Lemony Greek Chicken, Spinach and Potato Stew

By Sarah DiGregorio

Published March 24, 2023

Lemony Greek Chicken, Spinach and Potato Stew
Kerri Brewer for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
35 minutes
Rating
5(7,400)
Comments
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If your favorite Greek foods are the lively vegetable dishes, this meal-in-a-bowl stew is for you. A simple mix of lemon, garlic and lots of herbs enliven the potatoes and spinach and using ground meat ensures a lot of flavor in very little time. Ground turkey or pork would be just as good, if you prefer. Russets can be substituted for Yukon golds, but their texture will be more grainy and less creamy. Mature spinach or frozen spinach works best here because of its mellow flavor, as opposed to baby spinach, which is more tannic. Add the amount of dill that sounds best to you, or if you don’t like it, swap in a few tablespoons of fresh parsley or mint.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 to 5 servings
  • ¼cup extra-virgin olive oil 
  • 1red or yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 8large garlic cloves, smashed and finely chopped 
  • 1½teaspoons coarse kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 1pound ground chicken 
  • 1heaping tablespoon roughly chopped fresh rosemary (leaves of about 1 large sprig) or 1½ teaspoons dried rosemary
  • 1½teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1teaspoon red-pepper flakes 
  • Black pepper
  • 1½pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about 3 medium), scrubbed and chopped into ½-inch chunks
  • 6cups chicken broth 
  • Juice of 1 large lemon (about ¼ cup juice)
  • 1(8-ounce) bunch mature spinach, stems included, chopped, or 1½ cups frozen leaf spinach
  • ¼ to ⅓cup lightly packed roughly chopped dill 
  • Crumbled feta and crushed pita chips, for topping
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (5 servings)

479 calories; 22 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 13 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 44 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 28 grams protein; 1079 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large pot or Dutch oven, warm the oil over high heat. Add the onion, garlic and salt and cook, stirring, until the onion and garlic are softened and just starting to brown, 5 minutes. (Decrease the heat to medium-high if necessary to prevent scorching.)

  2. Step 2

    Decrease the heat to medium-high and add the chicken, rosemary, oregano, red-pepper flakes and several generous grinds of black pepper. Cook, breaking up the chicken into crumbles, until the meat starts to lose its translucent pinkness and is turning white, about 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and stir well to combine. Add the chicken broth and half the lemon juice, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom. Bring to a rolling boil and then lower the heat to maintain a very brisk simmer. Simmer until the potatoes are nearly tender, 15 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Add the spinach and dill, to taste. Continue to simmer briskly until the potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes more. Taste and add some or all of the remaining lemon juice, as well as more salt and pepper, if desired. Serve in bowls topped with feta and crushed pita chips.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
7,400 user ratings
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Comments

matt

I have a bit of an aversion to ground chicken so I filled a 5qt Dutch oven with water and added a celery stalk, a quartered onion, a halved lemon, a few smashed cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of thyme and 2 bay leaves along with 2 bone in and skin on chicken breast. Brought to a nice simmer for 30 minutes before removing the chicken to a bowl and straining the solids. The remaining liquid I used for my broth and I added the shredded chicken back in at the end. It was very good.

Casey

As a Greek person, I could not help but temper an egg into this broth, like an avgolemono soup. It added a wonderful, velvety complexity to the broth.

Peter

A whole teaspoon of red pepper flakes is excessive for this amount of ingredients. Other than that, this is an excellent, easy-to-prepare soup. Rather than ground chicken (most likely to be breast meat), I intend to use an equivalent amount (or more) of boneless, skinless THIGH meat. I’ll brown it separately and chop it as finely as I can manage before adding it (and its pan juices) to the soup - adjusting cooking at that point accordingly. Also - use Kale rather than Spinach.

Sarah

I pretty much followed the directions because I was looking for ease, despite being sketched out over the use of ground chicken. I seasoned the heck out of that chicken and let it stew for a while in all those spices and garlic and goodness to try to generate more brown bits for flavor. Suggest using a nice pressed lemon olive oil in the chicken browning process. Think it made all the difference, along in with plenty of garlic.

Just ok

3 of us here. Only deviation I made was cutting the red pepper in half and using a rotisserie chicken. It was ok, but not good enough that we wanted a second bowl. Will not be adding this one the rotation. Felt bad to waste so much:(

Sarah

To make this even easier (and low-fodmap!) I used garlic and leek infused olive oils instead of plain olive oil, and omitted the onions and garlic. Delicious!

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