Slow Cooked Chicken Thighs Dutch Oven

Ultra tender flesh and super crispy skin smothered in a thick savoury sauce with vegetables. ThisChicken Stew is slow cooked in the oven to develop deep, incredible flavours. The smell that fills the house when it's in the oven is simply wonderful!

More chicken stew recipe options: Faster Chicken Quick Stew (using bite size chicken pieces), Coq au Vin and Chicken Fricasée (creamy French Chicken Stew, reader favourite!).

Overhead photo of Chicken Stew in a white dutch oven, fresh out of the oven.

Chicken Stew – with crispy skin!

Anyone else here not a fan of slimy chicken skin??

I don't care how long it's been slow cooked. And whether it's a stew, in soup or Hainanese chicken.

No chicken skin comes near my mouth unless it's crispy or caramelised.

When my mother reads this, I know she's going to roll her eyes and think"she's so childish!!"

I don't care. I love crispy skin. I want crispy skin. Give me all the crispy skin!!! 😂

Close up of crispy skinned chicken in Chicken Stew

Slow cooked in the oven for crispy skin!

Because I'm so anti-slimy chicken skin, I like to make my Chicken Stew in the oven rather than on the stove. And unless someone knows a magic trick, the only way to get crispy skin for a stew is in the oven.

Cook it covered for part of the time, then uncover it to let the sauce thicken, make the chicken flesh super tender, the surface of the veggies and edges of the stew caramelise, and – most importantly in my world – to get that chicken skin super crispy!

Don't have the time to slow cook?

Try my speedier Chicken Stew – made with boneless chicken thighs, this is on the table in an hour but tastes like it's been cooking all day!

Chicken Stew in a rustic brown bowl, ready to be eaten

OK, I think I've babbled on enough about the chicken skin. Let me move on.

Under the crispy skin -> tender flesh.

Smothering the crispy skin -> thick savoury gravy sauce.

Around the crispy skin -> tender soft vegetables.

😇😇😇

Close up of Chicken Stew in a rustic brown bowl.

I'm lucky enough to have a big, shallow casserole pot / dutch oven which is absolutely perfect for these kind of stews that go from stove to oven. But if you don't have one, don't worry, just tip it all into a baking pan before popping it into the oven.

And – confession time. The reason I cropped out most of the bowl in the photo below is because I ate the chicken before I took this photo. The side you can't see just has bones, picked completely clean.

I couldn't resist! Don't judge me! 😂 – Nagi x

More Stews

Faster Chicken Stew –when you need a rich stew on the table in under an hour!
Classic Beef Stew – fall apart beef in a deep rich sauce
Irish Beef and Guinness Stew – an incredible dark, rich sauce with incomparable flavour
Slow Cooked Beef Stroganoff – fall apart beef in a creamy Stroganoff sauce!
Braised Beef Short Ribs in Red Wine Sauce – truly exceptional, restaurant quality!
Browse all Stew recipes

Classic dinners we'll love forever

Meatloaf – a family favourite forever and ever!
Spaghetti Bolognese
Beef Pot Roast
Beef Stroganoff
Ultra Tender Roast Pork with Crispy Crackling

Chicken Stew in a dutch oven, fresh out of the oven.

Chicken Stew
Watch how to make it

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Servings 5 - 6

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Recipe video above. Slow cooked chicken with ultra tender flesh and outrageous crispy skin smothered in a gravy-like sauce that's lip smackingly delicious. Carrots, celery, onion and potato make this a filling meal so you won't need a side - except perhaps some crusty bread to dunk in the sauce! Make this in a large oven proof pot, or see notes if you don't have one.

▢ 1 tbsp olive oil
▢ 1.5 kg / 3lb bone in, skin on chicken thighs and drumsticks (6 to 8 pieces)
▢ Salt and pepper
▢ 2 onions , halved and cut into wedges
▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
▢ 3 large carrots , cut thick end into 1.5cm / 3/5" pieces, thin end 2.5cm/1"
▢ 4 celery stalks , cut into 2cm / 4/5" chunks
▢ 1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine (or water)
▢ 3 tbsp (35g) flour
▢ 3 cups (750 ml) chicken broth , low low sodium
▢ 2 tbsp tomato paste
▢ 2 tsp Worscestershire sauce
▢ 3 sprigs thyme , or 1 tsp dried thyme (or other herb)
▢ 2 bay leaves (dried or fresh)
▢ 600 g / 1.2lb baby potatoes , halved (quarter large ones)

Serving (optional):

▢ Fresh thyme or parsley (chopped)
▢ Warm crusty bread

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Brown chicken on both sides until light golden, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Remove from pot. (Do in 2 batches if pot not big enough).
If there's too much oil in the pot, discard some. Add onion and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until onion is translucent.
Add carrots and celery, cook for 1 minute.
Add wine. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to dissolve the brown bits into the liquid. Cook for 1 minute until liquid is mostly gone.
Sprinkle flour across surface, stir.
Add broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and bay leaves. Stir to dissolve tomato paste.
Place chicken on top, keeping the skin above the liquid level as much as you can.
Bring to simmer then cover. Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from oven, remove lid. Add potatoes, pushing them into the liquid and rearranging chicken so they sit on top (for lovely crispy skin).
Return to oven without the lid for a further 40 minutes until the chicken skin is deep golden and super crispy, the potatoes are soft and the sauce is thickened.
Taste sauce and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with warm crusty bread on the side to dunk in the sauce - or go all the way with Garlic Bread! Optional: garnish with extra fresh thyme leaves or parsley.

If you don't have a large ovenproof pot, do the whole recipe up to and including step 7 on the stove then tip it all into a baking pan. Proceed with recipe.

Nutrition per serving, assuming 6 servings and that all the sauce is consumed. The fat is higher than it should be because it doesn't take into account discarded fat after browning the skin. If you discard 2 tbsp of fat, then the calories reduces to about 640 calories per serve with 27g of fat.

Originally published May 2018. Updated for housekeeping matters – no change to recipe.

Life of Dozer

Flashback to May 2018 when this recipe was first published when he tore his ACL and had to have a knee operation. Shaved rump, permanent "help me up" harness, and trapped in a play pen for weeks.

Adding a Cone of Shame was just rubbing salt into the wound, isn't it?

I told him not to scratch the stitches. I warned him about the cone. He did not obey!!😂

Happy to report he is back to normal, chasing birds, leaping off jetties and generally living the high life!❤️ N x

Dozer the golden retriever recovering from ACL surgery with Cone of Shame