Chicken & Vegetable Stew

As far as cooking strengths, I've found that my niche seems to be comfort food, the feel good to the body and soul, savor what's in your mouth, homey type food. Part of that is soups and stews. Now I have my areas that I need lots of improvement but soups and stews seem to be something I get right the first time, every time. This stew was created last minute on a night right before a shopping trip so I was just trying to use things up. The concept was so simple but the result was lovely. Even my picky-eating 4-year-old gobbled it down fast. It comes together in half an hour and is super low maintenance. We like it that way!

Ingredients:

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 sticks celery, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 tbsp olive oil

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

1 tsp salt

2 large red potatoes, cubed

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

4 cups water

1 .87oz envelope chicken gravy mix

1 cube garlic bouillon 

Directions:

Saute the onion, carrots, and celery in the olive oil for about 4-5 minutes until the onions are opaque. Add the chicken and salt; cook two minutes longer (For novices: Don't overcook your chicken at this point or it'll turn out tough!). Add the potatoes, pepper and parsley and give that a quick toss before adding the rest of the ingredients and mixing well. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and stir occasionally for 20-25 minutes until all your veggies are tender. And look at that: so easy! And you're using normal staple items!

PS - This was to feed my family of 4, so adjust accordingly if necessary!