Southwest chicken & bean stew
tjheffner
2022-03-16
Here’s a simple recipe to make the most of your rotisserie chicken leftovers. Easy to prepare & adapt to your own tastes, freezes well, and most importantly, is delicious! Don’t forget the toppings… together, they make it sing.
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3-4 hours (not counting soaking beans overnight)
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 3 lb. | rotisserie chicken leftovers, a decent amount of meat left. |
| 3 cups | dry beans. cannellini is what i used. canned is fine too. |
| 1 large | onion |
| 3 good size | carrots |
| 1 stalk | celery |
| 4-6 cloves | garlic |
| 1-2x 4oz can | green chiles |
| 1 bunch | cilantro |
| dollop | sour cream |
| 2 | limes |
| to taste | salt, black pepper, bay leaves, cumin, red pepper flakes |
Steps
- If using dry beans, start soaking these in the morning or even better, the night before. Saucepot, cover with a 2-3 inches water, salt liberally. The beans can take it.
- Into a big stockpot, break down the chicken leftovers, bones, meat, skin and all. Fill with water an inch or two higher than the contents, bring to a boil then turn to low and simmer for 1-2 hours. You can toss the onion skins & carrot peels in here too if you have them ready. Unlikely, I haven’t told you to chop them yet. But stock is stock, and those will help make a great stock 😎
- After the stock has simmered for a while, strain it. Remove the chicken skin and bones (and the veggie scraps if you’ve added them) and reserve the good meat in a side bowl for now.
- Drain your beans and add them to the stock. Bring to a boil again and then turn down to medium-low and simmer.
- While beans are simmering, chop up the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, spices to taste.
- After beans have simmered for an hour or so (probably less if using canned beans), add the chopped veggies & green chiles. Let simmer for another hour.
- Taste several beans from around the pot for tenderness. Gauge consistency of stew
- Simmer for another 30 minutes to an hour until they’re ready.
- About 5 minutes before serving, dump the reserved chicken meat into the pot, stir in and turn the heat off.
- Chop cilantro & cut limes into wedges.
- Serve into bowls, add a dollop of sour cream, chopped cilantro, and the juice from a lime wedge.
- Enjoy!