Chicken and Green Pea Stew or the Romanian “Mancare de mazare cu pui”, a hearty but light dish that is full of colour and goodness. As a child I absolutely loved this food, and so do my children now too. It’s quick and easy to make, it’s healthy, and it can be cooked with fresh or frozen ingredients from scratch.
What a dish this is! It literally has got everything my kids love to eat: chicken -tick, peas – tick, carrots -tick, a bit of liquid that gives the stew a soup-like consistency – tick. If anything else fails, I know for sure that this is one dinner they will never refuse.
And it’s so quick to make, you can start preparing your dinner literally half an hour before everyone is sat at the table, and then you can enjoy a delicious, hearty and healthy meal that leaves everyone happy and full.
If you have fussy eaters, I bet they will love to give this a go. Having spent my childhood in the countryside surrounded by fresh fruit and vegetables, lots of chicken and other animals, I got to appreciate how amazing healthy food is.
You can either use fresh vegetables for this stew, or frozen. The frozen veggies are actually as good as the fresh ones, and they don’t take much longer to cook either. They don’t need to be thawed in advance, they can be cooked from frozen without any problem.
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN AND GREEN PEA STEW
I love using chicken because it cooks really quickly, but beef can also be used too. The only difference is that the beef needs to be cooked for a lot longer. Any other veggies can be added here: peppers, sweetcorn, green beans, courgettes, and so on.
- cut the chicken breasts into chunks
- season with salt and pepper
- heat up the oil in a large pan, add the chicken pieces, and fry on both sides for 2-3 minutes – the chicken might not be cooked through at this stage, but that’s fine, it will cook further with the veggies
- remove the chicken from the pan and set aside
- in the same pan, add more oil if needed, and fry the chopped onion until golden
- add the garlic, frozen peas, chopped carrots and chicken, pour over the stock, place the lid on, and leave to cook for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are tender
- add the tomato puree, check for seasoning, and add the chopped dill – I love dill in stews, it gives such a lovely touch, but parsley can be added instead if you don’t have dill
- serve immediately
EASY SWAPS
What makes this stew so amazing is that a lot of ingredients can be swapped to cater for your taste and ingredients available. If you want to go for a vegan or vegetarian option, simply replace the chicken stock with a vegetarian one, and omit the chicken.
Alternatively, any meat substitute can be used, with quorn chicken/sausage pieces being a great option. These can be cooked separately and added to the stew towards the end.
Another great option is adding leftover meat, and here anything goes: chicken, beef, pork, sausages, you name it. Again, since the meat is already cooked, it doesn’t need to go in early, but towards the end just to warm up.
Stews are the very best when it comes to comfort cooking, or just easy and healthy family dinners that go down well with everyone. My Chicken and Potato Stew, Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes or Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Stew are recipes that I cook often, and they are a crowd pleaser every single time.
If you’ve liked my CHICKEN AND GREEN PEA STEW or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.
Chicken and Green Pea Stew or the Romanian "Mancare mazare cu pui", a hearty but light dish that is full of colour and goodness. As a child I absolutely loved this food, and so do my children now too. It's quick and easy to make, it's healthy, and it can be cooked with fresh or frozen ingredients from scratch.
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 onion
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 2 carrots
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
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Peel and chop the onion, carrots and garlic.
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Cut the chicken into chunks, season with salt and pepper.
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Add half of the amount of oil to a large cooking pan, and cook the chicken on both sides for 2-3 minutes until no longer pink.
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Remove from the pan and set aside.
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Heat up the other half of oil, add the onion, and fry until golden.
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Add the garlic, carrots, cooked chicken, peas and stock, give it a stir, place the lid on the pan, and leave to cook until the veggies are tender and the chicken is cooked through.
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Add the tomato paste, check for seasoning and garnish with fresh dill.
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Serve immediately.
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