French Country Chicken Stew

Total Time: 1 hr 45 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 4 lbs chicken pieces, skin on
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 slice smoked bacon (1/4 inch thick)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried tarragon
• 1 (8 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup dry wine
• 1 chicken bouillon cube, broken into pieces
• 1 (8 ounce) package frozen green peas, thawed
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch rounds
• 12 small red potatoes
• 3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• salt

Recipe

• 1 prepare the chicken but don't skin.
• 2 salt the pieces and dredge them lightly in the flour, brushing off and saving the excess.
• 3 trim off and discard the bacon rind.
• 4 slice the bacon across the width into 1/4 pieces heat the oil in a large kettle and brown the bacon lightly.
• 5 remove and set aside.
• 6 brown the chicken pices in batches, removing them as they finish browning.
• 7 remove and discard all but 3 tbs of the fat.
• 8 add the onion, pepper, tarragon, and the remaining flour.
• 9 scrape these back and forth in the hot fat until the onion is transparent.
• 10 add the tomatoes and their juice and continue the scraping action until most of the juice has evaporated.
• 11 add 1 1/2 cups of water, the wine, and the crumbled bouillon cube.
• 12 add the bacon, chicken, peas, and carrots.
• 13 cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes scrub the new potatoes under cold water and pare off a one inch strip around the middle of each one, leaving the peel on the ends.
• 14 add them to the stew and simmer for 20 minutes.
• 15 stir in the parsley.
• 16 salt to taste, and serve hot.