Stewing is one of my favorite way of cooking. I’ll simply dump all the necessary ingredients into a pot, adjust the heat and let the food cook happily away, filling the kitchen with mouthwatering aroma, while I go about doing other stuffs.

I came across this recipe by Clotilde Dusoulier from her book Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen and my interest was piqued.

The usage of of tomatoes and Dijon mustard in a chicken stew is a first for me. Come to think about it, I have never even used mustard in my cooking before. Perhaps it’s because of its stench smell that always makes me wrinkle my nose whenever mustard came into my mind. Besides that, I’d say that the usage of mustard isn’t very common in Asian kitchen. Anyway, being the adventurous me, I decided to give this dish a try because it sounds simple enough. I adapted the recipe from her book to serve for 2.

Chicken Stew with Dijon mustard

I used:
4 chicken thighs
2 medium to large red onions, cut into quarters
1 can of good quality whole peeled tomatoes, drained
3 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 small red chili (or a pinch of chili powder)
1/3 cup dry rosé wine
1/4 cup of regular Dijon mustard
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Preparation:
1. Clean the chicken and pat them dry with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper. I rubbed some paprika powder on the chicken too.

2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Brown the chicken, a few minutes on each side.

3. Remove the chicken from the skillet when they are nicely golden in color and set aside. Discard any fat or oil from the skillet until 1tbsp is left in it. Fry the onions until softened for about 5mins.

4. Add in tomatoes, thyme, bay leaves and chili. Place the chicken on top of the tomatoes and pour in wine and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 40mins on medium-low heat. Remember to stir from time to time to prevent the tomatoes from sticking to the pot.

5. When the chicken has cooked, add in mustard and stir to blend. Increase the heat and cook uncovered for 10mins. The time depends on how much liquid you like the dish to end up with. As for me, I love my dishes to be not so dry, so I make sure that the sauce is not too thick. Remove the bay leaves.

6. Serve with rice or pasta. Sprinkle some freshly grounded black pepper over the dish and garnish with parsley.

The original recipe called for dry white wine but I had a bottle of dry rosé wine opened, so I decided to use rosé instead. The stew was absolutely divine and the chicken was finger licking good. The addition of mustard gives the stew a unique taste that was not too pungent but just nice.