Hi,
Cooking poultry with the skin on doesn't affect point calculations. It's only an issue if you eat the skin.
If I'm going to braise the poultry, I also remove the skin before cooking. The other thing I do when I've cooked stews and other similar dishes is to remove the meat and veggies before serving and defat the liquid by pouring it into a gravy separator and letting it sit a few minutes, then pour back all of the liquid except the fat.
The easiest way to do that, though, is to cook the stew a day ahead, put it in the fridge, and before you reheat it, take a spoon and remove the layer of fat that's solidified on the top. You have dinner made ahead of time and stews usually taste better reheated because the flavors really blend.
Lin
