Jamaican Curried Chicken Stew with Rum and Mango

This Curried Chicken Stew is packed with veggies and bursting with bright flavors of the Caribbean. Shredded chicken thighs and butternut squash in coconut curry broth with rum and mango. This wonderful Jamaican stew is a whole healthy dinner in one pot that will have everyone clamoring for seconds!

Imagine you are floating in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, relaxing to the rhythm of Reggae music and sipping an ice cold fruity rum drink. The whole beautiful day lies ahead of you, with nothing to do but enjoy your surroundings – the turquoise sea, swaying palm trees, a good book, something bright and spicy for dinner… That’s how I would describe Jamaica – It’s one of my family’s favorite destinations.

Food has its own special way of transporting us to far away places, and this curried chicken stew with rum and mango takes me right to Jamaica.

My inspiration for this curried chicken stew – in addition to my love of Jamaica – is a new wonderful cookbook I’ve been enjoying called Caribbean Potluck. It’s filled with so many colorful and creative recipes!

The goat curry with rum and mango got me really excited. I was taken by the thought of spicy rum and tangy, sweet mango in a savory stew! I wasn’t sure goat would be readily available to all of my followers so I decided to go more mainstream and feature chicken instead.

I chose butternut squash in place of white potatoes. I love butternut squash so much, and it’s one of those veggies that’s usually available and tasty all year round.

HOW TO MAKE JAMAICAN CURRIED CHICKEN STEW

The flavor base for the stew is created by sautéing a generous amount of aromatic vegetables – onion, garlic and ginger – along with one hot and fruity Scotch Bonnet Chili.

Season and brown boneless, skinless chicken thighs, using the same pot you’ll use for the stew. Set the thighs aside and brown your aromatic vegetables.

Now return the chicken to the pot with the aromatics. Add carrots, squash, broth, coconut milk, rum, dry spices and fresh thyme. Your prep work is done! Set the pot in a preheated 350º oven for 30 minutes. 

When the stew comes out of the oven, stir in the fresh cubed mango.

Serve your curried chicken stew with fluffy rice to soak up all the delicious juices.

Have fun with the toppings – choose one or two or all. Or come up with your own.

I suggest including plenty of chopped scallions and crushed peanuts. And you can’t go wrong with adding toasted coconut flakes!

This curried chicken stew recipe joins a long list of unique and wonderful chicken stew recipes from around that globe that I highly recommend trying: Guatemalan Green Chicken Stew, Peanut Stew with Chicken from Ghana, Korean Chicken Stew with Gochujang Sauce, Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes, Easy Curried Butternut Squash, Lentil and Chicken Stew.

Here’s the recipe for Jamaican Curried Chicken Stew. If you try this recipe I hope you’ll come back to leave a rating and a comment. I’d love to know what you think!

Jamaican Curried Chicken Stew with Rum and Mango

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Delicious curried chicken stew with lots of veggies and a curry-coconut-rum broth. A fantastic one pot dinner.

• Author: Panning The Globe
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
• Yield: 6-8 1x
• Category: Stew
• Method: oven
• Cuisine: Jamaican

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 12–14 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 3 pounds)
• Coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper
• Olive oil for sautéing
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tablespoons finely minced garlic (about 8 large cloves)
• 2 tablespoons peeled and finely minced ginger root (about a 2 inch piece)
• 1 Scotch bonnet chili, seeds removed (unless you love a lot of fire) and finely chopped (or substitute 1 Habanero Chili or a jalapeño, if you can find the other two)
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
• 1/4 cup white rum
• 4 cups low salt chicken broth (I recommend Swanson’s)
• 4 cups 1-inch cubes of butternut squash (from 1/2 large squash or 1 small squash)
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 4–5 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups diced fresh mango (1 large mango or two small – if you have left over mango you can sprinkle it on top as a garnish)
• Garnish and Accompaniment Ideas:
• 3/4 cup peanuts, roughly chopped
• Chopped mango
• 1 bunch scallions (6-7), trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Sprinkle chicken generously with salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat, in a large, oven-ready pot or dutch oven, with a lid. Brown chicken in batches, 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer pieces to a plate as they’re browned.
3. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pot and sauté the onion, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and chili pepper. Cook, stirring, for a minute or so, until they become fragrant. Add the curry powder and allspice. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or so to toast the spices. Add the coconut milk and rum. Cook for a minute or so, stirring, to loosen any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the chicken back to the pot, along with the 4 cups broth, squash, carrots, thyme sprigs and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer. Turn off heat. Cover pot and transfer to the preheated oven. Cook for 35 minutes.
4. Final Prep: Remove stew from the oven. Pull out the chicken pieces a few at a time – transferring them to a plate and shredding them by pulling them apart with two forks. Return them to the pot. Add the cubed mango. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with rice and your choice of toppings.

[First published Oct 2014. Updated Jan 2019 with added nutritional information and tweaks to the written post]

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