Fricassee Chicken takes many different forms around the world. Essentially, fricassee chicken refers to meat that has been cut up and stewed. In Trinidad, they call it "stewed chicken" or "brown stew chicken", which is different to other versions where you might see the chicken stewed in a white wine cream sauce. Nonetheless, this is the "fricassee chicken" I grew up knowing and loving. The gravy-like sauce produced by the Trinidadian style fricassee is so savory and delicious that we even serve it with our turkey on Thanksgiving Day.
FRICASSEE CHICKEN (TRINIDAD STYLE)
INGREDIENTS:
1 whole chicken, cut into portions (wings, thighs, breasts, drumsticks)
2 cups celery, chopped
4 cups onion, chopped
olive oil
2 1/2 tsp. garlic, minced
salt
black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
4 tbsp. browning liquid
4 shakes Worcestershire
8 oz. tomato sauce
INSTRUCTIONS:
Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add in celery, onion, garlic, 1 tsp. salt, and 3/4 tsp. pepper. Cook until clear and wilted, stirring frequently. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
In the same pot, add 2 tbsp. olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add about half of the chicken pieces, cooking about 3 minutes on each side. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces. Set aside.
Add the celery and onion mixture back to the skillet. To that, add the 4 shakes of Worcestershire and cook for 2 minutes.
Add in tomato sauce and browning liquid. Cook another 2-3 minutes.
Add the chicken back to the skillet with the onion and celery mixture. Then add chicken broth. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for an hour, flipping the chicken pieces a couple of times throughout the hour.
Serve hot over Peruvian Garlic Rice and enjoy!
Notes:
Apologies for the interesting "4 shakes of Worcestershire". These recipes have been passed down to me through watching and learning, measurements aren't really a thing in my family.
With the breast pieces, we normally cut them into thirds rather than cooking them whole to allow for the flavor to really soak in there. Though I have never tried it, you could also use boneless pieces of chicken. I prefer to use bone-in as I feel that is where a lot of the flavor comes from- but to each his own.
If you find that your fricassee is a bit more liquid-y than you would like, remove the lid while cooking to allow it to reduce to your desired consistency. It will also thicken more once it has finishing cooking and sits for a bit.
Though I chopped my veggies this time around, we normally throw the onion and celery into a food processor for a more luscious sauce consistency (also a big time saver). Both work the same, but feel free to experiment with both.
Leftovers can be frozen and saved for later use!