Sunday Dinner: Crockpot Style
You know it's a good dinner when you plan to have leftovers ... And then there are none. Win.
Enter: Chicken Tagine.
I'm not totally sure what made me grab for the slow cooker recipe on Sunday, especially since it was still about 70 degrees. But I did and it was awesome. How awesome? Like burn my tongue tasting the sauce awesome. Multiple times. Another example? Little brother, who would prefer to exist solely on PopTarts and Mountain Dew Voltage, loved it.
At first glance, this seems a little complicated because there are like 6 spices, multiple steps, etc. But push all that aside, you probably already have 5 of the 6 spices in your cabinet anyway. The recipe promised a "tantalizing" Moroccan stew and it was delivered despite my desire to skip steps and modify the recipe for ease.
Step 1: be awesome. Put on your favorite jam on Spotify. Proceed to jam out in the kitchen.
Step 2: bread and brown up the chicken.
Step 3: try not to cry cutting up the onions and garlic.
Step 4: put all the business in a crock pot.
Step 5: kiss it for luck.
Step 6: hours later...... Eat it.
Yep, I simplified the steps for humor. I put the real steps in at the end along with the shopping list.
So here is how I cheated on the original William & Sonoma recipe. Cheater steps:
- Called for bone-in chicken thighs. No thanks. I don't like bones in my meal and neither do the picky eaters I like to feed. I opted for boneless chicken tenders.
- I was supposed to dissolve saffron in the chicken broth. Well, I was also supposed to use bones. I did neither. The house didn't have saffron and chain grocery stores don't carry it. Even if the did, I would not have used it.
- garnish with mint? Well, I'm sure that would be nice. If I had fresh mint, I totally would have but I pretty much refuse to buy mint at the grocery store. It just seems to expensive when I know I'm not going to be able to finish it all.
- Spicy Paprika? Really? Isn't Paprika aready spicy? No thanks. I'll just use what I have in my cabinet.
Recipe for 4 friends / family / enemies
- Get your skillet sizzling with some olive oil
- On a plate, mix up the flour, salt, and pepper. Then make the chicken roll around in the floury business. This is a great decision. Then toss those suckers in the skillet until they are lightly browned. Take the chicken bits out and put them aside.
- See all that tasty business in the pan? Now we are going to get it with the onions and garlic. Toss the stuff that just made you cry in that pan. Onion should be finely chopped-ish.
- Now it's time for spices. After the onions have been in the pan for like less than a minute, toss in the cinnamon, coriander, cumin, paprika and ginger. Give it a stir.
- After just a minute, douse those spiced up onions and garlic with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil.
- Transfer the onion mixture to the crock pot. Remember that chicken that was watching you cry over the onions? Toss it in on top. Cover and set to low heat.
At this point, the meal is essentially made. I let my meal simmer for 4 hrs on low in the pot. If you used boned chicken, You might care more about cooking time. So needless to say, keep yourself busy for a few hours. I recommend Netflix or walking by the beach or reading trashy magazines.
- Like an hour before your hungry guests are showing up, toss in the chopped olives, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
- Cook up some cous cous. Go with a plain or garlic flavor since you don't want to fight off all those delicious flavors you've been creating over the past few hours. I also served up some grilled bread because well, we like our carbs. Sue me.
- Eat it up.
I was so excited to eat this (after burning my tongue several times) that I forgot to take a "nice picture" of the finished project. Hope you enjoy my bite marks in this one.
Grocery list:
Olive oil
Olive oil
1.8 lbs Chicken boobs / tenders (tenders are great because they get saucier - and who doesn't want saucy chicken)
1 large Yellow onion
Cinnamon*
Coriander*
Cumin*
Ginger*
1.5 tsp Paprika
1.5 cups Chicken broth
1 cup Green olives
2 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
Salt / Pepper
Cous Cous
*can't remember the amount. Ooops. Must be my travelling brain. I'll be sure to update this on Thursday.
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