Melt in the mouth slow cooker chicken, a sweet and creamy sauce with a mustardy bite, tender chunks of squash. And lets not forget arguably the king of all vegetables, kale. Whats not to love?!
I adore my slow cooker. As a busy mum that still wants to feed my family well I use it often, even during the summer. In a recipe like this one it guarantees that the chicken is beautifully moist and soft. Suitable even for little mouths that are challenged in the teeth department. In fact I find it hard to get chicken into Ayla unless it is slow cooked.
It also means that on especially busy days you can just do a bit of easy prep work in the morning. Then set the slow cooker to work and at dinner time there will be a nutritious meal waiting for you. If you don’t have a slow cooker you can easily cook it in the oven instead. Prepare it as per the recipe except use a casserole dish instead of the slow cooker. Loosely cover with foil and cook at 180°C for an hour and a half.
This recipe is ridiculously quick and simple to prepare, and you can mix it up with whatever veggies you have. You can replace the butternut or pumpkin with any squash or even sweet potato, and the kale with broccoli or spinach as I often do. Mushrooms would be lovely. If you do use broccoli, spinach or mushrooms add them 25 minutes before the end of cooking time instead of the beginning as neither are as hardy as the kale and would turn to mush if cooked for so long.
It’s one of our family favourites that we look forwards to every week, healthy and delicious. I bet you will enjoy it too, bon appetit!
INGREDIENTS
- 4 chicken thighs, skin on or removed depending on your own preference (we’re a skin on family)
- 200g of peeled and deseeded butternut squash or pumpkin, chopped into large chunks
- 150g kale, stem removed and roughly chopped
- 2tbsp creme fraiche
- 1tbsp clear honey
- 1tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 chicken stock cube, dissolved into 150ml of boiling water
- 1tsp dried thyme
- Black pepper
- Cornflour to thicken
METHOD
- Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and fry skin side down for about 5 minutes until the skin is golden brown and starting to go crispy. (If you remove the skin this step isn’t necessary.)
- Put the stock, creme fraiche, honey and mustard into the slow cooker and stir until combined.
- Add the pumpkin, kale, thyme and a twist of black pepper and mix. (It will seem like there is not enough liquid but don’t worry, as the kale, squash and chicken cook they will release some more juices.)
- Nestle the browned chicken, skin side up, into the veg a little, then programme the slow cooker for 4 hours.
- When the cooking time is up, remove the chicken *gently, it will fall off the bone* mix a teaspoon of cornflour with some cold water and add to the sauce to thicken. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- The chicken thighs can either be added back to the sauce whole (for the adults) or shredded (for the little ones.)
SERVING SUGGESTION
Serve over rice or with mashed or boiled and buttered potatoes.
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