Learning to cook the perfect “Trini” or “Caribbean” stew chicken has a lot to do with the process and very little to do with actual ingredients and measurements. That may seem like a contentious statement but the fact is that everyone who makes a mean stew will swear by their recipe. Each person has their own way of doing with regards to the varying ingredients involved in making a bess stew.
The one constant ingredient in our stew is brown sugar. This is the basis for a great Caribbean/Trini stew. While I’ve received many lessons on how to stew throughout my life, none of them came with measurements for the ingredients or which herbs and spices work better than others.
However I’m going to break the cycle here and offer a recipe you can depend on to create an amazing pot of stew with consistent results! The key to a great tasting stew is the combination of Green Seasoning and Angsotura Aromatic Bitters as the not-so-secret, secret ingredient.
If you want to further understand the rudiments of stewing, check out this video
How To Stew Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken cleaned and cut into bite size pieces
- 12 pimentos
- 12 cloves garlic
- 6 bundles chadon beni
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp roucou
- 1 bay leaf
- A few dashes of Angostura Aromatic Bitters
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- salt & black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Allow the seasoned chicken to thaw to room temperature.
- Add oil to a pot then add brown sugar.
- Allow the sugar to start to melt then start stirring the oil and sugar to incorporate air into the mixture using a wooden or silicon spoon.
- Continue to stir until the brown sugar mixture gets frothy then turns from light brown to dark brown.
- Add seasoned chicken to the pot then toss to ensure each piece of chicken gets coated with the caramelized sugar.
- Once all pieces are coated, cover and allow to cook for 5 to 8 minutes on medium/low heat.
- Add 4 to 5 dashes of Angostura Aromatic Bitters to the pot.
- Add roucou, bayleaf, tomato paste and coconut milk to the pot.
- Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Reduce heat to low then cover chicken and allow to cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Making The Green Seasoning
- Place shadon beni, garlic and pimento into a food processor then grind until a smooth paste is formed
Seasoning The Chicken
- Place chicken in a bowl then add 3 to 4 tbsp of green seasoning.
- Add 4 to 5 liberal dashes of Angostura Aromatic Bitters.
- Season with salt & black pepper to taste.
- Marinate for at least one hour. For best results, marinate overnight.
I used half a chicken, don’t know what is ruku. I thought he could’ve given an explanation seeing as it is a less popular ingredient. I didn’t grind seasoning as I had green seasoning already which I bought from a business. Didn’t have any coconut milk either. Waiting for it to finish cooking.
Additionally, it seems the brown sugar started to stick together to form clumps. I used less brown sugar since it’s only half a chicken I was using. I cooked everything on low heat.
Once you start moving it around in the pot it should be okay
Hi Shalena you can read up on roucou here: https://eatahfoodtt.com/mmhmm/what-is-roucou/
One slight correction to your recipe – you omitted the Coconut Milk in your list of ingredients required for the recipe. Or maybe the addition of coconut milk in the process was the error. For you to decide. Keep up the good work.
Maggie
Thanks for the heads up!