My favourite chicken stew

📝 Ingredients

• 1 bayleaf
• 200 g chopped celery
• 200 g chopped brown onion
• 200 g chopped carrots
• 200 g chicken wings
• 3 litres water (at room temperature)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1.6 kg chicken thigh and legs (without skin and notorious excesses of fat)
• 200 g brown onion (finely chopped)
• 2 garlic cloves (grated, minced or passed through a press)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1.5 tsp paprika
• 2 bayleaves
• 6 sprigs thyme, (leaves only)
• 200 g mushrooms (cut in 4)
• 1 litre chicken stock from above
• 600 g tomatoes (cut in 4 and deseeded)
• 200 ml red wine ((not from a box please!))
• 250 g carrots (peeled and in slices)
• 600 g new potatoes (washed and cut in squares)
• 150 g frozen or fresh peas

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1--- Chicken Stock ---
2. 2Put everything in a pot and let the temperature go up. Once it starts boiling lower the heat so you only see a few bubbles coming up.
3. 3Let boil for 2 hours. You can make vegetable soup or cream with the veggies and a bit of the stock.
4. 4Try to remove as much as you can from the fat that floats around in the stock using a spoon. If it boiled too hard then it will be mixed in and you won't be able to take it out.
5. 5--- Chicken stew ---
6. 6Blend the tomatoes with a bit of the stock and reserve.
7. 7In a pot on high heat puta bit of olive oil to sear the chicken until the pieces are nice and golden. Remember not to fill up the pan; only put enough chicken pieces to fill up the base. Also don't move them around constantly; lay them on one of their sides and give them 1 or 2 minutes to become golden without moving them and then rotate it. Once the first batch is ready take it out and continue with the rest.
8. 8Remove the chicken, lower the heat to medium-low and add a bit more olive oil as well as the onion, bayleaf and thyme leaves.
9. 9Use the water that is released by the onions to scrape out the burnt bits of chicken on the pan because they have a lot of flavour in them. Cook the onion until it's soft and translucent and you don't feel that strong smell that it had at the start.
10. 10Add the garlic, tomato paste and paprika and cook for another minute.
11. 11Add the blended tomato, the rest of the litre of chicken stock, the chicken, mushrooms and the red wine. Bring everything to a bowl and regulate the heat (low to medium-low depending on your stove) so that we only see a few bubbles on the surface. This is what keeps the chicken nice and tender.
12. 12Cook with a lid on for half an hour. Remember that you don't have to look over it as it cooks ;).
13. 13After 30min take off the lid and add the potatoes and carrots. We don't add them sooner so they don't mash up.
14. 14Cook without the lid on for another half and hour or until the liquid starts to evaporate and thickens. Be careful when you stir at this point because you can separate the chicken that is super tender.
15. 15At the very end add the peas and cook for barely 2min so they don't go dark.
16. 16Serve immediately on its own or with a side of rice, quinoa or cous cous.