Meet Alabama Chicken Stew: The 200-Year-Old Recipe I Make Again and Again

I’ve lived in Alabama my entire life. My parents were born here, as were their parents, and their parents, and…well, you get the picture. To put it simply, I’m about as deeply rooted as a person can be. But it wasn’t until I was researching my home state for an article a few years ago that I came across North Alabama Chicken Stew for the first time. My mother's side of the family is from a town in North Alabama, so I asked her about the dish. It turns out her grandmother made something slightly similar, but it wasn’t quite the same as the traditional version. Since Allrecipes didn’t have a recipe at the time, my mom and I looked at a bunch of recipes and patched together our own.

It’s not an exaggeration to say it was love at first taste. Once I started researching the history of the stew through old newspaper articles and Emily Blejwas’s phenomenal book The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods, my 23andMe results and my mother’s maiden name (Stephenson) suddenly made a lot more sense: It originated with the Scottish-Irish pioneers who settled in the region more than 200 years ago. As my boss said, this stew literally runs through my veins.

What Is Alabama Chicken Stew?

Traditional North Alabama chicken stew is a soul-warming combination of chicken, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and corn cooked slowly in a homemade stock. More modern versions include more vegetables—such as carrots and celery—and simply seasonings like bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

The long-simmered potatoes are what makes this dish truly unique: They almost melt into the broth, serving as a natural thickener.

Alabama Chicken Stew History

Alabama Chicken Stew is specific to the northernmost part of the state, particularly in the Tennessee Valley, and it dates back at least a couple centuries. Experts attribute the dish to the pioneers who settled in the region in the early 1800s, drawn to the fertile land near the Tennessee River.

Despite the high-yielding soil that resulted in abundant corn harvests, frontier life was not easy. “North Alabama pioneers faced intense isolation, with homesteads so widely spaced that smoke from another chimney was rarely visible,” writes Blejwas. “The solitude of everyday life coupled with the tenuous quality of the frontier gave community events a critical importance.”

Blewjas points to group house raisings, corn shucking parties, quilting events, and more as evidence of pioneers’ spirit of cooperation. This emphasis on community resulted in chicken stew becoming more than a hearty meal that nourished hungry bodies—it was, and continues to be, a social outlet for people in the small pocket of land on the Alabama-Tennessee border.

The stew, which has Scottish-Irish origins and consists of ingredients that are readily available in the area, was originally prepared over wood fires in huge batches and shared with neighbors. Today, people line up with their own to-go containers at stew sales that are hosted annually by local fire departments and churches.

How to Make Alabama Chicken Stew

The most authentic Alabama chicken stew is cooked in a large pot (over a fire or gas-burning stove, depending on who is making it) and stirred with a wooden paddle. A paddle is not required for the version my mom and I came up with, but I certainly can’t say it would hurt. Here’s a brief overview of how to make it at home:

1. Make a stock by simmering the chicken in seasoned water for about two hours, or until the chicken is cooked through.

2. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board, remove the skin and bones, shred the chicken, and return it to the pot.

3. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and corn to the pot and cook until the potatoes have thickened the stew.

Get the recipe: Alabama Chicken Stew

Read the original article on ALLRECIPES