"I marinated the chicken in Caribbean green seasoning (combination of onions, scallions, cilantro, ginger, garlic, hot red pepper, thyme, salt & pepper I let the chicken marinate for an hour) this made a big difference, the amount of oil required by the recipe was precise, the sugar browned nicely which led to nicely browned chicken, I only used thighs since I don't like stewing chicken breast, I added some more aromatics (onions, red and green peppers, celery,& of course carrots, cilantro) along with the thyme and parsley , i didn't add potatoes I served the stew over creamed yucca I used 1 cup of water and I added 1tsp of better than bullion chicken base, the cook time of 40-45 mins is precise.