White Stew (Cream Stew)
This is a white coloured stew made from béchamel sauce. It’s so colourful with the chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions and green peas in it. This stew is also called ‘Cream Stew’ although no cream is added to the sauce and it is not as heavy as it might look.
- Prep time
- 5 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 300 g (0.7lb) chicken (, diced into bite size pieces)
- 160 g (5.6oz) carrot (, cut into 1.5cm (⅝") thick discs (note 1))
- 300 g (0.7lb) potato (, cut into large bite size pieces (note 2))
- 200 g (7.1oz) onion (, cut in half, then sliced into 1.5cm (⅝") wide pieces)
- 3 tbsp frozen green peas ((note 3))
- 1 tbsp oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 30 g (1.1oz) butter
- 40 g (1.4oz) flour
- 2 cups milk ((room temperature or warm))
- 2 tsp salt
- Freshly grated nutmeg (few sprinkles) or a pinch of nutmeg powder
Instructions
- 1
Add oil to a large pot over medium low heat. Add chicken, salt and pepper and sauté for about 1 minute until surface of the chicken pieces are cooked.
- 2
Add onions and carrots. Sauté further 1 minute, then add potatoes.
- 3
Stir quickly to mix potatoes with other ingredients, then add stock to the pot. Add bay leaves and bring it to a boil over high heat.
- 4
Turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 10 minutes (note 4) until carrots and potatoes are cooked through.
- 5
Pour the béchamel sauce into the pot and mix gently. Add peas and mix.
- 6
When the stew starts boiling, turn off the heat. Serve while hot.
- 7
Melt butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Add flour and constantly stir with a wooden spatula so as not to burn.
- 8
Cook for about 7-8 minutes until the mixture becomes slightly moist.
- 9
Remove the saucepan onto a wet towel to reduce the heat of the pan quickly.
- 10
Add about ¼ of the milk and put it back on the stove over low heat. Mix quickly.
- 11
As it starts thickening, add another ¼ of the milk and mix. You may want to use egg beater if you see lumps of flour at this point.
- 12
Add ¼ of the milk again and mix ensuring there are no lumps. Add the rest of the milk, salt and nutmeg and mix well.