Try it! Zazulete's summer chicken stew

Thao Uyen

I tried the summer chicken stew!

Today I’m going to inaugurate the "Try it!" section and what an honor it is!

I’ve been reading on Zazulete’s and Blessia’s articles for weeks and I don’t know about you, but for me it was a bit of a torture since I read them with a loud rebellious tummy. And so I decide it’s time to try one of their recipes. Since the purpose of our blog is to share our cultures mostly through our culinary journeys, actually cooking their recipes makes me feel closer to them, in a warmhearted moment of joy. As for the dish of my choice, the weather these days is fluctuating from warm hot to stone cold so I think it’s the perfect time to experiment with Zazulete’s summer chicken stew. It’s a stew of her invention in which she incorporates a harmony of summer and autumn flavors. You can find the recipe here.

At first I thought it was a simple recipe with basic ingredients for stew but when I actually noted down the ingredients, I discovered that this is really a concert, in more ways than one.
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The gang of 'best of' from summer and autumn ingredients

​We know that stew is the perfect dish for the first days of autumn, especially when we combine the summer fresh herbal flavors with autumn legumes. 
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There are some differences with the original recipe:

• I didn’t put in olives and peas, lime leaves were added instead.
• I also like to stir fry the ginger, garlic, half of the celery leaves and lime leaves first before adding the chicken thighs.
• Most herbs are fresh, apart from dried bay leaves.
• I add mushrooms at the last minute because I prefer them to be a bit crunchy.
• Asian red chili is used.

I only add two of those lime leaves.

When the stew is on the stove, it smells so warm and inviting I just want to dive in. And so I keep tasting the stew as an excuse, I couldn't help myself.

My thoughts about this recipe:

It’s a very healthy dish, the colors in and of themselves are a therapy for the eyes. The cutting and chopping part is so funny. There’s something very relaxing about cutting colorful vegetables into chunks, I had so much fun with it. What stands out to me is this stew is packed with flavors and lovely fragrances. The combination of zucchini, eggplant with bell pepper and potato enhances the taste of the chicken and gives the stew a richness that couldn’t be made by meat alone. The most surprising part is each bite has its flavor, one bite gives me the warm taste of ginger while another has the fresh flavor of dill and so on.

The final dish! The stew has natural sweetness from legumes so little salt is needed.

This stew is one of the most healthy dishes I’ve ever made.

It’s like coming to the doctor after a long period of binge eating pizza and deep-fried chicken wings and being advised to “eat more vegetables”, this dish will certainly be highly recommended. Honestly just looking at the stew makes me feel healthy.  

So whether you’ve been eating a bit unhealthy and want to correct that or you just want to taste a stew packed with flavors when the weather is transiting from summer to autumn, try it! Just a little bowl of this stew will keep you full for hours long so it’s also the perfect dish to add in your diet. I will certainly cook this stew again next time with olives and peas for the full Mediterranean flavors.