Yes, it is exactly that. Fried Chicken stew and it must be about the most hillbilly thing I’ve done in quite some time. It doesn’t match my country fried pork ribs, but it still ranks pretty darned high. Read on if’n you’re interested, if not, I understand.

Making Fried Chicken Stew couldn’t possibly be any easier. What we need is a whole chicken cut up in to pieces. Don’t salt & pepper it, there’s enough of that at the table. Dust it well with flour and install in to a dutch oven of some kind. I used my enamel coated rig with about 1/2″ of oil in the bottom, shallow fry. I’d used the last of the safflower oil & corn oil on the last chicken fry. Guess what I found in the cupboard? A full container of grapeseed oil. It’s has a dandy high smoking point and is supposed to be decent for the heart, sure. Anyhoo, get that oil darned hot. At least 375 degrees F, you need to give the chicken a good brown coating without cooking it through.

Okay, that was easy enough. After the chicken is out and on a paper towel resting you would want to pour out most of the oil. Leave in a few tablespoons to coat the vegies.
Don’t pour the oil out or in to something you aren’t able to retrieve it from. You could very well need a little more in the vegies. Sure you could get more from the bottle, but there’s no point in being wasteful.
this’d be a great time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
While that was going you’ll be wantin’ to cut up a load of carrots, celery & an onion or two. I always go heavy on the carrots, they just don’t last. Yum. Depending upon size, maybe a dozen or so. About half that ratio of celery. Peel the carrots, but don’t worry about any crazy cutting styles with the stuff, just get it cut.
As far as herbies go, Thyme or Rosemary or both would be fine. I used Thyme. Don’t add too much herbs & stuff, you want the taste of the fried chicken to be the main flavor.
Dump in all the vegies in to the hot 2 tablespooned dutch and saute a bit. After a little time you’ll notice the celery & carrots releasing a bunch of water. This means you’re now boiling your vegies. It’s time to dump in a few quarts of natural chicken broth, no use for boiled vegies.
Install chicken in to pot and bring to rolling boil. I do this instead of just putting it in to the oven luke warm. My dear family don’t care to wait too darned long to eat. Stir a few times.
Once the chicken is lolling about put it in to the oven with the lid OFF.
Let it go for a few hours, no less than 1.7 or so.
This goes well with just about any starch, I tossed taters in next to the pot in the oven. Nothing finer than a baked tater flayed open and filled with fried chicken, eh?

I didn’t have time to go the full 2 hours, so the broth was a little runny. I dissolved a teaspoon of corn starch in cold water and blended it in. Simmer a few minutes and it thickened right up.
Oh man, it was so darned tasty (add salt & pepper here). So rich and yes, tasted like Fried Chicken.
MeatHenge Fried Chicken Stew, hillbilly perfection of love.
Xo Xo