Help: Irish Chicken Stew?

Subject: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 11:41 AM

Culinary friends, please help me out here. I would like to have a small supper for St. Patricks Day but a couple of the friends I would like to invite don't eat red meat, so that kinda leaves out traditional Irish stew. Are there any Irish recipes for hearty dishes with chicken? How about fish? Maybe we could do fish. Any menu ideas welcome. Thanks! :)

KFC

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: NH Dave
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 11:51 AM

Well, first you get our your soup ketle and your soup stone....

Seriously, though you can make a great soup/stew using chicken instead of beef, and adding potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, and what have you. Some folks use starch or flour to thicken stews, but I find potato flakes, or shredding/grating a potato so that it cooks to mush while the other ingredients are melding thickens a stew without any added flavors or ingredients.

Dave

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Edmund
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:08 PM

I agree with Dave. But make your stew a day or two early so that the great flavor developes.

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:09 PM

Kim, click here for a whole lot of Irish recipes, from SOAR--Searchable Online Archived Recipes. They are indexed both by type, Main, Appetizer, etc, and by ethnic. I am sending you to the Irish page.......

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:15 PM

SOAR Homepage for those of you who are interested.......lottsa goodies!

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Edmund
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:15 PM

If all else fails you can do as my father and his sibs did every 17th of Ireland when they marched around their dining room table singing --- "Potatoes and fishes are very fine dishes Saint Patrick's day in the morning". --- or so my father used to tell it. Edmund

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:18 PM

Thanks Sorcha! I'm going to check that out right now! :)

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Edmund
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:27 PM

I'm adding my thanks to Sorcha ... just checked it out and bookmarked it. Edmund

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: John J
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:27 PM

This is all making me feel very hungry! JJ

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Bluesman and kde
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:29 PM

Sorcha, Thanks for the two URL's. Lots of great recipes. I have both sites in Favorites in a new folder, BUNCHA RECIPES!!! Can hardly wait to get into the waffle section alone.....Thanks much..............Jim

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:34 PM

Thought some of you might enjoy it.......I've had it bookmarked for ages......when I get bored with what I'm cooking, I go fool around for a while. Found great stuff there, esp the Mexican section!

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: gnu
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:39 PM

Thickening with potato ( from NH Dave ) is traditional, especially if you come from a background that couldn't afford or, during the winter, couldn't get, other thickeners. I still consider it better than any of the others. Cooking a stew a day or two ahead ( from Edmund )really does bring out the flavour. Another hint is to cook it two days ahead and, on the day in between, heat it to a boil, let it cool to warm and rechill. Hmm, must thaw out some partridge ( ruffed grouse to you refined gourmets ).. I'm gettin' hungry.

g

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 01:19 PM

Have you heard of the famous Irish pub selling Chicken soup in a basket!!

To thicken soup with potato you must cut the potato into very small pieces so that it cooks and breaks down quickly.

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 02:17 PM

So if I make a chicken stew, with potatoes and carrots and onions, is there anything else I should put in it? Parsnips? Leeks? What sort of spices? The wheels are turning now...

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: PatJoe
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 02:45 PM

Salmon was considered the noble fish of Irish lore. I believe salmon is the national dish of Ireland even today. Click here for Irish salmon recipes

Pat

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Trapper
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 02:56 PM

Does anyone besides me find it ironic that Kim C, who is looking for recipes for CHICKEN, has the initials KFC???

- Al

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: gnu
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 03:04 PM

You asked, so here is my recipe for Kent County Stew, passed down from my Irish immigrant forefathers. A PINCH of summer savory, even in a large pot - do NOT listen to anyone who says more is better. If you cook it at least a day ahead, a pinch is all you need. Anymore than that and anyone over forty, and some under, will be going home with heartburn.

The SS goes in with the potatoes, carrots, turnip, and onions. BTW, if you don't know how to pick out a good stew turnip, don't put any in or ask someone who knows the turnips in your area. Cut veggies to cook in about a half hour. Two onions cut in quarters. Two onions whole. Cook the chicken separately. In real Kent County Stew, I use Kent County Chicken - two birch partridge ( again, ruffed grouse for you chef types ) and one spruce partridge for the real wild flavour. Some say it's because you took a spruce by mistake and didn't want to waste it. If you get the partridge at a grocery, there may be no wild taste. Wild partridge take about one and a half hours to slow boil tender or you can soak them in salt water over night and they will be tender after boiling for about forty-five minutes but the wild taste will be gone. Personally, I like the taste of alder leaves.

Debone and add to veggies as soon as you turn off the heat on the veggies. Separate cooking will also allow you to separate the chicken fat for that healthy feeling. If you use partridge, there will be no fat to separate. Cover and chill immediately. Reboil and chill immediately on day two. Serve on day three.

g

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Greyeyes
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 03:07 PM

Make sure you use floury, not waxy, potatoes, if you want them to thicken the gravy. Most root vegetables will go well in such a stew. I wouldn't use any spice other than black pepper to season, but a few herbs would be good. Stick to the woody ones, bay, thyme, etc.

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: GUEST,The Celtic Bard
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 03:21 PM

Hey guys how about some good drink recipies to go with all that food? Are there any suggestions for hot drinks? Most the ones (if not all) I've run into have whiskey in them or some other kind of alchohol. I'm not 21 yet (1 more month!) so any "dry" recipies would be appreciated.

Rebecca <><

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 03:53 PM

Oh Trapper! I knew somebody would bring that up sooner or later! Here's the really funny part: F stands for my maiden name which was - I'm not making this up, I swear - Feathers. (it was Vatter in the original German)

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Rollo
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 05:06 PM

Irish cooking and chicken... OH ME GAWD... I was nearly dropping from my chair with laughter when I read this...

My brother was near kildare with a folk dancers group, they got quarters in the barracks of the local army post. Now the cook had his own ideas about lowering the costs of food. He had organized a whole load of chicken from somewhere, and now they served chicken in mess the whole week... My brother loved fried chicken, but would spit like having the mouth full with feathers when we served chicken the day he came back.

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Kernow John
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 05:24 PM

I had two friends who sadly for me moved to Australia.
One of them was Irish the other Jewish which made their little lass an Irish Jew and for years they wondered why I called her Hotpot!
KJ

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: gnu
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 05:27 PM

Was their name Ri-toora-li-ay ?

gnu

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Greyeyes
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 05:29 PM

Nice one Centurion.

Subject: RE: Help: Irish Chicken Stew?
From: Kernow John
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 05:53 PM

lol gnu
KJ