Spicy Chicken and Chayote Jamaican Stew Recipe
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Hot as heck in the best possible way, this easy-to-prepare stew is rounded out with lots of flavor from browned chicken and the underappreciated chayote gourd.
What to buy: Chayote is a gourd common to Caribbean cuisine, and it goes by many aliases: chocho, mirliton, christophene, vegetable pear. Females have smooth skin, while males have prickly skin; either will work in this recipe, though the female fruit is easier to prepare. Look for chayotes that are firm and free from blemishes.
Game plan: We made this stew very spicy by using an habanero pepper. If you want to tame it down a bit, you can use less habanero or substitute the milder jalapeño.
Like all stews, this improves in flavor as it sits, so it’s a great dish to make ahead.
This recipe was featured as part of our Cooking with Fall Ingredients story.
- 4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 pounds chicken legs and thighs, washed and patted dry
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
- 2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 medium habanero pepper, stemmed and finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 medium russet potato, large dice
- 1 medium sweet potato, large dice
- 1 medium chayote, pit removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 4 cups water
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- Place salt, curry powder, allspice, and black pepper in a small bowl and mix until evenly combined. Rub 1/2 of the mixture all over the chicken and set aside.
- Heat oil in a 3-quart Dutch oven or a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add remaining spice mixture, onion, garlic, and habanero pepper and cook until vegetables are just beginning to soften and curry is dark golden brown in color and fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Add chicken pieces and cook until just browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per side.
- Add all remaining ingredients except vinegar and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, until vegetables just give way when pierced with a knife and chicken is fully cooked and tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in vinegar and serve.
Really good but not as spicy (not hot) as I like so added more of the spices that go into curry powder. Also, I love chayote squash for its crispness...lost in this cooking process. Still interesting esp. with the white vinegar at the end...like a spritz of lime.
Perhaps a turnip might be a decent substitute.
Are there any plausible substitutes for chayote in this recipe? More sweet potato, perhaps? It's not readily available in Germany, and I'd like to try this recipe if changing it wouldn't totally ruin it.
Could you do this in a crockpot?
Wow, this came out phenomenally well. Although I completely forgot about the thyme until about 8 minutes before the simmer time was up, so I just added it then and let it simmer longer, so my sweet potatoes kind of dissolved into the stew itself, oh well... But it was still delicious! I'd recommend using a Scotch Bonnet pepper if you enjoy spiciness, they're a hotter variety of habanero and are a signature of Caribbean cooking. They're also hard to find and so I've only ever ended up using habaneros in Caribbean cooking.
You never, ever, remove the seed from a chayote! It is the best part. It has a wonderful texture apart from the nuttie taste....so please don't remove what is the most wonderful part of a chayote! hehe, I love it.
Mr Taster, we had originally tested this recipe with lid on and off, and lid off did deliver a more concentrated flavor, so no need to cover. As far as the sweet potato, my preference is a garnet (red-skinned) sweet potato, as it's sweetness does help to cut the spice, but whatever type is available near you will work, too.
Oh.... and yes, I did use an actual sweet potato (the white one), and not a yam (the orange one).... is that what you intended? Or did you mean for the sweetness of the yam meant to cut the spice of the habanero a little bit?
Mr Taster
OK, so I made this Thursday night (it's Monday now) and my entire apartment still smells like allspice... wow, that's powerful stuff!
Since I didn't get any feedback from the thread here, I decided to improvise.
I was very worried that the large amount of water would have given me a watery mess of flavorless boiled chicken... this is why I was so concerned in my prior posts about leaving the lid off to let the water evaporate and allow the flavors to concentrate. I made the recipe as indicated (cooking with lid on after adding water, even though it's not expressly indicated in the recipe), but towards the end I sifted in some flower and removed the lid to let the brew thicken and evaporate a bit.
What I got was an extremely flavorful (and very spicy) stew after all. The only criticisms I have are that it was a bit too salty, and the potatoes and chayote need to be added towards the end, because after 30 minutes on the stove all their texture had boiled out.
Overall, very delicious recipe and I'd do it again with the few modifications I've listed above.
Mr Taster
I should expand my thoughts a bit.... I assumed that part of the point of the simmering at the end is to reduce the water and concentrate the flavors. I can't figure out when exactly the right time to use the lid would be... certainly not in any of the browning stages. Please advise.
I'm confused... the recipe calls for a pot with a tight-fitting lid, but then there's no indication of when to cover.
this sounds sooo good!
Absolutely delicious-- chayote is wonderful! They're not kidding about the spicy, though-- make sure you have some milk or bread on hand while you're eating this. The other spices still come in nicely, though. I'm also totally in love with chayote now-- they have such a lovely delicate flavor and cook so such a wonderful texture. I'm a little confused about the vinegar though; the recipe mentions it twice; I put it in the first time. Make sure you're using a good quality curry powder, also, as you can really taste the curry flavor.
Stay with the habanero.
To reduce chile heat, you could also just halve the chile, deseed it, remove some of the pith and MOST importantly take the chile out after cooking. Don't want someone inadvertently to chomp on half of a habanero!