CHICKEN & YAM STEW

CHICKEN & YAM STEW

A quick & easy main dish for casual fall entertaining!

A stew with chicken, yams and apple cider may sound strange, but this one will have everyone going back for seconds.

Yield: About 7 cups

¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves cut into 1 inch chunks
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 cups apple juice or cider
3 cups yams*, peeled & cut into ½ inch cubes (about one large yam)
29 ounces diced canned tomatoes, drained (one large can)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
16 ounces frozen forkhook limas (one package)

Combine chicken and flour in a large plastic bag. Shake until chicken is well coated.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add chicken. Cook and stir until lightly browned – about 3 minutes. Remove chicken.

Add remaining oil, garlic and onion to saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender – about 2 minutes. Return chicken to pan. Stir in apple juice or cider, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, cumin, and limas. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and yams are tender.

* Here we are talking about the darker-skinned variety of sweet potato which we Americans erroneously call “yams”. (If anyone cares, the experts tell us that true yams are not related to sweet potatoes.) The darker variety we are calling for here is the one which has the dark orange skin and bright orange flesh and which is commonly called a yam in most American grocery stores. Its flesh is both moister and sweeter than the paler variety of sweet potato.