creative_cooks | Crockpot Xawaash Chicken Stew

I made this recently. I wanted to use up the leftover tomato paste from the Suugo Suqaar, and I wanted to experiment more with the xawaash spice mix that I made earlier. The result is utterly spectacular. We definitely plan to make this again. I'm especially thrilled because it's so different from my usual broth-based crockpot stews.

"Crockpot Xawaash Chicken Stew"

Ingredients:
water
6 oz. can of tomato paste
2 tablespoons xawaash spice mix
1 pound boneless chicken thighs
1/2 sweet onion chopped
half a package of baby potatoes
1 tablespoon xawaash spice mix
16 oz. can of large butter beans

Directions:

Turn the crockpot on High.

Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the crockpot between 1/2" and 1" deep. Scoop out the tomato paste in blobs and stir it into the water to start breaking it up. The remaining lumps will melt down as the stew cooks. Stir in 2 tablespoons of xawaash spice mix.

Add the boneless chicken thighs. Separate them so they cook evenly. Put the lid on the crockpot.

Chop half of a sweet onion. Scrape the bits over the chicken. Put the lid back on the crockpot.

Rinse half a package of baby potatoes. Cut off any bad spots and cut the baby potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of xawaash spice mix over the potatoes. Put the lid back on the crockpot.

Cook for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. If the stew starts boiling, turn the crockpot down to Low. The base will cook down a lot in the last hour or so. If it dries out too much, add a little more water. The chicken thighs should come apart when pressed and the potatoes should be soft.

About 10 minutes before serving, open the can of large butter beans and drain them. Pour the beans into the crockpot and stir gently to combine. They don't need to cook, just warm up for a few minutes and absorb some of the flavors.

Serve the stew alone, over rice, or with bread; greens make a traditional African side dish. It comes out very rich and thick, almost like a chunky sauce or a curry. This recipe makes 4-6 servings.

Notes:

Use unflavored tomato paste. The ingredients should just say "tomatoes" and usually either "citric acid" or "salt" to help preserve it. The amount is somewhat flexible, so this is a great way to use up a partial can of tomato paste. I used what was left after taking out 2 tablespoons for Suugo Suqaar (pasta sauce with beef). If you don't have tomato paste, then tomato puree should work, but use less water. The stew base will be juicy while cooking, but toward the end it should get quite a lot thicker.

Xawaash spice mix comes from Somalia; I got the recipe from the cookbook In Bibi's Kitchen. It involves roasting whole spices and then grinding them together. The result is intensely fragrant and flavorful, but not hot, with a reddish-orange color. This mix is made in large quantities because it is used in large quantities, so check the amount of ingredients before you start assembling it. You can make a half-batch which is about one spice bottle full, and that's enough to make 2-4 supper recipes depending how much each needs. You can use more or less xawaash if you prefer. I based the 3 tablespoons in this recipe on the amount used in Suugo Suqaar (pasta sauce with beef).

Basically, water + tomato + xawaash spice mix = flexible stew base. You could put almost any kind of chunky stew ingredients into this and it would work. Adjust the level of spiciness with the amount of xawaash. To make it hotter, add a hot spice powder like cayenne, or throw in a hot pepper like Scotch bonnet.

Boneless chicken thighs make great stew meat. When you stir at the end, let them break up as much as they want to. However, many other meats would work in this dish, such as beef or pork. Goat is a popular African choice, though hard to find in America.

Sweet onions are less hot than regular onions, and add flavor. You can use half or whole; we usually cook with half an onion, so there is often half of one in the refrigerator.

Baby potatoes don't need peeling. We like the tricolor blend of red, white, and blue potatoes. Fingerlings also work well. You can use big potatoes, but those are more work to chop and if the skin is tough they need to be peeled.

You could throw in whatever other vegetables you like in stew, such as carrots or celery. Fresh chopped tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes would make the sauce chunkier. If you like greens in stew, they're a traditional African option. Stems of squash or pumpkin can be peeled and used like vegetables.

Large butter beans are big white beans, kind of like pale limas. They are soft and creamy with a buttery taste. You can use whatever canned beans you want -- we also considered red kidney beans or great white northern beans. If you want to use dry beans, then presoak them the night before and add them at the beginning of the cooking time. For a meatless recipe, omit the chicken and use 2+ types of beans; you could also use one bean and one whole grain or pasta.

This stew is very easy to make and flexible in terms of ingredients. If you wanted a quick-fix version then you could use frozen chicken chunks or leftover chicken, canned diced potatoes, and the canned beans. If you like tomato-based stew, you will probably love this -- although it doesn't taste much like tomato, because of all the spices.