Cabbage & Chicken Stew

I feel like I say this a lot, but some of my best creations have come about when my refrigerator was running on empty. I first made a version of this a few weeks ago when Tokyo was buried under 10 inches of snow. For a city that is ill-prepared for any amount of snow, this may as well have been snowmageddon. Having lived for a few years in Sapporo (a stone's throw from Siberia), I can deal with the cold, but with cars, bicycles, and people slipping and sliding all over the neighborhood, it just didn't seem like a good idea to venture outside.

Why My Recipe Works

• Salting the chicken ensures that the flavorful juices will infuse meaty richness into the stew.
• Cabbage contains a ton of umami, as well as liquid which gets captured in the pot while steaming.
• Browning the vegetables creates more umami due to the Maillard Reaction.
• Adding wine or sake increases the depth of flavor in the finished stew.

An Experiment Born from Necessity

The inspiration for this easy chicken stew came when I opened the fridge, and it was uncharacteristically empty. There was a small pack of 4 chicken wings, a yellowing half head of cabbage, a dried out heel of bacon, and some cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves rolling around the bottom of my vacant vegetable drawer. It wasn't much to work with, but I thought I could bulk up the chicken by steaming it between layers of cabbage.

Because there was so little chicken I wanted to use it more as a seasoning, so I started by generously salting the wings. The goal was to quickly cure them so that their juices would baste the cabbage with flavor as they cooked. The bacon came as an afterthought, and I decided to sauté it with some garlic, onions and cherry tomatoes to create a foundation of Maillard reaction induced umami. This was topped off with a layer of cabbage, the chicken wings, and finally another layer of cabbage.

A Bit of Magic

Because of the way I constructed it, I was a little worried that it would come out a jumble of random components with nothing tying it all together, but I set the timer and hoped for the best. Twenty minutes later, I opened the lid and my fears evaporated, drifting away with the fragrant steam rising from the pot. My steamed chicken had turned into a cabbage and chicken stew!

Although I'd added less than ½ cup of sake to the pot, the chicken, tomatoes, and cabbage released some of their ultra-flavorful juices as they cooked, creating a sweet umami-filled broth. The chicken was juicy and tender thanks to the indirect heat, and the vegetables were rich, creamy and comforting. It was so good and easy and that I ended up making it a few more times over the ensuing weeks, which is why I decided to share this with you today.

More Flavorful Meat

Although I used chicken wings initially, chicken thighs have a bit more substance, so I recommend using them instead. If you're not a thigh person, you could use breast meat, but they will almost certainly end up dry as the cooking time for this stew will take them well beyond the ideal temperature for white meat. I've also done a plant-based version of this with shiitake mushrooms which was very good as well.

A Choice of Liquids

It's important to add a bit of liquid at the beginning to get the vegetables to release their juices before they start burning. I used sake (you can read about why sake is a fantastic choice for cooking in this article) the first time I made this, but any flavorful liquid such as white wine, chicken stock or vegetable stock will work. If you want to make this more of a braise, you can reduce the amount of liquid to ¼ cup, though you'll need to be careful with the heat so that it doesn't burn.

More Succulent Cabbage Dishes

• Cabbage Rolls
• Miso Butter Salmon
• Okonomiyaki
• Small Batch Kimchi

📖 Recipe

Easy Cabbage & Chicken Stew

4.75 from 4 votes

Print Pin

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Yield 4 servings

Equipment

1 Heavy Bottomed Pot

Units

Grams + US CupsUS Standard

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• 490 grams boneless skin-on chicken thighs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 100 grams bacon (chopped)
• 16 grams garlic (4 large cloves, chopped)
• 170 grams onion (1 small onion, sliced)
• 360 grams tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 10 juniper berries (optional)
• 450 grams cabbage (~½ head)
• ½ cup dry white wine

Instructions

Step PhotosNo Photos

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• Cut the 490 grams boneless skin-on chicken thighs into bite-size pieces and sprinkle evenly with the ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
  
• Put the 100 grams bacon in a dutch oven over medium heat and fry until some fat begins to render out (you do not need to crisp the bacon).
• Add the 16 grams garlic and 170 grams onion and sauté until the onions are soft and the garlic starts to brown.
  
• Add the 360 grams tomatoes, 2 bay leaves, and 10 juniper berries and stir to distribute evenly.
  
• Add half the 450 grams cabbage in a flat layer.
  
• Add the chicken in a single layer.
  
• Top with the remaining cabbage and drizzle the ½ cup dry white wine over the cabbage.
  
• Cover securely with a lid and bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low. Gently simmer until the chicken is tender (about 20 minutes).
  
• Remove the lid and stir to evenly distribute all the components, taste it and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve the chicken stew with crusty bread, or a batch of Nokedli.
  

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Nutrition Facts

Calories • 466kcalCarbohydrates • 17gProtein • 26gFat • 31gSaturated Fat • 9gPolyunsaturated Fat • 6gMonounsaturated Fat • 13gTrans Fat • 0.1gCholesterol • 137mgSodium • 579mgPotassium • 807mgFiber • 5gSugar • 8gVitamin A • 970IUVitamin C • 58mgCalcium • 86mgIron • 2mg