Chicken Egg Stew

So a couple months ago we were at a friends house (Hi Kiko! love ya) and she made this awesome stew. I was totally hooked when I saw her cracking eggs and putting them on top of the stew to cook at the end! SOOOOOO yummy! She said it is an Ethiopian dish she found in a cookbook a long time ago. She doesn't even follow the recipe anymore, so I asked how she makes it and then came home and started working up my own version.

I searched for a dish like this online, but couldn't find anything exactly like it. So I'm just gonna name mine Chicken Egg stew. It comes with the chicken and the egg, although it is also yummy with sausage weiners which is originally the way Kiko makes it. I'm also calling it chicken eggs cause my precious Daddy used to call eggs "chicken eggs". I never realized until much later in life how funny this term is for eggs. Nobody specifies that they are chicken eggs when talking about them, but shouldn't we!? There ARE all kinds of eggs out there! My Dad was a riot! Miss him so much.

Anyhooo, this was our dinner tonight. Are you beginning to wonder if the only thing I cook is stewed type stuff with lots of chopped up veggies??? I have a lot more up my sleeve, but the cold season is coming to an end and I LOVE these types of stews and it is the best way to get lots of veggies in my kids, so I have been cooking this way a lot lately. I hope to add some more variety into sharing what I cook with you soon. Especially more Japanese stuff!

First you will need...

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 Tbsp cooking oil

3 cups celery, chopped

2 onions, diced

2 carrots, diced

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Parsley

dash of Cayenne pepper (I would add much more if we weren't feeding little ones, so add more if you like spice!)

1/4 tsp Cardamom

1/2 tsp Coriander

salt and pepper to taste

2 cubes buillion

2 cans diced tomatoes

Begin chopping the veggies. I started with my onion...

Then I remembered I forgot to put the rice on to cook. This is a tragedy if you realize it too late! So I paused to wash rice...

rinse and repeat, just like shampoo and conditioner!

Pop it in your handy dandy automatic cooker thingy

Push the button and do a little jig to the fun little tune it plays for you

and go back to chopping your veggies!

Next up, carrots! Same as you may have seen before, we want to dice them up and this is how I do it...

Make several slices along the length of the carrot

Roll it to the side and repeat again.

You'll get a grid like cut like this...

Lay her down there, and chop away!

Repeat all the way up the stem and try to run off the little munchkin that always shows up to steal when carrots are being chopped. Today she tells me, "Mommy, I'm a wabbit!" So cute!

now begin chopping the celery while trying to prevent too many carrot pieces from being stolen!

Distract the thief with your stealth tactics! Show her how pretty the base of a stalk of celery looks!

"Ohhhh Mommy, it looks like a rose!" Continue to distract by discussing how awesome God made the things around us.

Employ the thief, who now becomes your new assitant to chop some more veggies!

She's gonna be a professional chef one day! I just know it!

Chop up some garlic! (Facebook won't give me pictures of garlic from my past album at the moment, so now you know I cheat and don't take pictures of the same thing every time, LOL!)

Now giggle with your assitant as she continues to practice her newfound skill of lighting the stove and JUMPING every time the flame shoots out! I LOVE how far back she stands when she is doing this, LOL!

Ask your assitant to pour some oil in the pan and then turn your back for just a second to put something in the sink, then turn back around to "Mommy is this enough?" with six gallons of oil in the pan! Figure out later how to put some of that oil back in the bottle! LOL. Switch to another frying pan and borrow a little of the 6 gallons from the other pan. Then stash the other pan somewhere so it won't show up in all your pictures!

Heat garlic on low heat in the frying pan until it begins to sizzle.

Realize at this moment you didn't get pictures of the chicken being cut into bite size pieces cause you were too busy making sure no little fingers got cut off in the process. So add your chicken that was cut up earlier into the oil and brown it on the outside!

This beautiful collection of goodness should be waiting nearby.

Dump it all in and stir fry till veggies are tender.

Give a little darling a cup of milk! Marvel at how adorable he is! Don't marvel too long and forget about the 6 year old with fire behind you!

Once veggies are tender pour in the two cans of diced tomato. I always fill one can about 1/3 full with water, transfer the water back and forth between the cans to get all the good tomatoey yummines off the sides of the cans, and dump that on in the stew as well.

At this point add the two cubes of boullion and all the spices.

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Parsley

dash of Cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp Cardamom

1/2 tsp Coriander

salt and pepper to taste

If you like even more heat, I wouldn't hesitate to add some red pepper flakes or more cayenne and Paprika. Pepper is YUMMY in this too, so don't be shy with the pepper if your family can take the heat.

Have your trusty assitant take a few shots, like one after the spices were added while waiting for it to come to a boil.

and one of you covering it with a lid and turning down the flame for this to simmer for about 10~15 minutes.

Stir occassionaly and then after about 10 minutes taste and adjust the flavor if needed.

Now, with the back of a ladel, press into the stew and create a little bowl for a chicken egg to rest.

crack one chicken egg and slide that little feller into the spot you created for him.

Do the same with an egg for each member being served. Master Kiko had SEVEN eggs in her stew the night we were at her house!

cover that with a lid to cook. I set my timer for 5 minutes cause we like our eggs on the runny side. If you like a firm egg yolk, I'd go with 8 minutes or even more.

Now arrange some rice on plate like this. Create sort of an ant hill type of shape here so the stew and egg can be served in the middle and won't run off!

When the eggs are done, carefully ladel out some stew and the egg into each rice hill!

Mine don't look so pretty, I tried really hard to make it look all professional and the harder I tried the more it seemed to fall apart!

I placed each plate on the table as I finished it, and I turned around to see Kai already in his seat and digging in before I'd served everyone and called them to the table! He LOVES this stuff!

There you have it, Chicken egg stew