Saturday, June 25, 2011

Chicken and Kidney Bean Stew

**I have what I believe is a pretty wicked sinus infection that is manifesting in the form of ear/jaw pain, headaches and a sore throat. I probably should be resting but I have been wanting to update considering how far behind I'm falling with the recipes**

Anyway, I bought a load of beautifully ripe roma tomatoes on the way home from our honeymoonlette in Sonoma. I made salads and ate them with cheese but I still found myself with about 10 quickly ripening tomatoes in my produce basket. I found this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis--I have used a few of her recipes in the past and she's alright. It calls for canned tomatoes but I used the fresh ones and just made sure it was seasoned well.

It's a very common sense kind of stew. I use that root vegetable base (onion, carrot, celery) a lot in my soups/stews so I just felt like I got the idea to tweak it with basil and canned beans from her. It was great with a sweet, crusty baguette.

I didn't take a single picture of the stew but it didn't look all that special. Instead I included pictures from my garden!

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I planted some little succulent plants.

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These are beets, carrots, and edamame in the large rectangle planters. I also have chives, basil, mint, rosemary, thyme, and italian parsley. I am having a lot of fun in my garden this year.



Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 stalks celery, cut into bite-size pieces
* 1 carrot, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces
* 1 small onion, chopped
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chopped tomatoes (I used 8 large, very ripe romas)
* 1 (14-ounce) can low-salt chicken broth (I used vegetable broth)
* 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste (I didn't use)
* 1 bay leaf
* 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
* 2 chicken breast with ribs (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
* 1 (15-ounce) can organic kidney beans, drained (rinsed if not organic)
* Serving suggestion: crusty bread (check!)

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy 5 1/2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, and onion. Saute the vegetables until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, basil, tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Add the chicken breasts; press to submerge.

Bring the cooking liquid to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently uncovered until the chicken is almost cooked through, turning the chicken breasts over and stirring the mixture occasionally, about 25 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the chicken breasts to a work surface and cool for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Add the kidney beans to the pot and simmer until the liquid has reduced into a stew consistency, about 10 minutes.

Discard the skin and bones from the chicken breasts. Shred or cut the chicken into bite- size pieces. Return the chicken meat to the stew. Bring the stew just to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Ladle the stew into serving bowls and serve with the bread.

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