Creamy Crock pot stew separating - I need help quick!!

[mame1616]

Hello all - I joined to get some help fast! I have a chicken stew in the crock pot right now - boneless breasts, fresh mushrooms, peas, carrots, broth - and I added a evap. milk/ flour mix. It has now separated - what can I do? This stew is for a house party tomorrow! I found this "Creamy Homemade Chicken Stew" on allrecipes.com. Thanks for your advice - Mary in NJ

[BubbaGourmet]

I know this will sound like a flip answer but, so help me, it is not. My wife called me recently with the same problem (different dish though) I asked her "Did you STIR it?" She giggled, stirred it and said"Oops!"

[oldcoot]

Presuming that you did stir it, my guess would be that the crock-pot temperature is not high enough to actrivate the thichening action of the roux (floour-millk) Yoou might try poouring the whole bac\tch into a pot and heating on the stove-top it to the boil long enough for the flour to thicken the stew, then back into the crock pot to continue cooking.

[ironchef]

actually, the flour-milk mixture is more of a "slurry" than a "roux". but from my experience, evaporated milk doesn't seperate (milk fat from mik liquid) so i'm assuming that your flour just did not incorporate. both the above suggestions would be correct to try however.

oldcoot is correct in that in order for your flour mixture (or any flour/thickening mixture) to achieve full thickeing potential, it must come to a boil. also, before you added your mixture in, did you fully incorporate the milk and flour together, or was there still lumps/clumps of flour in there?