Perhaps everyone who does not shy away from meat dishes loves stew. In addition, she is very convenient in the household: if there is no time for cooking, he opened a jar, made a side dish and make the family happy with dinner. But many shun stew. What kind of meat went into it - it is not known how it was stored - is unclear. But the chicken stew cooked personally in the slow cooker does not cause any concerns. And done quickly, unlike other methods of its preparation.
Attention to the bird
In order for the chicken stew in the slow cooker to succeed, you need to remember: only fresh or chilled carcass is suitable for it. If the meat has been frozen, the stew will be dry at best. Or, on the contrary, it will turn into a kind of porridge. At worst, it’s not edible. And its shelf life will be greatly reduced.
Both broilers and homemade chicken are suitable for stews. The latter, of course, is preferable, but few people find time and desire to go to the village for a bird. So just go to the nearest store.
Chicken stew at home can be prepared both from separate parts of the bird, and from a whole carcass. Culinary experts, the latter option is considered the most optimal, but this is a matter of taste. The only thing that definitely does not go into business is the neck. It definitely needs to be set aside, for example, on the broth.
Carcass cutting
At this point, recipes for chicken stew in a slow cooker vary. Some chefs believe that before laying the meat in the bowl, the miracle assistant should be removed from the bones. Others argue that this is not necessary: bones can be removed later. Just in case, we describe how to act in the first case.
- We cut the carcass along the keel bone in half, then cut each part across.
- We cut off wings, legs and a neck (we remove the last).
- Remove the skin, rinse individual pieces and dry with napkins.
- On a cutting board, carefully remove all slices of meat with a sharp knife.
Bones should not be thrown away, with them the broth will be more rich. By the way, that is why many chefs miss the stage of preliminary cutting of poultry.
On a note
If you cook chicken stew in a slow cooker for use in soups, you can not be confused with the removal of meat at all. However, large tubular bones will still have to be removed: the air that they contain reduces the shelf life. However, this procedure can be done with the finished dish, before packing on the banks.
Another preliminary stage
Before you start cooking directly, you need to stock up on a sterile container. How to disinfect banks is up to you. After washing and rinsing, they can be sterilized in the traditional way, in boiling water. You can fry the containers in the oven (put in a cold so as not to burst).
You can pour some water in a jar and send in the microwave. The main thing - after sterilization, turn the dishes upside down on a clean towel so that harmful microorganisms do not penetrate into it.
With the sterilization of the lids, everything is much simpler: they boil for 5-10 minutes and are laid out on a napkin, like cans, with the “working” surface down and the outside up.
Grocery list
For homemade chicken stew to succeed for the winter, just enough salt, peppercorns and bay leaves - everything is taken at the discretion of the cook. Fans of spicy dishes can add ground pepper or other favorite seasonings.
There is no consensus on water. Someone believes that it is not needed at all - the chicken will give enough fluid. Someone is still adding fluid. But in this case, too little, from the strength of half a glass to a bowl filled almost to the top.
How to make chicken stew in a slow cooker
Put the chopped chicken into the multicooker. If the bones are not extracted, we must take care not to scratch the walls of the bowl. Sprinkle meat with salt, if desired - pepper. We put allspice and close the lid. About water, you have to make a decision yourself. But it’s better to fill the bird about halfway.
We turn on the extinguishing mode and set the timer. If the chicken is shop, we take three hours, if it’s home, four. An hour before the alarm, add a bay leaf and continue to simmer. Together with the laurel, you can lay and peeled onions.
Packing
When the chicken stew in the slow cooker is ready, the meat should be removed and the broth left to be heated. We disassemble the chicken into pieces. If the bones were not removed ahead of time, remove them at this stage. We remove and onions - it affects storage badly. The resulting mass is laid out in banks; top with hot broth. We roll it up with lids, wrap it with an old blanket, wait for it to cool completely and put it in storage in a cool place.
Autoclaved Chicken Stew
If you want the stew to be stored for longer than 2-3 months, you should still cook it under pressure. In this case, the bird will have to be dismantled raw, removing both skin and bones. Later you simply will not have such an opportunity.
We add pieces of chicken and season with spices. Wash my cans and wipe dry. At the bottom of each container we put a bay leaf and a few peas of pepper. Then tightly ram the meat into a third of the volume of the container. The remaining space is filled with broth. Roll up the dishes with tin lids.
Then we put the chicken stew in jars in an autoclave, bring the pressure in it to one and a half atmospheres and put the unit on gas. After 45 minutes spent by the banks at 120 Celsius, we turn off the autoclave and leave the workpieces to cool directly in it. Then we wipe the banks from moisture and put them in the cool for storage. Stew cooked in this way under the right conditions will not deteriorate during the year. Although, if you comply with all technological requirements, it can remain usable for up to five years.
Little secrets and valuable tips
Even if you prefer boneless stew, the smallest can not be picked out. During extinguishing, they will soften and will be absolutely invisible in the total mass.
Stew is better to lay out in small banks - half a liter, by force a liter. So that the contents of the opened containers were consumed by the family for one to two times.
From spices, cumin and coriander are ideal for poultry stew. But you can experiment with other spices. It is not recommended to just take ready-made kits and abuse seasonings too much. And if the stew is intended for soups, it is better to do only laurel and peppercorns at all.
You can extend the shelf life of chicken stew cooked in a multicooker in the same way as a similar pork dish: using fat. If the workpiece is made from broilers, their own subcutaneous fat is cut off and drowned, which at the last moment is poured under the lid.
In the stew, which you are going to eat in the near future, you can put iodized salt. But if the workpiece will be stored for more than a month, it should only be prepared using ordinary kitchen salt.
Sometimes chicken stew tastes bitterness. Experts argue that this effect gives the old bay leaf, which lay in the kitchen cabinet or on the shelf of the store for more than twelve months. Or maybe stored in unsuitable conditions. It is recommended to select the parsley for the stew, focusing on the color of the leaf: it should retain an olive tint.
In general, cooking chicken stew in a slow cooker is a simple process. Try it once - and you will see it. Having mastered it, you can feed your loved ones with a tasty and quick dish at any time of the year.