Stifado is a thick, onion-y Greek stew perfect for chilly nights when you want a cozy dinner! Though stifado is often made with beef or lamb, I have chosen to create a chicken stifado, adding artichokes to mix and wrapping it all up in a thick, rich tomato and wine based sauce. Yum!
This year March has been all about comfort food for me! Maybe it’s that it continues to be cold around here or all the nor’easters we’ve been having, but I can’t get enough stews and braises.
Today I have a chicken stifado, which is a Greek stew; last week I posted beef burgundy, a French stew; and I’ve been working on a braised brisket (next week!). Go back a little farther in my posts and I made a beef short rib ragu for some Italian comfort food. Soon enough I’ll be changing gears and working on lighter, spring food, but I think we have time for few more more cozy, warming dinners.
And, in a way, this Greek chicken stew bridges the gap. It’s rich and meaty and brings everything together in a tomato wine sauce, which is all great for wintery comfort food, but it’s also full of artichokes and chicken is a lighter, quick-cooking meat, which gives the meal more of a springlike feel. No braising for hours here! This meal takes about 30 minutes to cook.
But not 30 minutes to make since you will be marinating the chicken overnight. 🙂
Do you need to marinate chicken stifado?
Yes!
You may not have to braise chicken stifado for hours, but you will still have to plan ahead. I’ve tried this recipe both with marinating the chicken and with not, and marinated wins by a long shot. Since it’s such a quick recipe you need to let the wine flavor the chicken before you start cooking.
Luckily, it’s easy to take care of! All you need is a little wine, a few herbs, some olive oil and the chicken. Put everything together in a bag and let it rest in the fridge, at least through the day if not from the night before.
Once you’ve marinated, it’s time to get things in gear and prep everything else. And by that I mean onions.
Onions, so many onions!
If you want to save some time, get a few large onions and chop them up. I won’t tell. 🙂
However, using lots of small onions is the traditional way to make stifado. It is time consuming, but whole (or halved) little onions keep more of their onion flavor and have a firmer texture than ones which have been chopped up and softened as the stew has braised.
Either way, don’t skimp. Stifado should be about half onions.
Exactly which onions you use will depend on what is available when you go to the store and whether you want them to be bite-sized or need to be cut at the table. As with the chicken, which I chopped up, I wanted bite-sized so I used cipollini onions, but any small onion will do – baby shallots, pearl onions, boiler onions – these are all good!
Once I was done peeling the onions, I wanted to keep the rest of the stew simple. Canned baby artichokes to make it more of a complete meal, some sliced black olives for a great flavor punch, and couple of cups of chopped tomatoes.
I do want to talk a little about the tomatoes. For many years I used canned chopped tomatoes for any recipe where I needed chopped tomatoes. And, since they contain calcium chloride which is used to keep the tomatoes firm, they’re great when you want your tomatoes to stay in whole pieces! But what if you don’t? Hmmm.
In this recipe I wanted the tomatoes to melt into the sauce, so I switched the tomatoes to my new favorite brand: Pomi. (No, Pomi is not paying me! Though they should totally call me. 🙂 ) Pomi contains tomatoes…and that’s it! No citric acid, no water, no calcium chloride, not even any salt. I added a link to Amazon, but I have found the brand in every supermarket around here, so see if you can find it in the wild.
– Happy Cooking, Annemarie
Greek Chicken Stifado (Stew)
Ingredients
Red Wine Marinade
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Chicken Stifado
- 1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 12-15 baby onions such as shallots, pearl onions, or cipollini; peeled and halved or quartered
- 10 medium cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups chopped tomatoes
- 1 14-oz can baby artichokes, quartered
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Mix together all marinade ingredients. Trim and dice the chicken into bite sized pieces. Add the marinade and the chicken to a large sealable bag. Let the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, up to 24 hours.
- Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Take the chicken out of the marinade (reserving the marinade) and brown the chicken on all sides. Once the chicken is browned, remove it to a plate.
- Add the shallots to the pot and cook until browned and softened, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Then add the tomato paste and stir it in. Let the tomato paste caramelize for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the reserved wine marinade and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Then add the chopped tomatoes and artichokes. Bring to a boil then lower the heat so that the stew is simmering. Simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.
- Return the chicken to the pot and add in the lemon juice and olives. Simmer until the chicken is completely cooked through. Sprinkle the stew with chopped parsley and serve over cooked orzo, rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles.
Notes
- I used Pomi Chopped Tomatoes. This brand has no tomato juice or calcium chloride added. (Or anything else - it's just tomatoes.) This means the tomatoes melt into the sauce instead of remaining separate chunks.
- Most of the active prep time involves peeling the onions. If you wish, switch to using ~3 chopped large white onions instead.
Grant says
Hi Annemarie,
I’m really looking forward to trying this recipe as it looks marvelous. I too use Pomi products but can no longer find the chopped tomatoes you’re recommending. They appear to be discontinued. They do make a fine chopped tomato with no added ingredients. Do you recommend using those or would it be better to rough chop fresh tomatoes?
Cheers!
justalittlebitofbacon says
The finely chopped tomatoes work just great, though if you wish to use fresh (peeled) tomatoes that would be lovely as well.
David says
Fantastic recipe. Don’t understand the negative comments. Easy to make and very good return on investment. It is a very tasty and authentic Greek dish.
Mike says
Made this tonight for Sunday dinner…..came out awesome and this is a definite keeper. Thanks for sharing !
Julia says
We really don’t care for dark meat. Can this be made with chicken breast meat?
justalittlebitofbacon says
I wouldn’t suggest using breast meat in the recipe as written. White meat tends to dry out quickly when stewed so perhaps add cooked, diced breast at the end and just heat it through before serving.
Tyler says
Could you use frozen pearl onions?
justalittlebitofbacon says
Sure!
Shannon says
Hello! I was wondering if I could adapt this recipe to a pressure cooker and if so, any suggestions?
justalittlebitofbacon says
While you could probably adapt the recipe for the pressure cooker, I don’t know it if would be worth it since you would have to make the recipe through step three as written and then it’s almost done. (Beef stifado would be very nice in a pressure cooker since it has to cook for awhile.) Sorry I can’t be of more help.
HighDesertCook says
Yes you can make it in a pressure cooker. Use the Saute setting. I brown the onions first, then brown the meat so the meat has a nice onion based oil in the cooker. Everyone has their way of doing it, this has been my method. Add your olives after you pressure cook since it tends to break them down. Pressure cook for about 20-35 minutes depending on how much chicken you use. I think it’s recommends 10-15 min per lbs. I also use fresh rosemary in the marinade and add a can of Tomato sauce when adding everything back in to adjust the consistency.
Georgia says
I personally think it’s a Greek recipe. I grew up eating this and loved it. My parents would add rabbit but I use chicken. If you have nothing positive to say at all don’t say it. Spices vary for everyone that has cooked it. I’m very appreciative for the recipe. Thank you very much.
Matthew Banno says
I can see the unfortunate American part of you. Did you have to ruin the recipe by adding extra non necessary ingredients to it, just because it’s available? Is no need for thyme, rosemary and artichoke. True Italians keep recipes simple and natural without the mixed influence of unwanted ingredients. Please think about it and correct when time is right.😊
justalittlebitofbacon says
I can see the unfortunate Italian in you. Perhaps you are lost since you are lecturing me on one of my Greek recipes instead of an Italian recipe? And unlike you I have no fear of seasoning my food. You may be happier elsewhere where you don’t have to worry that someone will ruin a dish by adding a dash of herbs to it.
Christy says
Last time I checked Matthew Banno, thyme, rosemary and artichokes ARE natural ingredients……so it would seem that no matter what international faire the author is making, natural ingredients are being used. I’ve always dreamed of trying authentic Italian food in Italy, but based on your description of how it really is, I’m not sure it would please my pallet, as it sounds fairly bland.
Nikki says
It’s not bland. I wouldn’t trust his Italian cooking or his review on a Greek dish either.
Paula says
I would make it EXACTLY as written just to spite you! Unfortunate American my a**¡