Now that the new year is here, we’re looking to revamp our recipes to feature more veggies, lean proteins, and healthy fats. But as with all resolutions, it’s best to take a healthy eating resolution slow, so you don’t risk burning out and turning back to your never-fail meals of microwaved mac and cheese and frozen pizza (which, fair enough, are delicious). That’s why we love flexible one-pot meals, like this chicken stew from Giada De Laurentiis. It’s hearty and filling, full of nutritious ingredients, and can be easily tweaked to suit your family’s preferences.

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The recipe for One-Pot Chicken Stew is more of a guideline than something written in stone. In the Instagram post featuring the recipe, the caption claims that “You can toss in virtually any beans or random vegetables you’ve got on hand” to make the stew your own.

However, there are a few basic things that help give the recipe shape. For starters, first thing you want to do is saute some aromatics, like celery, carrot, and onion, in a little bit of oil. This creates a flavorful base for your stew, which can then be enriched with canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and dried spices.

Next up, add your broth and your chicken, and gently simmer the stew until the chicken is cooked through. You’ll want to remove the chicken from the stew at this point so it doesn’t get overcooked. Then, add beans and let the broth reduce until it’s thickened. Add the chicken back to the pot along with your favorite frozen veggies (De Laurentiis opts for peas, but mixed veggies, corn, or even frozen brown rice and quinoa could be delicious too), and once the frozen veggies are warmed through, you’re ready to eat!

You can tweak the recipe in a number of ways. If you’re a big family of meat eaters, try adding some chicken sausage or shrimp to the stew for a dose of lean protein. Bean lovers can experiment with everything from canned lentils to cannelini beans and back, and veg-heads can add hearty root veggies along with the aromatics in the first step (think turnip and rutabaga), or more frozen veggies at the end. Heck, maybe this is too outrageous, but you could even make it an Italian riff on chicken and dumplings by adding in a package of Trader Joe’s frozen cauliflower gnocchi.

Any way you make it, this recipe offers up something for every family – a one-pot meal full of nutrition that will give you some leftovers for lunch during the week and will leave you with just one pan to wash when everyone’s done eating.

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