Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken and Chickpeas

After everything is chopped and cut, just put it in the slow cooker and forget it for a few hours. 

Ingredients:

1. 2 – 16 oz. cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed
2. 1 – 15 oz. can of plumb or cherry tomatoes drained
3. 1 red bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
4. 1 medium red onion chopped
5. ½ cup golden raisins
6. 2 tbsp. tomato paste
7. 2 tbsp. water
8. 1 tsp. ground cumin
9. ½ tsp. sweet paprika
10. ½  tsp. cayenne (optional)
11. 4 or 5 boneless/skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 in. pieces
12. 2 tbsp. creamy peanut butter

Place ingredients 1 to 5 into the slow cooker.  Mix ingredients 6 to 10 in a bowl, pour into slow cooker and mix well.  Place chicken in an even layer on top.

Turn slow cooker on low, cover and cook for 6 hours. Add the peanut butter, mix well and serve with rice or couscous.

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Chicken Picatta

Chicken picatta isn’t something that I grew up with. My mother and aunts made a tremendous array of Italian dishes but no chicken picatta. I sometimes wonder if it’s a real Italian recipe and not something like Fettuccini Alfredo, which was invented in America. It’s a dish that I enjoy and order often when we go out to eat. Chicken with a lemon sauce, what’s not to like? Since I didn’t have a family recipe to go on, I looked through a few online. I put together a combination of things that appealed to me.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lb cutlets
• Salt and black pepper
• ¼ cup flour
• Olive oil for browning
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped shallot (optional)
• ½ cup white wine
• ½  lemon cut into thin wedges
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 2 tbsps. rinsed capers
• 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
• 3 tbsps. butter

If you can’t get cutlets, 3 chicken breasts should give you 9 cutlets. Season the room temperature cutlets with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour. Shake off any excess flour and lightly brown in oil and remove. Cook in batches so you don’t crowd the pan. Pour off chicken fat from pan if any. Add more oil and cook the shallots on low until soft. Add the wine and deglaze the pan.

Add the lemon slices and sauté for a few minutes before adding the chicken stock. Simmer for a few minutes and then lower the heat. Add the lemon juice, capers, parsley, and whisk in the butter.  Pour the sauce over the cutlets and serve.

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Pollo alla Potentina

Pollo alla Potentina is a stewed chicken dish from the Basilicata region of Italy. My father’s parents were born there in a town called Laurenzana. The cuisine of Basilicata is typically highly spiced. You can use more than 3 chilis or leave then out. It’s up to you.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken cut into 10 pieces
• 3 tsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1large onion, sliced
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 3 bird’s eye or Calabrese chilis, seeded and minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 28 oz. canned whole tomatoes roughly crushed
• 2 tbsp chopped basil
• 2tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Juice of 1 lemon

Brown the chicken in a pot with the butter and oil and remove.

Add the onion to the pot and cook until it’s slightly browned. Next, pour in the wine and deglaze the pan. Add the minced pepper, tomato, and salt. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 1 hour, adding water if liquid gets too low.

Stir in basil, parsley and lemon juice and serve.

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