Chicken Stewed with Beans

Name: Chicken Stewed with Beans: Juicy Drumsticks in Wine Sauce
Prep time: 1 h 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 2 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Chicken drumsticks 2; Red beans (canned) 1 can; Onion 1; Tomato 1; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Pitted green olives 10-12; Dry white wine 0.5 cup (100 ml); Olive oil 5-6 tbsp; All-purpose flour 3-4 tbsp (29–39 g); Salt, ground black pepper, Mediterranean herbs to taste

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2 h

I decided to make chicken stewed with beans. Ever since God gave man the chicken, man has had just three problems with this bird. The first is how to feed it (what with, and where to get that much feed). The second, as my grandmother used to say, is “Not across the vegetable garden!! Shoo!!!!!” The third is how to cook the meat. On that last question, I’ll say up front that chicken stewed with beans, like chicken with rice, is very tasty.

I remember that under developed socialism the feed question was solved by trading for clear liquids made according to the canons of Mendeleev’s dissertation. The second question was solved by energetically prodding grandchildren who were oblivious to reality. The third problem is solved in different ways.

The domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) is the most numerous kind of poultry and, something tells me, the most troublesome. A descendant of the wild red junglefowl of Asia, the chicken is very prolific and gains weight easily. It is a source of down, feathers, eggs, and, in the end, meat. People have known the domesticated chicken for more than 30 centuries, though many say much longer. I think pheasant and other wild birds were popular earlier, but even now in the Caucasus they make chicken chakhokhbili, not pheasant.

Simply frying chicken is easy. But cooking a piece of chicken so that the flavor is truly impressive takes real effort. Chicken is usually cooked with a side dish and a sauce. World cuisines offer many examples, and one of them is chicken with beans. Stewed beans make an excellent side dish, or a simple dish of chicken with potatoes.

I wanted to make chicken Tuscan style, but after looking through the original sources I suddenly realized that a classic version is hardly achievable, and many of the ingredients are quite exotic for us. It’s easier to make chicken with apples or chicken with vegetables. So we’ll make a simple dish: home-style chicken stewed with beans. I showed in detail how to stew chicken so it stays juicy in the recipe for chicken stewed with vegetables, and another option is chicken thighs stewed with mushrooms.

More with chicken and beans

Chicken with Black Beans in Tomato Sauce

2 h

White Bean Stew with Chicken Thighs and Vegetables

1 h

Enchilada

1 h

Warm Bean and Chicken Breast Salad

1 h 30 min

Borscht with Chicken

2 h 30 min

More chicken legs recipes

Ingredients

2 servings

Chicken drumsticks 2
Red beans (canned) 1 can
Onion 1
Tomato 1
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Pitted green olives 10-12
Dry white wine 0.5 cup (100 ml)
Olive oil 5-6 tbsp
All-purpose flour 3-4 tbsp (29–39 g)
Salt, ground black pepper, Mediterranean herbs to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Drumsticks

Chicken stewed with beans works best with chicken drumsticks. Why drumsticks? Why not a whole chicken? I’m a practical person, and in a chicken I like the dark meat, and the wings. The white meat, the back, and the neck are not for me. After cooking, I’m simply too lazy to sit and sort the edible from the inedible. A drumstick is perfect in that respect, because everything on it is edible.
To make the chicken very tender, remove the skin from the drumsticks, since it isn’t needed in this dish. Also remove the fat and membranes.
Salt and pepper the drumsticks well and coat them with a mixture of dried herbs typical of the Mediterranean: oregano, marjoram, savory, coriander, basil, and so on. A scant teaspoon of herbs is enough for two drumsticks.
Leave the drumsticks to dry-marinate for an hour to an hour and a half, because stewed chicken drumsticks should be spicy and fragrant.
In a bowl, mix 3-4 tbsp of all-purpose flour (29–39 g), add salt and ground black pepper to taste, and carefully dredge the drumsticks in the mixture.
Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a deep saute pan and fry the drumsticks until golden brown on both sides. This usually takes 3-4 mins per side.
Reduce the heat to the minimum, cover the pan with a lid, and stew the drumsticks without adding water, turning them occasionally, for 12-15 mins.

Sauce with beans

Meanwhile, heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil in another deep skillet and fry the onion, cut into thin strips, over high heat until soft and lightly golden.
Add the chopped garlic.
How finely to chop the garlic is up to you. You can crush it in a mortar, or just slice it thinly with a knife.
Add the green olives, halved and pitted, and the diced tomato. Fry for 5 mins, stirring.
Reduce the heat to medium-low. Open the can of red beans and drain the liquid.
Red beans don’t grow here. It’s not that they can’t, they’re just not grown. So we simply buy a can of red beans in any store.
Add the beans to the vegetables.
Pour in 1/2 cup of dry white wine (100 ml) and bring to a boil.
Simmer covered for 5-7 mins.

Stewing and serving

Add the almost-done, browned drumsticks to the vegetables.
Cover and stew over low heat for 15-20 mins, until all the liquid has evaporated and the sauce is fairly thick.
Don’t stir the dish. Let the chicken with beans stew just as you left it at the start.
Put the stewed chicken drumsticks on a plate and add a side of vegetables and olives. If you really want to, you can sprinkle it with herbs, but I wouldn’t. Chicken with beans is quite an elegant dish already and needs no extra decoration.
Serve chicken stewed with beans hot only.

Calories and macros

920 kcal

Serving ≈ 420 g

Protein35 g16% of kcal
Fat65 g66% of kcal
Carbs40 g18% of kcal

100 g218 kcalProtein 8.4 gFat 15.5 gCarbs 9.6 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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