Chicken, Chickpea & Spinach Stew

This recipe is super easy and SO flavorful! Personally, I like to keep it simple, because it's delicious as is, but you can add virtually anything to it… green beans, fingerling potatoes, fennel, canned artichoke hearts, lentils, chunks of butternut squash, etc. If you are a vegetarian, swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth, and the chicken for another type of bean, squash, or other veggie.

Chickpeas are very conducive to both Indian and North African spices. To give the stew an Indian flair, add some curry powder to the mix (and a little cream if you like) and serve it with some basmati rice and Naan. To give it a Moroccan feel, you can add cinnamon and cumin to the pot.

Stew can be eaten solo, or with a side of rice or polenta. I prefer it with a side of creamy, soft polenta, made with milk or cream, butter (don't judge!), and parmesan cheese. (I will post a recipe for the polenta soon.) Texturally, it works very well with this dish.

You can make as much or as little stew as you like, depending on how many mouths you are feeding. It does freeze well though. The below recipe makes enough for 4 people, and takes no more than 30 minutes from start to finish. Here goes…

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts – cut into chunks

2 large celery stalks – diced

1 large yellow onion - chopped

4 garlic cloves (not the whole bulb) – chopped, not minced

2 large shallot cloves (not the whole bulb) – chopped, not minced

I bag fresh spinach leaves (you can also use 50/50 spinach and fresh arugula)

1 handful of fresh basil – chopped

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) – rinsed and drained

1 heaping teaspoon of jarred pesto - kitchen teaspoon, not measuring spoon

1 teaspoon jarred garlic – kitchen teaspoon, not measuring spoon

½ cup shredded and diced carrot

½ jar store-bought marinara sauce (I use chunky)

1 – 1½ cups of white wine – something you would actually drink

1 box organic chicken broth – you will only use about ½ a box

Extra virgin olive oil (just for the pot!)

Kosher salt & pepper

Dried Italian seasonings to taste – oregano, thyme, basil

Directions:

Turn stove on medium heat. Drizzle bottom of pot or Dutch oven with olive oil. When hot, add in chopped onion. Mix around till the onion is coated with olive oil and begins to soften. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and crushed black pepper. Add in the chopped garlic and shallots and stir.

Let the onions, garlic, and shallots cook a few minutes. Keep stirring it, so the garlic and shallots don’t burn. Add in the celery and carrots, give it another stir, and then add in the chunks of chicken breast. Stir around until the chicken is white and slightly brown on all sides. The chicken does not need to be completely cooked through, as it will continue to cook in the stew.

Add more salt and pepper, as well as the dried Italian spices (I use a about a pinch each). Then add in enough marinara sauce to coat and just cover all of the chicken and veggies. Once the mixture warms up and bubbles again, add in the white wine – again, enough to cover all of the contents in the pot. It will steam up and smell VERY yummy! If you like wine, that is!

Let everything cook a few minutes (it should be bubbling again at this juncture), then fold in the rinsed and drained chickpeas. I use the word “fold” because you want to be careful not to mash the chickpeas. Also add the jarred garlic and pesto, and stir. When the mixture thickens a bit (about 5 minutes), add in about 1/3 to ½ box of chicken broth and stir. Finally, cover the contents of the pot with an entire bag of fresh spinach and the chopped fresh basil. Do not stir it!

Sprinkle the spinach with a pinch of salt, and then pour a tiny bit of chicken broth over it. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Let cook until the spinach is wilted – about 5 minutes. Once wilted, fold the spinach into the stew underneath. Let cook (bubble up) another 5-10 minutes and you are done!

Note, you can add as much broth, wine, and marinara sauce to the mix as you like. I prefer to keep it on the thicker side, so it’s a stew and not a soup. But you can make it whatever consistency you like, and add as much or as little salt, pepper, and spices as you like.

Also, there is really no way to fork up a stew. I like to cook it step by step as outlined above, but if you want you can just throw everything in the pot at once and go for it. It is important to brown the chicken first, however, and I don’t like to overcook the chickpeas.

This dish is even better the next day, though it will thicken in the pot overnight, so keep that leftover broth to thin it out!