North African Inspired Slow Cooked Chicken

North African Inspired Slow Cooked Chicken, originally uploaded by jessicafm.

This morning I woke up thinking I wanted to find a slow-cooker recipe for a whole organic chicken I had in the fridge. I looked through my cookbooks and found one I'd totally forgotten about: Ready and Waiting by Rick Rodgers. Wow, how long had it been since I'd looked through there?

Inside I found a recipe that sounded right -- not exactly what I had on hand, but close enough for rock 'n' roll. So I took his recipe for Moroccan Chicken and Vegetable Stew and Moroccan Hot Sauce and made some modifications. We all, including Davey, enjoyed it!

Davey decided, for the first time, to have a napless day. Ugh!! At the end of the day, it's a good thing I'd chosen to do a slow-cook recipe!

North African Inspired Chicken Stew
1 acorn squash (~1lb)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp (a few good twists) freshly ground black pepper
3 carrots, cut in to 1/2 inch rounds
3 celery stalks, cut in to 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 chicken, cut up in to the usual pieces
1-3/4 cup chicken stock
1 15oz can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup raisins

1. Cut the acorn squash crosswise in to 3/4 inch thick rings and scoop out the seeds. Cut the rings in to quarters and pare off the skin.

2. In a small bowl, combine the spices.

3. In a 3-1/2 quart slow cooker, combine the acorn squash, carrots, onions and garlic. Sprinkle half the spice mixture over the vegetables. Sprinkle the remaining spice mixture over the chicken pieces and arrange the chicken over the vegetables. Pour in the chicken broth, cover and slow-cook until the chicken shows no sign of pink at the pone when prodded with the tip of a sharp knife, 5 to 6 hours on low (200 degrees F). During the last 30 minutes of cooking, add the garbanzo beans and raisins.

Serve the chicken and vegetables over rice or couscous (we enjoy brown basmati rice) with broth spooned over it all. Serve Moroccan hot sauce on the side.

Moroccan Hot Sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/3 cup reserved cooking liquid from the stew
1 tb crushed hot red pepper
1 tsp lemon juice

1. Sprinkle the garlic with salt. Using a sharp knife, chop and then mash the salted garlic to make a paste. Scrape the garlic in to a small bowl. Stir in the reserved cooking liquid, the crushed hot red pepper and lemon juice.

2. Use a small spoon to drizzle the sauce over the stew.