Andy Makes Chicken and Tomato Stew

Wash my hands.

[Ben laughing]

What?

You always give me shit for that.

It's like, what do you want me to do,

not wash my hands?

No, I was done seasoning, seasoned both sides.

What do you want me to do?

You need to get seasoned.

[funky music]

Hey guys.

We are making a stew today from I think it was,

God, it was maybe over a year ago,

from the February 2018 Healthyish issue.

This is one of my favorite packages that we worked on.

It was a Healthyish stew story

and this one is called a chicken tomato stew.

I think that's the thing, chicken tomato stew

with caramelized lemon.

I am starting with four chicken legs

and this is the thigh and drumstick attached.

Skin on, bone in.

There's not a lot of ingredients

which is why I am gonna push you guys

to use chicken with the skin and the bone in

to give the stew a lot of body, a lot of flavor,

and let's go from there.

These chicken legs have been patted dry.

I'm just gonna season them pretty generously.

I press down so the salt can actually adhere to the skin.

Flip them over, and ideally, if you could season

the chicken earlier, that'd be great.

An hour, a day ahead, that's even better.

We have a Dutch oven.

This is like, if you have a larger one, that'd be ideal.

We might have to work these in batches to brown the chicken.

I'm using two tablespoons olive oil.

You don't need much because the chicken's gonna render out

a good amount of fat from the skin.

We're gonna turn this medium-high, get that hot.

I would push you guys to at least try to cook the dishes

because you'll be satisfied in many ways, you know?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

When, where?

Easy, I could've been doing it the whole time.

That was Gar's idea.

What is my stance?

Is it--

No, it's like power poses,

like Andy by the stove, Andy at the counter.

Well, what should I do?

Should I just like-- Andy talking to the camera.

[laughing]

Okay.

You don't wanna move the chicken around too much,

we're just gonna let it sit skin side down,

Get it really nice brown.

Maybe turn the pot around but don't turn

the chicken legs around, otherwise

they're not gonna brown properly.

Then I'll take a peek.

You have this pretty golden.

I'm gonna go a little bit further.

Alright we're gonna cut some onions up.

I got one large yellow onion.

Just trim the hairs.

I know what you're thinking, Ben.

It's kind of a shitty onion.

It's pretty bad though.

I'll use it.

It's not bad, it's a mediocre onion.

I like to do this.

I go at a 45 degree angle where the base is

just to kind of cut the root end off

and then you're gonna start just slicing

Yeah this is what you want.

This is what you paid for, Ben.

So when I was developing this dish

I want to do some kind of chicken tomatoy stew.

I wanted to keep it fairly simple

and keep this dish really filled

with a lot of pantry ingredients

with maybe a spice or two so you'll see

we're using onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, tomato paste

and then you'll see what the secret ingredient is in a bit.

Six garlic cloves.

In the recipe I say to halve them just for a little work.

I feel like slicing them because you don't always

have to follow a recipe to a T.

Oh I was thinking empty soul.

Yeah I wasn't, yeah.

Wow you know me so well at this point.

Now that this is prepped let's check on the chicken.

We have the two chicken legs browned

and we have these that are still going.

Just to give you an idea, this is a good pool

of fat that is rendered.

You want that.

It's gonna add a lot of flavor and it's also

gonna bring a lot of balance to it

'cause you have a lot of acidity from the tomatoes.

[chicken sizzling]

That's nice.

Okay I'm gonna add the onion.

So we're gonna cook these onions down

until they're really soft.

The onions are also picking up all the good brown bits

that the chicken left.

We don't need to add any additional oil

'cause we have that olive oil in the pan

and the chicken fat that has rendered.

If you have anything that's sticking just scrape it up.

Okay so the onions have softened up.

They're gonna keep cooking but I'm gonna add the garlic now

and we're gonna keep cooking this down

until the onions are really soft

and the garlic is soft as well.

Okay so the garlic is brown, the onions have browned.

I'm gonna add two tablespoons honey,

a tablespoon tomato paste

3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

and half a teaspoon cinnamon.

You don't need much of the spices here.

I'm gonna let this go for about two minutes

just to bloom the spices, kind of waking them up

and also to cook out the tomato paste.

Whole peeled tomatoes.

I don't crush them or anything, you can ahead of time.

I just kind of add them to the pot.

I'm gonna just nestle in the chicken here skin side up.

Any juices that may have gathered.

Okay I'm gonna add three cups of stock.

This is some cloudy ass stock

that was not made in the test kitchen.

We didn't have any.

Just kind of give the bottom a bit of a stir.

Gonna turn it down to very low.

I'm gonna mostly cover it with a lid

just so I'm gonna leave some space so it can reduce,

stew can thicken.

I'm gonna turn the chicken around every so often

maybe every 20 minutes or so.

This is gonna go for about a little over an hour.

We're gonna check after the 60 minute mark.

It may need a little bit more time.

What you're looking for is the chicken to be almost shreddy.

I like that.

If you wanna cook it less so that it retains its shape

that's fine too, it'll still be cooked through

and for the sauce to be thickened and we'll go from there.

First I am just taking one lemon,

gonna cut the ends off like this

and then I'm gonna just place the lemon upright

and then cut it into quarters

and then, look at that.

Best partner in the biz.

A chocolate chip cookie.

I'm gonna save that for later.

We're gonna take each lemon and cut crosswise

into thin strips.

And then we're gonna throw this in a medium skillet

and then we're gonna cover this with water.

You don't need much just to cover it up.

Depends on what you want me to juggle.

Oh, no.

Men, yes.

Favorite movie in middle school, shit.

It was like gangster films and then like

coming-of-age Leonardo DiCaprio films.

Andy's got a type.

I have a type, unfortunately.

If you got tattoos.

Oh by the way, we're pulling the lemons out.

You'll see how they're almost translucent a bit.

We're just going to flip these over

and pat them dry a bit.

Back on the heat.

Pour two tablespoons olive oil.

I'm gonna add the lemon back into the bowl.

I'm gonna sprinkle this with one and half teaspoons

of sugar and just give this a toss.

This is not gonna make the lemon sweet.

This is just combating any of the leftover bitterness.

We'll take that over.

So what we're doing is making a topping for the stew.

This is going to be caramelized lemon

that's going to be a crunchy lemony topping

that's gonna garnish the stew.

I'm just shaking these lemons a bit.

I'm just getting them a little bit of color.

So I'm gonna sprinkle these with a little bit of salt.

Little bit of a toss.

The chicken is, I test by taking the drumstick

and then pushing it down.

If the chicken's about to fall off,

which it's about to fall off, then we're good to go.

Again this chicken is not like perfectly retained

chicken legs, these are supposed to be falling off the bone

and they're actually falling off the bone

so I'm gonna have to use a slotted spoon but I love this.

This is the kind of meal I want.

I'm gonna just give this a rough chop.

Best eyes?

That's all.

I don't need much.

I'm gonna throw this mint on top.

Lemon, finish with a bit of sesame seeds.

Okay I'm gonna make myself a little serving.

I'm gonna take--

Alright I'm gonna take one leg.

Now this is a really saucy, stewy dish.

You could serve it on its own.

I like to pair it with a little bit of flatbread.

[Man] Ooh.

[laughing]

It's really delicious, I'm just gonna say that.

Because you're using the bone and the skin

it has a great chicken-forward flavor.

It's very chickeny dish.

You get that good acidity from the tomatoes.

You get the warm spices, just that little bit amount

of turmeric and cinnamon comes through.

I'm gonna finish this up.

I hope you guys enjoy it and I hope you guys make it.

Thanks.

On camera?

I want people to think that I don't eat sugar.

It's pretty damn good.

Chris Morocco, man.

Nailed it every time.