As any Canadian should know, the ubiquitous 24 hour chain beloved for its contributions to local community hockey — Tim Horton’s — once created a product that was actually quite good… Chicken Stew in a Bread Bowl (where the bowl was made of bread so you could eat it).
Here is a Japanese variant that we have created.
So what’s so Japanese about it? you may find yourself wondering but the reality is that modern cuisine in Japan is heavily reliant on consommé (the clear french bouillon soup stock). This recipes uses consommé for flavouring since it is much easier to get that chicken stock or beef stock.
INGREDIENTS/ (serves 2 but can easily be scaled with more water/milk/flour and/or stewing ingredients)
- chicken, cut into small bite size chunks (I prefer to remove a lot of fat at this stage)
- carrot, 1 cut into bite size chunks
- onion, 1 cut into medium size pieces
- potato, 1 cut into bite size chunks
- garlic, 1 large clove or 2 small cloves finely diced small
- fresh ground black pepper
- consommé, 1 cube
- butter, 1-2 tablespoons
- flour, sifted
- milk
TOOLS/
- pot with lid, a medium to large size is recommended but it depends more on how much you want to make
- sift, while this is optional, it does make mixing powders like flour much easier
Chop up the chicken into bite size chunks (I prefer to remove any large layers of fat before cutting). Season with ground black pepper (and optionally salt). Put the chicken in the pot with a little bit of oil and sauté/stir-fry it inside the pot at medium heat until browned
Peel and chop up potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic. Put them in the pot with the chicken and continue to sauté (At this stage you can any other of your favourite stewing vegetables/ingredients)
Once the ingredients start to soften and cook, fill the pot with water (I typically fill it so the water barely or almost barely covers the ingredients inside so that when stewed, the ingredients will not be exposed much)
Crush a consommé cube and add it to the pot. Alternatively, you can use consommé soup, consommé powder, or some sort of chicken stock
Simmer until the potatoes and carrots are soft, add the butter and turn up the heat to medium-low
Add some milk. Add some sifted flour. Add some milk. Add some sifted flour. Be sure to mix constantly. Keep adding milk and flour until it reaches the creaminess (from milk) and consistency/thickness (from flour) you want
I went for this level of creaminess and thickness but it’s up to your personal preferences
In Japan, we use these little plate for putting liquids like soups into so it spreads out. This is then used for tasting. At this stage, you can add salt and pepper (and any other spices) to taste
You can serve this with cheese toast…
…or in the Tim Horton’s way: The Bread Bowl