This is a wonderful sweet and tangy chicken recipe that can also be put together in a bag and frozen until you want to cook it. It can be served over a bed of rice, couscous, noodles or with your favourite potatoes. The fruit and the sweet taste makes it a popular dish with children, even picky ones. This recipe does not freeze well once it has been cooked but it is excellent reheated the next day.
Preparation time: Less than 30 minutes
Crockpot Fruited Chicken
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup of diced sweet red pepper
- 1 cup of coarsely chopped Sweet Vidalia onion
- 1/2 cup dried apricots -- cut into quarters
- 1/2 cup dried apple rings cut into quarters
- 1/4 cup of golden seedless raisins
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- grated zest of one orange
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
Directions:
- Remove skin and bones from thighs if not already done. Place in bottom of your crockpot.
- Clean, seed and devein sweet red pepper and dice to equal one half cup and put in a mixing bowl. Peel and chop a Sweet Vidalia onion and put 1 cup into the bowl with the peppers.
- Measure one half cup of dried apricots and one half cup of dried apple rings. Cut them into quarters and place in the bowl with the other ingredients. Mix the brown sugar, spices, minced garlic and orange zest together and sprinkle over top of the ingredients in mixing bowl. Mix the all the ingredients together well and dump on top of the chicken in the crockpot. Pour the orange juice and chicken broth over everything, cover the pot and turn on high. Cook on high for 4 1/2 hours.
To Thicken: Mix 1/2 cup orange juice with 2 tablespoons cornstarch and stir till smooth. Pour into the crock pot and mix well. Cook for an additional 30 minutes or until the sauce is thickened
This versatile dish is great with plain rice, noodles, couscous or your favourite potato recipe. Serve hot with a cold, crisp salad on the side.
Serves 4 to 6
NOTE:
If you are planning on using it as a dump recipe (put it together, freeze and cook later) you can add the broth at cooking time or double bag it and freeze the broth with the rest of the ingredients. Large size ZipLock freezer bags are great for dump recipes as they can lay flat and don't take up a lot of room in your freezer. For a dish with less bite, omit the cayenne pepper until cooking time.
Heather O'Neil - Published poet, children's book author, mixed media artist and retired newspaper columnist. I am also the sole owner/operator of O'Neil ...
