healthy Foods

Healthy Chicken Dinner

By

Annette Jones

Here’s my version of a healthy chicken dinner. It is based on a slow cooker recipe from a real food blog dot com. I’ve added a few different ingredients and ideas here and there suited to our taste, so feel free to adapt to your taste or what you have on hand.

For this healthy chicken dinner I chose to use a free range fresh chicken, naturally it will work for a defrosted frozen chicken too.

Ingredients for the Healthy Chicken Dinner

• 1 fresh or frozen chicken to suit your family
• 1 large onion
• 2 teaspoons Smoked Paprika
• 1 teaspoon of dried Thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of black/white/red Pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan Salt
• 6 large Cloves of fresh Garlic
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch or cornflour
• 1/2 cup of water

Method for the Healthy Chicken Dinner

• Prepare your chicken, removing giblets  and neck if it has any inside the cavity and rinse under running water thoroughly.
• Pat the chicken dry using paper towels
• Peel and roughly chop onion into largish chunks
• Peel the garlic and cut each clove in half
• Throw the onion and garlic into the bottom of your crock pot or slow cooker

• Measure the spices and herbs into a bowl and mix until combined
• Rub the herb and spice mixture all over the outside and inside of the chicken even between the skin and the breasts if you like

• Place the chicken on the bed of onion and garlic and cover with the lid
• Set your crock pot or slow cooker for 5 hours (depending on the size of your chicken, more if it a large bird) on high

Your healthy chicken dinner will be beautiful and moist, falling off the bone and taste delicious!

You will find an amount of liquid in the based of the dish with the caramelized onions and garlic. Tip this liquid, onions and garlic into a small saucepan, add the cornstarch or cornflour to the cold water and mix together. Pour into the liquid and stir.

This is the most delicious gravy I have tasted in a while (and I make a pretty good gravy!) and a great accompaniment to your healthy chicken dinner.

Serve with your favorite vegetables. I cooked Hasselback Potatoes, steamed broccoli & pumpkin.

There is a bonus with this recipe! Use the bones and a few extra ingredients, throw them back in the Crock pot or slow cooker and make yourself some homemade chicken stock.

All I had on hand was an onion that I halved leaving the skin on, a teaspoon of mixed whole peppers and 2 bay leaves. Plus some home grown flat leaf parsley and a tiny bit of fresh thyme from my balcony garden.

If I had them on hand I would have added a carrot, skin on and snapped in half  and a celery stalk.

Pick all the remaining chicken off the bones and store in the refrigerator for either a salad or sandwiches the following day, if you are lucky enough to have leftovers.

Add the chicken bones back into the crock pot or slow cooked fill with water (filtered, if you have a water filter) and the herbs and vegetables.

Set on low and cook for 10 hours or overnight. You wake up to a beautiful aroma of homemade chicken stock ready for use for a chicken soup or to use as a chicken stock for your other recipes. Divide into portions and freeze until you need them. Great for a quick homemade, nutritious soup.

I hope you and your family enjoy this delicious, easy healthy chicken dinner. Come back and leave me a comment when you make it and tell me how it went with your family!

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