Drumstick Stew with Summer Savoury Gravy
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Drumstick Stew. An economical, delicious, warming comfort food meal that the whole family will love. A perfect cool weather dinner.
Our grocery budget is understandably higher than average because of what we do here on Rock Recipes. But that doesn't mean we still shrug off a good deal at the grocery store.
This is doubly true when it comes to the weekly meat department sale items.
Living on an island in the cold North Atlantic does not come cheap. Having so much of our food shipped in by air and ferry naturally means bigger prices for even core grocery items like meats, vegetables and fruits.
Spouse and I have always been watchers of the weekly grocery flyers for the 3 main supermarkets in our neighbourhood. Truth be told, just like my Dad did when my he shopped for our family of six, we cherry pick the best deals from all 3 throughout the week.
Chances are one of those beautiful, but pricey, rib eye steaks you see on Rock Recipes was bought on sale.
Budget Friendly Meals
This past week, I added a new category for Budget Friendly Meals to the website because all of us need a little help stretching our grocery dollar. Prices are likely to stretch that grocery budget even further in the years to come.
Going forward I'll be categorizing new recipes that fall into this category. I'll also be labelling some of our older recipes that fit this category. There are quite a lot already there.
Today's recipe for Drumstick Stew is one that I came up with when chicken drumsticks were on sale a couple of weeks ago. Even with 3 pounds of chicken drumsticks in the pot, the entire stew came in at under $12 and can easily feed 4 - 6 people.
Add a few of my dough boys (dumplings) for just a few cents more and you will have contented bellies all around.
Gravy tip for Chicken Drumstick Stew
Regular readers will know that waste is kept at a bare minimum in our household and even more so for food waste. In this recipe I've even used the chicken skin to enhance the flavour of the gravy.
The drumsticks in this recipe are braised without their skins, to cut the fat in the meal. I don't throw out those skins though.
I take the skins and lay them flat onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake them in a 350 F degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown and very crispy, like crisp cooked bacon.
All of the fat renders out of the skins and I then blot them with paper towels to remove any surface fat. I them chop them into fine crumbs of crispy chicken skin which I add to the pot when adding the vegetables.
The result is like adding a natural bouillon cube without the added salt. It really amps up the flavour in any gravy that you are making.
Nov 14 update: I was quickly reminded yesterday that I forgot to post a link to the dough boys recipe. Find it here.
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Drumstick Stew
Drumstick Stew - an economical, delicious, warming comfort food meal that the whole family will love. A perfect cool weather dinner.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken drumsticks, skinned (see note below before throwing out skins)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil or butter
- 2 red onions, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- salt & pepper to season
- 4 large carrots, cut in coins
- 2 large parsnips, optional, cut in coins
- 2 pounds red or yellow potatoes Cut in 2 inch chunks
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 4 cups low sodium chicken stock, (1 litre)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste. I like a peppery stew
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, or ½ teaspoon powdered sage
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 tablespoon Summer Savoury, Mt. Scio Farms Brand is best
- 4 tablespoon flour mixed with ½ cup cold water as a thickening slurry.
Instructions
- Add the olive oil or butter to a large dutch oven over medium heat.
- Add the onions and garlic, lightly season with salt and pepper and cook just until the onions begin to soften.
- Place the skinned drumsticks on top of the onion and garlic and lightly season the top again.
- Place the lid on the dutch oven and place in a 325 degree F Oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and add all of the vegetables, the chicken stock, black pepper, poultry seasoning, bay leaves and savoury. season with a little more salt if necessary. (If adding the finely chopped crispy chicken skin, add it now, See note)
- Return to the oven for 45 minutes or until the vegetables are fork tender.
To finish the stew
- Remove the chicken legs from the stew and strip all of the meat from the bones.
- Bring the stew to a slow simmer on top of the stove.
- Mix the flour and water together so that there are no lumps.
- Slowly add to the simmering stew stirring constantly.
- Add the chicken back to the pot and simmer for only a couple of minutes before serving. At this stage you could put the stew back into the oven if you were adding dumplings.
Notes
You can find our dough boys/dumplings recipe here.
Gravy tip for Chicken Drumstick Stew Regular reader will know that waste is kept at a bare minimum in our household and even more so for food waste. In this recipe I've even used the chicken skin to enhance the flavour of the gravy. The drumsticks in this recipe are braised without their skins to cut the fat in the meal. I don't throw out those skins though. I take the skins and lay them our flat onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake them in a 350 F degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown and very crispy, like crisp cooked bacon. All of the fat renders out of the skins and I then blot them with paper towels to remove any surface fat. I them chop them into fine crumbs of crispy chicken skin which I add to the pot when adding the vegetables. The result is like adding a natural bouillon cube without the added salt. It really amps up the flavour in any gravy that you are making.
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1 gAmount Per Serving Calories 406Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 2gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 118mgSodium 246mgCarbohydrates 43gFiber 10gSugar 7gProtein 34g
Looks delicious. I roasted a turkey a couple of days ago and put the drumsticks in the freezer. I'm going to make this stew but use my turkey drums since they are here and paid for. : )
I'm a single senior woman and budget is important to me too. I always make the most of what's on sale (the turkey was this past week). And I eat half and freeze half of pretty much everything I make.
I really enjoy your recipes. Re the drumstick stew, would you substitute bone-in thighs, if they were available?
Absolutely!
Just did just that. Used the skin as in the recipe and deboned the thighs first and used the bones to make the brought.. Very good indeed!
I live in Naperville, Illinois and would love to purchase the summer savory you referred to...Mt. Scio Farms. Can I contact them and will they ship to the States?
Have you searched for them online?
Looks like a delicious stew and I'd like to try it out. However the Summer Savoury in the recipe is not available in my country in fact I have no idea what it is! Can it be substituted by something else? Thanks
Monica
Use a little sage and thyme. Easy on the sage though.
Made this last night - awesome. The only change I made was adding some fresh mushrooms that I had that needed to be used. Fantastic recipe. Will certainly make it again (loved the chicken skin idea)
Would this work in crockpot.
If you prepared the drumsticks in the oven as directed.
Hi Barry, do you have a link for your dumpling recipe?
The is a link in the post already but I have added it to the recipe notes section as well.
If using chicken thighs (instead of drumsticks) Is it necessary to strip the meat off the bone? Do you think it is ok to just add the cooked thighs back to the stew after thickening the stew with flour and water slur?
I've always enjoyed cooking and wanted to get more into it, following recipes and exploring to learn more. As I'm still fairly young I don't cook many things I decided on myself and am looking forward to when I move out so I can experiment more frequently. That being said, I followed this recipe today (with a few different spices as I didn't have all of these) and it made a perfect stew that my entire family loved and really just made me happy. A lot of love goes out to Barry, because I really appreciate your recipe you've put up here, thanks.
So glad you enjoyed the stew! Keep cooking!
Can you add turnip to this stew or would it be too strong a flavour? I wouldn't want the turnip to overpower the parsnip, carrots or potatoes. I am trying to stretch the stew with more vegies and make more gravy for spooning on top of either extra boiled potatoes or the dumplings.
It's always too strong for me. I don't like it but if you do...