Chicken Stew

Whenever I use a whole chicken to make chicken broth, I reserve the meat for chicken salads, chicken congee, and chicken stews. It's the perfect way to make full use of the chicken! J loves this chicken stew. At 12 months old, he still doesn't like cooked celery and carrots, but he loves it in this stew.

Ingredients:

4 cups Organic Chicken, shredded
1.5 cups Organic Carrots
1.5 cups Organic Celery
1.5 cups Onion
1 cup of potato, diced and cooked
6 cloves Garlic
4-6 cups Chicken Broth, homemade
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1 Bay Leaf
2 tsp Thyme, dried
1 cup Peas, frozen

Instructions:

1. In a small pot, fill with water and bring it to a boil. Add the diced potatoes and cook about 15 minutes or until softened. 
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in soup pot over medium heat, add onion and cook until translucent and fragrant. Add garlic, and cook until fragrant. 
3. Add butter, and cook until melted. Add flour and stir until it's coated all the onion and garlic. Keep stirring to prevent burning the flour mixture but allow it to brown slightly. 
4. Slowly pour chicken broth into the pot, stirring constantly to mix the flour mixture with the chicken broth. 
5. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer for at least 20 minutes until the vegetables are all soften. (I cooked it for around that amount of time, then put the pot in its insulated thermos for a few hours)
6. When you're ready to serve it, heat it up and add the peas. Just takes a few minutes for the peas to cook. Serve immediately.

To serve to babies:

For beginner eaters, you can puree this, or mince this in a grinder, and feed it to baby by preloading a spoon with it and pass it to baby to feed him/herself. 

For intermediate eaters, just pile it in a bowl, and let baby pick it up with his hands. You could also use a baby fork to pick up some food, and pass the fork to baby to put into his/her mouth to eat.