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An easy stovetop method and simple ingredients create this flavor-packed Chicken and Sausage Stew with White Beans and Spinach. A rustic, comforting choice for a cold winter evening.
Don’t you just love cold weather food? I’ve been in a soup and stew mood since November and our cool winter temps have kept that mood going strong. I’ve had such great feedback from so many of you on my Instant Beef Stew and my recipe for Classic Stovetop Beef Stew has become one of the top posts on Valerie’s Kitchen since the onset of fall. Well, I’m right there with you and we’ve been enjoying both of those recipes here as well.
I opened the blinds in our bedroom this morning and was stunned to see a blanket of white covering the ground. We finally had our first Oregon snow! I literally ran for my sweater and boots and with a pretty serious case of bedhead, ran out the door to snap photos. Check out my Instagram story to see what I’m looking at through my windows as I write this post.
The timing could not be better to be sharing this incredibly comforting Chicken and Sausage Stew with you all today. I love this lighter take on stew. The fact that it’s a one pot recipe means less time in the kitchen cleaning up and more time cozying up by the fire.
Bites of boneless chicken thighs and sausage cook together in a deliciously seasoned broth until fork tender. Creamy cannellini beans and fresh baby spinach add texture, color, and great nutrition.
It all happens in one pot on the stove and the result is pretty darned fabulous.
How to Make Chicken and Sausage Stew with White Beans and Spinach
The prep for this recipe includes trimming any excess fat from the edges of a couple of pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and dicing up some veggies. Easy.
You’ll need a Dutch oven or nice sized soup pot.
What is Mirepoix?
A mirepoix is the aromatic base of a multitude of soup and stew recipes and the first step in creating this tasty Chicken and Sausage Stew. It sounds fancy but it’s just the simple combination of diced onion, celery, and carrots slowly cooked in either butter or oil until tender. We’re also adding a little garlic to the pot. This cooking over LOW or, in the case of this recipe, MEDIUM-LOW heat, coaxes out lots of great flavor.
When the veggies are nice and tender you’ll add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste to add a rich depth of flavor to the stew.
Instead of thickening the stew at the end of the cooking process, flour is added and combined with the veggies before the broth is added.
Low-sodium chicken broth goes in next and then the sausage, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, and seasonings. I highly recommend going with cannellini beans instead of smaller white beans. They are more substantial and add a wonderful creaminess to this stew.
Make it Low in Fat and Calories
You will save quite a bit of fat and calories by using chicken or turkey sausage in this recipe. The nutrition information on the recipe card below was calculated using chicken sausage and it comes to less than 350 calories per serving. That’s low enough that I don’t have any issue at all adding a nice sprinkling of Parmesan to mine.
Any fully-cooked smoked sausage will work so go with what works best for you and your diet.
The last step is to add fresh baby spinach and remove the pot from the heat. The heat from the stew is all you need to wilt the spinach.
Shredded Parmesan adds a nice, salty bite. It’s the perfect way to finish of this delicious stew.
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Chicken and Sausage Stew with White Beans and Spinach
An easy stovetop method and simple ingredients create this flavor-packed Chicken and Sausage Stew with White Beans and Spinach. A rustic, comforting choice for a cold winter evening.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 carrots, peeled, halved length-wise and sliced (1/2-inch slices)
- 2 ribs celery, sliced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 cup diced sweet yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 12 ounces smoked sausage, sliced (chicken, turkey or beef)
- 2 (14.5 ounce cans) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (14 ounce can) fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste (optional)
- 3 cups tightly packed roughly chopped baby spinach (big stems removed)
- finely grated Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Trim the chicken thighs of excess fat and cut into bite-size pieces.
Heat oil over MEDIUM-LOW heat in a large Dutch oven. Add carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Cook until onions are tender, about 5 or 6 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir until combined well with the veggies. Stir flour into carrot mixture until well blended. Gradually add broth and cook until mixture is thickened.
Increase heat to MEDIUM and add chicken, sausage, beans, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, paprika, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper (if using). Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to LOW, cover the pot and simmer for 40 to 50 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and fork tender. Stir spinach into hot stew and remove the pot from the heat. Allow the spinach to wilt from the heat of the stew and serve.
- Serve with grated Parmesan.
Suzanne Hennessy says
Hi Valerie, I haven’t made this yet. I just found the recipe today. Just from the ingredients and the photo, I would rate it a 10. It looks and sounds spectacular. My reason for writing now is that I’m constantly looking for recipes that include nutrition information (calories, etc.). So I was very happy to see you had it with this recipe. However, when I saw that you listed 1 gram of fiber per serving, that just didn’t add up for me. Surely there would be more fiber with the carrots, celery, onion, beans, canned tomato, and spinach. I found a nutrition calculator on line. I looked up the fiber content for each item, added them up, and then divided by 8 servings. What I ended up with was 5.4 grams of fiber in each serving. The beans alone provide almost 4 grams per serving. I’m definitely going to make this. I’m on the NOOM diet and we log our meals. Sometimes we have to provide nutrition information.
I love your site and will continue to follow you. I’ll try to write again after I make this wonderful recipe.
Valerie says
Hi Suzanne. We strive to provide the most accurate nutritional information we can but unfortunately we are at the mercy of the program that calculates it for us. I can’t vouch for the accuracy and do recommend that you run your own calculations with trusted tools if any specific nutritional components are important for your particular diet.
Hope you love the stew! 🙂
Joseph says
Hello there chef ,just so happens I crock potted a half a chicken yesterday removed meat and is in fridge returned bones to pot which already had carrot celery garlic onion cooked all night on low ,,so stock is ready have some smoked sausage also ,,love the idea of sauce veggies so one can control texture just need to combine and pick some savoy spinach and sweet turnip greens combine all and enjoy will be a cold night outside but in my coach will be warm and enjoyable wit my stew. thanks timing was great