In case you haven’t noticed, I love stewing things – there’s lamb curry stew, ground turkey stew, chick pea stew, beef stew, Italian sausage and vegetable stew, and of course let’s not forget the infamous French peasant classics, coq au vin and bouef bourguignon. Stew is a comforting, unpretentious, feel good food. If the list above is any indication, stewing is my go-to cooking technique – I’m pretty sure that at this point I could stew an old shoe and make it taste good.

The other day I was thawing out some chicken but had no idea what I was going to do with it. I looked up a recipe for chicken tikka masala and it looked good but seemed a little laborious, and plus I didn’t have any yogurt. So I kept the elements of the recipe that I liked and ditched the rest, edited some things around, and thus this recipe was born. The stew is fast and easy to make, and it goes well over quinoa.

(Yield: 4 servings)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1″ cubes

1 tomato, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tbsp sour cream

1/2 tsp cumin

1/3 tsp cayenne pepper

1/3 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp sugar

1 tbsp flour

A handful of white raisins

Salt + pepper

Chopped scallions or cilantro for garnish, if desired

Procedure: Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add half of the chicken and cook until browned, about 4 min, turning occasionally. Remove chicken and set aside, and repeat with other half of chicken. When all chicken is browned and removed from the pan, turn heat down to low and add tomato and garlic. Stir and deglaze the pan for about 1 min. Then add sour cream, spices, sugar and flour. Stir until combined and add chicken back to pan. Stir to coat and cover tightly with a lid. Cook for 15 min, stirring occasionally. Then stir in raisins. Taste and re-season if necessary. Serve hot over quinoa; garnish if desired.

What is your favorite type of stew?