Chickpea Stew: And Even The Kids Ate It

I warned the kids a few weeks ago that my goal this winter was to get them to like beans.  Not the green beans that they eat with abandon fresh from the garden- but dried beans.  I don’t exactly remember what we were eating that night- burrito bowls I think, and as Zander dodged the pinto beans, I told him to scoop up a bean with the rice- that eating the rice with the beans made all the difference in the world.  While I still don’t think he cared for them, he did appease me by taking a few more bites of the bean and rice combo.   Neither kids has ever been a fan of beans, although Abigail does have a fondness for store-bought baked beans.  One day we’ll get her converted!

Anyway.  Last night’s dinner was thanks to the Epicurious app that I downloaded to my iPod.  It’s one of the very, very few apps that I’ve actually paid for- they really need to sparkle and shine for me to want to purchase them.  I love the Epicurious website- that is my go-to spot for recipes that impress.  Epicurious started as a conglomeration of recipes and advice from both Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazine, so they have a high standard of quality to live up to. I have a big recipe box on there full of saved recipes, and this app lets me access that recipe box, plus search hundreds of thousands of recipes.   Last week I spent some time perusing the “Dinner Tonight” section, and came across this recipe for Chickpea Stew.  I read the reviews, looked at the recipe, and it intrigued me.  I knew I was going to make a few tweaks, (mostly add more chicken), and I was going to serve this over rice.  Would this be a recipe that got my kids to eat chickpeas?

For the most part, I did follow the recipe pretty exactly.  My changes were actually quite minor in the grand scheme of keeping the integrity of the dish.  My first big change was that I made my own chickpeas from dried instead of using canned ones.  I urge anyone who hasn’t done so to give dried chickpeas a try- you’ll be amazed at the difference. My second change to the recipe was to use six chicken thighs instead of just two.  I did appreciate that in this recipe the chicken was more of a condiment, but if I wanted the kids to take more than a few bites, I needed more chicken to entice them.  And finally, instead of water, I used chicken broth.  Many of the reviews recommended it, and that likely would have been my inclination as well.  Broth equals flavor, water equals no flavor.

It really was easy enough once I had my chickpeas cooked up.  You begin by browning up the chicken thighs, and once brown, you take them out of your pan and add garlic, tomato paste and cumin, and let that get all cooked up and toasty.  Then you add chicken broth, bay leaves and the chicken, and let the whole thing simmer away for twenty minutes or so.  The chicken thighs come out at that point to cool a bit, and the chickpeas slide into the broth.  Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, the bones and skin are discarded and the meat shredded up and added back into the broth, along with a half cup of chopped roasted red peppers.  Just before serving I added the juice of half a lemon, and then served extra lemon wedges on the side, along with a scattering of parsley.  And while the recipe suggested serving this over bread cubes, I used rice.  I ended up using plain white rice as I didn’t have the time to wait for brown rice to cook up.  Brown would have been the way to go.

Don’t skip the lemon juice at the very end!  This was absolutely delicious and full of flavor, but the extra lemon juice and parsley really brightened up the whole dish.  Surprise, surprise, the kids actually ate these chickpeas.  Not entirely, their plates were not clean, but they both made a hearty effort and didn’t complain about it.  They really liked the extra lemon wedges for squeezing over.

With a few modifications, I think this would make a great crock-pot dish as well, and I may play around with that in the future, but for now, this was a real winner.  Now the decision to be made is whether to eat the leftovers as is, or get creative and add a few things to make a nice leftover soup.  We’ll see what the next week brings.

Chickpea Stew

adapted from a recipe on Epicurious.com

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 chicken thighs- bone in and skin on
Kosher salt
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes ( you can use a lot less- I used a pinch)
2 bay leaves

4 cups chicken broth
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained (or 1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas, cooked from scratch)
1/2 cup chopped drained roasted red peppers from a jar
2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon juice, plus extra wedges for serving
2 cups 1″ cubes country-style bread (or 2 cups cooked rice)
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt; add to pot and cook, turning once, until browned, 8–10 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Reduce heat to low and let oil cool for 1 minute; add garlic and cook, stirring often, until fragrant, 30–60 seconds. Add cumin, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes; stir until a smooth paste forms, about 1 minute. Add reserved chicken with any accumulated juices, along with bay leaves and 4 cups chicken broth. Scrape up any browned bits. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, occasionally stirring, until chicken is tender, about 20 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a plate. Add chickpeas to pot; bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.  Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin and bones and shred chicken; add to stew. Add red peppers. Stir in 2 tablespoons lemon juice; simmer for 1 minute. Season with salt and more lemon juice, if desired. Divide bread cubes or rice among bowls. Ladle stew over. Garnish with parsley and serve with extra lemon wedges.