Soul Food: Slow Cooker Chicken Stew & Mom's Tea Biscuits

Slow Cooker Chicken Stew with Biscuits

(Photo courtesy of Real Simple Magazine)

While running to catch the subway on Friday, I suddenly realized that I had left my Metro Pass at home. Despite frantically scraping every inch of my purse and even turning it upside down in search of coins, I was still short of the $3 I needed to board the train.  So, I figured, this can only be a message from the Universe telling me to ditch my budget and buy a fabulous new magazine, so that I could turn that last $10 bill in my wallet into desperately needed change.  I mean, it would have been wrong to do otherwise, right?

An occasional special splurge for me is a brand new copy of Real Simple magazine, which beautifully depicts inspiring ideas for your home and which, this month, includes slow cooker recipes that I just had to try out http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/index.html.  I love using my slow cooker during the winter months, when soups and stews can slowly bubble away while we are at work or play, greeting us with great aromas and flavours as we come in out of the cold after a long day.

I started by playing with a fairly traditional chicken stew recipe, to which I made a few adjustments, and whipped up a batch of my Mom's incredible Tea Biscuits that fully doubled in height to become light, flaky and delicious morsels of happy memories.  The stew filled the house with the most comforting, Sunday afternoon kind of aroma, and its long cooking time gave me time for a long walk in the ravine with my husband and a few hours of solitude in my art studio creating these fun Valentine's Day cards for my husband and son (I'll post how-to information soon):

While the Stew Cooked...A Soul-Soothing Afternoon in the Art Studio

Now back to the recipes...

Mom used to make Tea Biscuits quite often for my Dad, who loved to smother them with butter and molasses.  I always found that odd, though now it makes me feel warm inside to remember the way he'd gently rub the back of his molasses-coated spoon against the fresh biscuit that he held so tenderly with the tips of his fingers.  At that time in my life, I was pretty sure that molasses was gross unless it was baked inside a ginger snap, so I preferred to eat mine with Mom's homemade strawberry jam. 

Sometimes, when I was having a particularly rough day (or, now that I think of it, maybe it was she who was having a bad day), Mom would pull together a batch of this dough and form it into a rectangle, brush it with melted butter and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar, then roll it into a log and slice it up into little cinnamon rolls which she'd bake on a cookie sheet.  Now THAT was an incredible treat!  Tonight though, I kept the recipe plain and simple to compliment our savoury dinner.  It was a huge hit. 

What's even better?  There's enough for our dinner tomorrow night, when it will no doubt taste even better after 24 hours of those soul-soothing flavours hanging out together.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stew
(adapted from Real Simple magazine, March 2011)

3/4 lb. carrots (about 4), cut into 1-inch lengths
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin removed
1 tsp. Italian seasoning*
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 c. low-sodium or salt-free chicken broth
1 c. frozen peas
1 c. frozen corn kernels
1/2 c. half-and-half cream (optional)

In a 4-6 quart flow cooker, toss together the carrots, celery, onion, sweet potato and flour.  Place the chicken on top and season with the Italian seasoning, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Add the broth (you can substitute half the broth with white wine, if you prefer).

Cover and cook until the chicken and vegetables are tender, about 5 or 6 hours on low or 2.5 to 3 hours on high.  Twenty minutes before serving, add the peas, corn and cream (if using) and stir.  Replace the lid and cook 20 minutes or until peas and corn are just tender. 


*A note on Italian seasoning: Be sure to read the label on the package before purchasing.  I picked up one that had salt listed as the first ingredient, and included yeast, cornstarch, dehydrated vegetables and other processed fillers.  Look around for a blend of herbs without any salt or additives.  The one I found is a lovely mixture of Italian herbs, like oregano, basil, rosemary and thyme.


While the peas and corn heat up, you'll have just enough time to make these delicious biscuits!

Mom's Tea Biscuits

2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. white sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
2/3 c. cold butter (or shortening, or half of each)
2/3 c. milk (or a little more, if necessary)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.  Add butter and, using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter is the size of tiny peas.  Add milk and use a fork to mix very gently (do not overmix or the gluten will start to develop and the biscuits will be tough).

Once the dough comes together, lightly flour a board and pat or roll the dough into a rectangle.  Keep the dough fairly thick, about 1" or so.  Use a cookie cutter, the top of a glass, or a knife to cut out biscuits, then place on an ungreased, lined cookie sheet.  I use a Silpat http://silpat.com/ (which make fantastic gifts for the foodie in your life).

Brush milk on top of each biscuit, and to make them extra sweet and special, dust them with a little white sugar.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about a dozen yummy, amazingly tall and flaky biscuits.