Sweetsop’s brown stew chicken recipe

• 1 – 3 lb chicken (for the 2 of us I use 3-4 thighs with the side meat removed and cut into bite size bits – whack the meaty bone in half removing any bone splinters)
• 1 or 2 scallions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 1 or 2 sprigs thyme (or dried to taste)
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tomato diced (I use 1 can petite diced tomatoes)
• 1 carrot sliced
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• Browning sauce (Kitchen Bouquet or similar)
• Scotch bonnet pepper (I use bottled scotch bonnet liquid sauce to taste)
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs

Combine the chicken, scallions, garlic, thyme, onion, and soy in a bowl. Turn until all chicken is coated with soy. In a sauce pan heat enough oil to brown chicken on a medium heat being careful not to burn. Discard the oil and add 1 ½ cups water to the chicken in the saucepan along with the remainder of the soy and spice coating and the ketchup, tomatoes, and carrot. Simmer on medium to allow the chicken to sweat to make its own sauce.

Option 1: You can use the evaporation method to make the sauce. With the chicken and seasonings in the pot, turn the stove to medium; let the seasonings cook until they are well blended into the sauce. Do not cover the pot. Check the sauce periodically for thickness.

Option 2: You can add the bread crumbs to the pot to thicken the sauce after the chicken and seasonings are almost cooked together.

With either option used, add browning sauce for color and scotch bonnet peppers or sauce to taste