Home-Style Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

  • 1 big onion, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
  • 2 big carrots, sliced thinly
  • 1 can of corn (drained) or 1 pkg. of freeze-dried corn, rehydrated and drained
  • 1 large can (eg. 354 gm size from Costco), including packing juices
  • 1 tsp dried dill1 1/2 mini-tubs of Knorr Chicken Stock
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 3/4 cups of water
  • Baby potatoes, cut into cubes (or cooked rice or cooked pasta for a long trip)Note: on a longer trip, baby potatoes will go bad. Prepare noodles or rice as a side dish instead or maybe instant mashed potatoes (I haven’t tried that).
  • Cooking oil for sauté (canola or another light oil)

In camp:

If you’re on an extended trip, start cooking the pasta or rice around the same time as you start the stew (obviously you need two burners or two one burner stoves to do this. If you just have one stove, make the executive decision about which will stay warm the longest and go with that).

  1. Heat some oil over medium heat in a big pot or deep frying pan.
  2. Sauté onions, garlic and carrots until softened and translucent but not browned. If your stove doesn’t simmer and things get too hot, just take the pot off the stove and put it onto the ground to cool a bit, stirring constantly and when it starts to cool too much, put it back on the stove.
  3. Repeat the on and off the burner routine as often as needed to avoid burning the sauté. You can successfully cook anything like this in even a thin aluminum pot if you’re willing to be watchful.
  4. When the sauté is ready, add the water and the chicken stock. Stir to dissolve the stock.
  5. Dump in the corn and potatoes (if using), the dill, the pepper and chicken with the juices.
  6. Stir the chicken in to break up the chunks.
  7. Bring the stew to a simmer put the lid on.
  8. If you are using potatoes, continue cooking at a simmer until the potatoes are cooked through and the flavour of the chicken melds with the other ingredients.
    If you are not using potatoes, give it about 5 minutes to meld.
  9. Add some salt and more pepper to taste if necessary.
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