On a recent episode of Ragashanti Live a robust debate ensued on what exactly is Jamaican brown “stew chicken?”  A lot was said and defended, all in good spirits. The central issue became, ‘is brown stew chicken separate from stew chicken?’ … and if so, then how exactly are they different?  Some Tamfammers said they were different, while others firmly held that they were the same.

The discussants that held that there is a difference, chalked it up as follows:

Brown stew chicken: the chicken is first seasoned. Then the seasoning is removed and the chicken is fried a little, not crispy fried, but fried enough for the chicken to “ketch color.” That is, the frying should only be just enough to result in the chicken becoming brown.  After which, the chicken is then set in the pot, with a little water, to cook down.  When the chicken is close to being cooked, the seasoning that was earlier removed is placed in the pot. Everything is then cooked down to satisfaction for a few more minutes.

Stew chicken: the chicken is seasoned, and ALL the chicken with ALL the seasoning is placed in the pot to be cooked in one go. To be clear, there is no separate frying/browning of the chicken. What’s a little confusing is that in this version, a little “browning” is placed on the chicken during seasoning, “to give it color.” The seeming contradiction is that “brown stew chicken” does not use browning, but stew chicken does. Lol.

In the final analysis though, all this just means there are different ways to do the same thing. In the end, the chicken is still cooked, whether with all the seasoning in one go, or whether it was first fry-browned. Regardless which methos is used, if di chicken taste good, den di food fi get slap weh! lol.