French Country Chicken Stew
By: Anonymous
Published: Saturday, December 5, 2009 - 1:39am

Ingredients




4 pounds chicken pieces
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 tablespoons flour
1 slc smoked bacon, 1/4" thick
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon freshly-ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried tarragon
1 can stewed tomatoes - (8 oz)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 chicken bouillon cube broken into pieces
1 pkt frozen green peas - (8 oz) thawed
3 mediums carrots peeled, and
cut into 1" rounds
12 tiny red new potatoes
3 tablespoons finely-chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt to taste

Preparation

1 Salt the chicken. pieces and dredge them lightly in the flour, brushing off and saving the excess. 2 Trim off and discard the bacon rind. Slice the bacon across the width into 1/4-inch pieces. 3 Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed kettle and brown the bacon lightly. Remove and set aside. Brown the chicken pieces in batches, removing them as they finish browning. 4 Remove and discard all but 3 tablespoons of the frying fat. Add the onion, pepper, tarragon, and the remaining flour. Scrape these back and forth in the hot fat until the onion is transparent. 5 Add the tomatoes and their juice and continue the scraping action until most of the juice has evaporated. Then add 1 1/2 cups of water, the wine, and the crumbled bouillon cube. 6 Add the bacon, chicken, peas, and carrots. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes. 7 Scrub the new potatoes under cold running water and pare off a 1-inch strip around the middle of each one, leaving the peel on the ends. Add them to the stew and simmer for 20 minutes. 8 Stir in the parsley. Salt to taste, and serve hot. 9 This recipe yields 6 servings. 10 Comments: Make this stew once, and you'll be persuaded that it's well worth making again and again.