1.3.14

Garbure Style Chicken Stew #French Fridays with Dorie

I had been waiting all week to tell you about this Chicken Stew... 
It was So. Damn. Delicious. 


This Friday the Doristas were assigned cook "Garbure from the Supermarket." Garbure is a rustic French Stew with white beans, meat and veggies.  Dories says, while "bacon or split pork, cured ham, and/or garlic sausage" may or may not be in it, " there is almost always duck confit" in it. My stew however was made on a budget and did not have any duck confit or ham or garlic sausage. But like a traditional Garbure it was gently simmered  on the back of the stove until it was thick enough for a heavy wooden spoon to stand upright on it.

At the discussion forum of French Fridays with Dorie, Diane Balch had mentioned that those who weren't using duck confit might want to throw in a bay leaf and some thyme into the stew . I did that and also added some savory for flavor.  I cannot say if it was the herbs or the slow simmering or the combination of the meat and veggies... but all that put together made one hearty pot of stew that we enjoyed throughout the week...


And for whatever reason the stew only got better everyday..


Garbure Style Chicken Stew

Recipe by Tanusree Khandai
Cook time: 2 ½ hours                                           Total time: minimun 3 ½ hours including soaking time
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • ½ cup cannellini beans
  • 2 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces
  • 1 medium sized Spanish onion, cut into 8 wedges
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 leek, white and light green parts only, split lengthwise, washed and cut into 1-inch long pieces
  • 4 green onions, thinly sliced
  • bay leaves
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp dried savory
  • 6 cups chicken broth (or 6 cups water + 3 chicken bouillon cubes )
  • 2 medium sized carrots, trimmed, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch long pieces
  • 2 stalks of celery, trimmed and cut into 1 inch long pieces
  • 1 medium sized turnip, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium sized potato, peeled and diced
  • medium sized green cabbage, cored, outer leaves removed, shredded
  • 2 chicken legs, deskinned
  • 1 ½ tsps garlic salt
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • ½ tsp crushed red pepper
  • 2 chicken sausage, cut into ½ sliced diagonally
Cooking Directions
  1. Rinse the beans, cover with few inches of water, bring it to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Turn off the heat, cover and set aside for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.
  2. When ready to cook, drain off the beans, rinse and keep aside.
  3. Set a big heavy botton vessel or a Dutch oven pot over medium-low heat.
  4. Add the pieces of bacon. Turning them often, cook the bacon bits until they are browned and crispy. Then transfer the bacon bits into a bowl, leaving the fat in the pot for cooking.
  5. Keeping the heat at medium-low, add the Spanish and green onions, garlic, leek, the bay leaves and the herbs, stir and mix so that the veggies are are well coated with the fat and herbs, then cover and stirring frequently, cook until the vegetables become soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.
  6. Pour the broth or water and bouillon cubes into the pot, add the carrots, celery, turnip, potato and cabbage as well as the reserved cannilini beans, the chicken legs and half of the cooked bacon bits. 
  7. Bring the pot of veggies and meat to a boil, then  reduce the heat so that the stew simmers gently.
  8. Now partially cover the pot and stirring occasionally cook the stew for 1 hour.
  9. After an hour, using a tong, pick the chicken legs out. Using two forks, pull out the meat from bones, discard the bones and put the meat back into the simmering pot of stew.
  10. Stir in the garlic salt, white pepper and crushed red pepper and simmer the stew for another 45 minutes.
  11. Add the sliced chicken sausage and stirring occasionally simmer for the final 45 minutes. 
  12. The stew is now ready, check the seasoning, adjust the salt and pepper then turn off the heat and ladle it into the serving bowls. 
  13. Serve with a crusty bread and enjoy ! 
I highly recommend that you cook the stew few hours in advance and make a big batch whenever you decide to make some.. The taste just gets better with time.... 


Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about Garbure. You can find the original recipe and more such delicious recipes in Dorie Greenspan's book  Around my French Table. 


I shall be sharing this at the following parties...



12 comments:

  1. It's nice to know this works well with chicken. That would make it easier to make a smaller batch of this delicious soup. Nice job!

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  2. I am sure the chicken version was wonderful…it looks delectable!! Lovely photos, too! Happy Weekend!

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  3. I'm glad the seasoning worked out and the addition of bacon probably helped a lot too. Lovely stew.

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  4. The chicken version of this stew sounds wonderful. I did not use a duck leg, could not
    locate one, and the flavors were fine without it. I will definitely try to use one the next time though,
    as everyone seemed to have enjoyed the flavors.

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  5. So glad to know how yummy this turned out with the chicken. I was silently starting to add up the price of the ingredients as I cooked and thinking we could have eaten a meal out at a reasonable restaurant, but I have learned not to focus on the price tag but instead just think of FF as a hobby instead of grocery shopping.I waged this battle with one of the first recipes where I had to buy something like a $12 container of cardamom (which I actually did not even end up caring for). But for the choice of whether to make a recipe AGAIN- your info is spot on for me :) I wish I had read the P&Q's and added the bay leaf- that would have been lovely indeed. Ah well, next time. When I make it with chicken :)

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  6. I think I would have much preferred your chicken version - that looks wonderful. (There was no duck in ours either - and fortunately, we had everything else on hand already.)

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  7. Love your chicken version of our soup! Bookmarked!

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  8. Your chicken version looks damn delicious! I'm really feeling like I missed out by skipping this one. I hope I have occasion to catch up on it soon.

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  9. Mmmm this sounds so good. Hello from Let's Get Real.

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  10. Tanusree, your Garbure-Style Chikcen Stew sounds quite delicious - nice to know that this recipe worked so well for you with some adaptations!

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  11. Hi Tanusree! I'm stopping in from Let's Get Real today. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us. I learned quite a little bit today. This stew does look really delicious. I need to put it in my meal plan real soon.

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Thanks for stopping by. It was nice having you here. Have a good day.

Take care and come back soon.
Best, Tanusree

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