Brown Stew Chicken is a Jamaican classic where chicken is cooked in a browning sauce along with veggies. This delicious stew is best enjoyed with coconut rice or mashed potatoes.
Check out my Indian Mughlai Mutton Stew and Kerala Chicken Stew recipes if you are fond of Indian style curries.
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About This Recipe
Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken is a classic Jamaican stew dish that is made with chicken, vegetables such as red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and some aromatic spices that makes this dish irresistible.
The end result of this combination is soft and tender chicken in a rich brown stew gravy and a wonderfully scented kitchen. The aroma of this dish will make you instantly hungry!
Succulent and deliciously marinated Chicken pieces in a gravy that is packed with lots of flavor, Brown Stew Chicken has it all.
This dish comes from Jamaica and is very popular among the Jamaican households and English speaking Caribbean islands.
Well, this dish is a hit at many places such as Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Belize, Dominica, and in Caribbean communities throughout the world.
This recipe has a special brown sauce, which gives this Chicken dish a fantastic color and flavor.
The most important part that makes all the difference in this dish is marinating the chicken well.
Marinated chicken is browned from both sides in the pan and then added in the brown sauce to make a mouth-watering dish, that can make anyone hungry at only one glance.
We have used Brown Sugar to get that beautiful dark brown color to this dish. This sauce is called “Browning Sauce”. It adds a wonderful depth of flavor, and a gorgeous dark brown color to sauce, meats, and stews.
This Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken is,
- Delicious
- Soft & Tender
- Full of flavor
- Popular in Jamaican households
Ingredients
Chicken – Chicken is marinated first and then cooked before adding to the gravy. It’s preferable to use chicken with bones in this recipe.
For marination – Here, I have used chicken bouillon powder, ginger, garlic, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper to marinate the chicken.
Once you marinate it, keep it aside for about an hour. But if you have more time, keep it for as long as one day and it will give you the best flavors.
For Browning of Sugar – We will just need brown sugar and water. Brown Sugar is melted and then mixed with a little water to make the mixture. This also makes the sauce brown, which is termed as Browning Sauce.
For the Gravy – For gravy, we will need onions, garlic, green and red bell pepper, tomato sauce, hot sauce, chicken stock, and salt.
Tomato Sauce and Hot Sauce adds tanginess and heat in the gravy respectively. If you do not have chicken stock, you can even go for vegetable stock but the flavor will differ a bit.
Step by Step Recipe
Add sugar in a pan and cook on low medium heat until it melts and gets dark brown in color. Keep mixing continuously and make sure the sugar doesn’t scorch.
Start to water little by little and mix well until all the sugar dissolves in water.
Wipe the chicken dry using kitchen tissue. Add all the marinade ingredients over the chicken and mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour or better overnight.
For the gravy, heat oil in a cast-iron skillet. When the oil is hot, arrange the marinated chicken pieces in a single layer.
Cook for 2-3 minutes until chicken is nicely browned from the bottom side. Then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes so that it browns well. Remove the browned chicken on a plate.
In the same pan, add onion, garlic, green pepper and red pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add tomato ketchup and hot sauce and cook for another minute. Add the brown sauce that we made at the beginning and the chicken stock and bring the mixture to a boil.
Now add the browned chicken pieces.
Cover the pan and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
Serve hot with steamed rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Browning sauce is a Caribbean sauce which is made using just 2 ingredients, Brown Sugar and Warm Water.
To make the same, add in brown sugar in the pan and let it cook on low medium heat until it melts and gets dark brown in color.
Keep mixing continuously and make sure the sugar doesn’t scorch. Start to add water little by little and mix well until all the sugar dissolves in water. Remove the pan from heat and keep aside.
You can even use a combination of cane sugar and caramel to make the browning sauce.
You can also use store-bought browning sauce to save some time. Just skip the process of making browning sauce and use the store-bought one. But let me tell you the homemade browning sauce will taste far much better in this chicken recipe than the store-bought one, so try to make it at home.
I would recommend you to use Chicken With Bones, as they hold better and soaks up the flavor of the stew also well, making this dish very delicious. You can try and use Boneless Chicken thighs instead, for this recipe.
Well, some people confuse Browning Sauce with Worcestershire sauce, which cannot be used as a substitute. Browning sauce is the key ingredient of this recipe, which cannot be replaced.
Yes, definitely! You can use any Fish Fillet and use it instead of Chicken. The process and ingredients will remain the same. Just make sure that the cooking time will be different, as fish tends to cook faster.
You can even make this Stew using Beef, even it tastes great.
Some people like the sauce is even thicker. In such cases, you can add in all-purpose flour, cornstarch, or ketchup to thicken the same.
Slow Cooker Recipe
You can also make this Brown Chicken Stew in a slow cooker. Make the browning sauce in a pan over the stovetop.
Marinate the chicken and cook it on a pan over the stovetop till its browned from both the side.
Add all the ingredients including the chicken and browning sauce in the slow cooker and cook on high for about 3 to 4 hours.
Once done, serve with your choice of rice.
Storage Suggestions
Store this Brown Stew Chicken in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days in an airtight container. Reheat it in a pan or microwave, until nice and warm before serving.
Serving Suggestions
Well, it tastes great when served with steamed white or brown rice, but you can also serve with rice and peas, rice and beans, coconut rice or maybe serve with a side of fried plantains or french fries?
I like to whip up a quick batch of my best ever Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes and serve this stew over it.
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Recipe Card
Brown Stew Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
For the browning sauce
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Warm Water
For the marinade
- 1 kg Chicken (With Bones)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Chicken Bouillon Powder
- 1/2 tsp Ginger (Minced)
- 1 tsp Garlic (Minced)
- 2 tsp Mixed Fresh Herbs
For the gravy
- 1/4 cup Oil
- 1/2 cup Onion (Diced)
- 1 tsp Garlic (Minced)
- 1/2 cup Green Bell Pepper (Sliced)
- 1/2 cup Red Bell Pepper (Sliced)
- 2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
- 1 tsp Hot Sauce
- 1 cup Chicken Stock
- Salt to taste
Instructions
For the browning sauce
- Add sugar in a pan and cook on low medium heat until it melts and gets dark brown in colour.
- Keep mixing continuously and make sure the sugar doesn’t scorch.
- Start to add water little by little and mix well until all the sugar dissolves in water.
- Remove the pan from heat and keep aside.
For the marinade
- Wipe the chicken dry using kitchen tissue.
- Add all the marinade ingredients over the chicken and mix well.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate for atleast an hour or better overnight.
For the gravy
- Heat oil in a cast iron skillet.
- When the oil is hot, arrange the marinated chicken pieces in a single layer.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes until chicken is nicely browned from the bottom side.
- Then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes so that it browns well.
- Remove the browned chicken on a plate.
- In the same pan, add onion, garlic, green pepper and red pepper and cook fro 2-3 minutes.
- Add tomato ketchup and hot sauce and cook for another minute.
- Add the brown sauce that we made at the beginning and the chicken stock and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Now add the browned chicken pieces.
- Cover the pan and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve hot with steamed rice.
Ashley
Yes. Easy to follow and came out great!
Neha Mathur
Good to hear 🙂
Chris
I added all the ingredients in a pot, browned the chicken then added the chicken to the pot, simmer for 30mins… done!
Neha Mathur
Nice 🙂