Tag: chicken

Portugese Style Piri-Piri Chicken (Slow Cooker)

I was inspired by Schwartz New Recipe Kits to make Piri Piri Chicken.  I’d never cooked or eaten it before and was intrigued.  But as usual, I went totally off-piste and tried to find a way to do it in the slow cooker.

In the end, I found this delicious Portugese-Style Piri-Piri recipe by the Life and Times of the Wandering Jew.  I didn’t use the recipe off the back of the Schwartz pack but I did use a few of the spices.  Another crucial difference to the recipe is that I didn’t cook it over night but put it on in the morning and had it for dinner about 6, so it was in the slow cooker for approx 6-8 hours.  I also cheated and bought Nando’s Medium Piri-Piri sauce

Disclosure:  The Recipe Inspiration Kit was courtesy of Schwartz.

For more of our favourite slow cooker recipes click here.

Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Chicken

Thanks to the lovely Amy from Miss Cherry Red,  for this incredibly easy and delicious slow cooker recipe.  We will definitely be having it again.

Ingredients:
4 x skinless and boneless chicken breasts
4 x cloves garlic
1 x small knob of butter
4 x tablespoons wholegrain mustard
4 x tablespoons honey
1 x tablespoon lemon juice
100ml cream

Method:

  1. Slice an opening along the length of each chicken breast (like you would a pitta bread) and place 1 garlic clove in each.
  2. Heat the butter in a frying pan and seal each chicken breast on all sides
  3. Take the chicken out and place in your slow cooker
  4. Using the same pan you’ve sealed the chicken in, heat the lemon juice, mustard and honey and mix well together
  5. Once done, pour the sauce over the chicken and give it a gentle stir to get everything covered*

* Hint – if you like your sauce… you can adjust the quantities by adding more honey and mustard… the same goes for those who prefer less.

Whack your slow cooker on Low for 5 – 6 hours.

10 minutes before the cooking time ends, pour the cream in the slow cooker and mix gently.

Serve with tagliatelle pasta and a large glass of wine!!

Thanks Amy!

Chicken Bhuna Recipe

A HUGE thank you to my mate Kev Ball for sharing this recipe.  It was delicious and perfect for a Friday night.  Please excuse the Okra, my husband for the life of him, can not follow a recipe, he always has to add his own touch, but Kev did say we could experiment a bit!

I ought to say a bit of how I got this recipie. I was in Brum for a Birmingham City match and met some friends prior to the game and went for a curry and a pint. After we had finished, the waitress was clearing up and I pointed out that I really enjoyed the curry. She agreed that it was nice, but she said that her Chicken Bhuna is nicer.

She then offered to give me the recipe, however I didn’t have any paper handy – so remembered it from memory! She didn’t actually give me any quantities, so I have experimented.

So here goes. The Waitress’s Bagladesh Chicken/Turkey Bhuna.

This is for 2 people, so multiply up appropriately.

(I recently used turkey from our leftovers and it was really nice.)

Ingredients:

Chicken (I also add mushrooms and spinach)
1 Onion
4 cloves of garlic
2cm fresh ginger

(You can obviously use ready crushed / chopped garlic and ginger)

2 heap teaspoons of Garam Masala
2 heap teaspoons of Curry Powder
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 fresh green chilli finely chopped
3 tablespoons of Fresh chopped coriander

Feel free to adjust the quantity of chilli, but I like mine reasonably hot.

Method:

Chop the garlic and the ginger and fry until they go soft, be careful not to burn the garlic. The waitress was insistent that the garlic and ginger was cooked first.

Then add the onion again frying carefully as not to burn. When the onion is translucent, add the rest of the ingredients except the meat, and optional mushrooms and spinach.

This is VERY important. Immediately add some water and keep stiring, frying and adding more water to make a “sloppy” paste or sauce.

Then you add the meat etc. Then simmer until the meat is cooked, adding water as required. However ensure you simmer the water off as this should be a reasonably dry dish.

Serve with rice and condiments of your choice.

Garnish with some fresh coriander.

Thanks again Kevin it was delicious and we will be having it again.  For more tried and tested recipes click here.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Couscous

Thanks to the lovely Victoria Roberts (@starPS) who shared this slow cooker recipe with me.  She’s very keen to share no nonsense meals that kids will devour and my family did!

‘This one is a staple in my house,  my mates (and their various offspring) request it often…its my kids fave too!  Dead easy.’

Ingredients

  • Whole chicken (do bear in mind it needs to fit in the slow cooker)
  • Garlic bulb
  • Lemon
  • Salt, pepper, dried cumin & coriander
  • Chicken stock cube thingy
  • Pint of hot water
  • Mixed frozen veg
  • Couscous
  • One finely chopped onion

What you do with it!

  1. Brown the chicken off in a frying pan or wok first with a little bit of butter or oil to give it some colour.  Cut the lemon in half and put it inside the carcass, break up the garlic bulb and also ram it in there.
  2. Rub salt, pepper, a bit of cumin & coriander on the skin of the chicken, put it in the slow cooker.  Add a pint of chicken stock.  Put it on low heat for 8 hours. Don’t lift the lid during cooking as that will let out all the lovely steam.  When it’s done, lift it out and put it somewhere covered to rest while you make the couscous.
  3. Leave all the lovely stock and chicken juices in the bottom of the slow cooker but turn it off, add enough couscous for how many people you are feeding.  If you need to add some more stock at this point go ahead.   Put the lid back on the slower cooker and let the couscous steam itself, still leave it switched off though.  Gently fry off the onion in a smear of butter or oil.  Add the frozen veg to the frying pan and a splash of water. Simmer till warmed through, add to the couscous in the slow cooker and give it a good stir.
  4. Serve…the chicken will literally fall off the bone so I like to bung it in a nice big dish, the couscous in another one and let people help themselves but you may be posh and prefer a more civilised method!

A few small changes:

Normally I stick to recipes word for word.  However, in this case I was a bit worried about trying to brown the chicken in a frying pan. I had visions of it falling on the floor.  So, I preheated my oven on full whack (250 degrees).  I put the lemon and garlic in the cavity and rubbed the chicken with oil, and massaged the salt, pepper, cumin and coriander on the skin and then browned it in the oven for 20 min.  I then transferred it to the slow cooker and carried on with the instructions above.

I also used my own chicken stock substituting the stock cube and pint of water for 500ml of home made chicken stock.

The only other change I made was the amount of liquid for couscous.  We are only a family of 3 so I was a bit worried that there was too much liquid.  After checking the back of the couscous pack, I worked out that I would be using 250g of couscous and 300ml of liquid.  So I removed 250ml of the stock and I think it was the right decision.

Many thanks Victoria!  It definitely goes on our ‘have again’ list.  You’re welcome on the blog anytime.

 

 

 

 

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

I’m usually to lazy to make chicken stock as it always seemed like quite a faff, but someone suggested doing it in the slow cooker and it was so easy.

Ingredients:

1 chicken carcass
2 carrots – roughly chopped no need to peel
1 tsp of celery salt (could use real celery)
1 onion – chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp sage
1 tsp of whole peppercorns

Method:

Put the chicken carcass in the slow cooker, you can break some of the bones if you wish but I can’t stomach that.

Fill the slow cooker ¾ full with water.

Add all the ingredients and cook on low for 10 hours. I put it on overnight.

Let it cool for about 30 minutes before removing the carcass and vegetables.  Then pour through a strainer.

Transfer to a bowl and put in the fridge until the fat solidifies on the top, skim off the fat.

Then pour the stock in bags. I found ‘Pour and Store’ bags at Sainsbury’s which are great as they stand upright and you can easily see the quantity.