed. I then served hot sauce on the side for anyone who wanted some heat. Everyone raved about it. I’m looking forward to making this in the future with the habanero and freezing half for a future meal.
This recipe is fantastic. It reminds me of authentic Jamaican brown stew chicken. I should know I have been to Jamaica more than 28 times. I did make a few changes. Instead of using ketchup I chopped two fresh tomatoes. I also only added 2 cups of chicken stock instead of four. The other change I made was I simmered it out on my big green egg barbecue in a cast iron skillet. After about 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325 degrees I took it off the pit and remove the chicken to a plate to keep warm and then I simmer the sauce on the stove to reduce it a little. I served it over rice. It was perfect! I have more pictures but it only allowed me to put one on here. I used Scotch bonnet pepper instead of habanero since I grew them last year. I froze them in the freezer. I definitely 100% recommend this recipe
This was delicious! We just came back from Jamaica and loved the resorts brown stew chicken. So tried this recipe. It was so good. We did replace the bell peppers with cut up potatoes and replaced the habanero pepper with Jalapeno pepper. It was sooo delish! Thanks for sharing!
Five star recipe without question. My husband was drooling just at the smells and the taste did not disappoint. I only marinated for four hours (unintentionally- I just kept getting distracted and forgetting) and it was still so flavorful and delicious. I’d run out of carrots so added in some zucchini and took the suggestion of less sugar in the marinade and diced tomatoes instead of ketchup. I also served over rice cooked with chicken broth and peas. My race wasn’t perfect so I followed his advice and removed the chicken for the last 30 min or so and let the sauce reduce some more. Chef John recipes are so reliable, you really can’t go wrong. Another win in my book!
I made this recipe without hot peppers coz I’m not into spicy food. I didn’t use more brown sugar to colour the sauce coz I thought it would be too sweet. And, I used corn starch to thicken the sauce at the end when I thought I had the right amount of sauce left. Oh, and I used 10 pieces of chicken instead of 8 pieces coz I didn’t want the two pieces to feel left out. It turned out amazingly! It’s so delicious. I’m definitely going to make this again.
Very good! Ended up marinating for 3 days because of unplanned events, still tasted fabulous! Thank you chef John! Served with rice and peas and Jamaican coco bread! All paired perfectly together!
I doubled the spices on the chicken and let it marinade thee days. Other than that, no recipes changes. I have no idea what Jamaican chicken is suppose to taste like, but I did enjoy this stew. I thought it tasted better the second day. Reheats in the microwave really well too.