Slow Cooker Butter Chicken

Have I mentioned how much I love my slow cooker?  I think I have, but I'll say it again.

I LOVE my slow cooker.  There is absolutely nothing like it.  Throw a bunch of ingredients in there, turn it on and go to work.  Come home exhausted and starving, and your dinner is ready!  Whoever invented this fantastic contraption deserves a medal.  They have made our lives so much easier; everyone's life!!  Mothers, wives, single dad's, married dad's, heck, husbands with no kids even, bachelors, bachelorettes, the culinary challenged, pretty much the entire universe can thank the slow cooker for how simple it is to prepare a home cooked meal.

So my latest meal in the slow cooker was Butter Chicken.  Oh my, this was delicious.  The only thing I might have done different was add a little hot pepper in there.  My boyfriend made a wonderfully easy hot pepper sauce the other day, and it would have been perfect on the chicken.  I'll give you both recipes, the chicken and the hot sauce, although the hot sauce ingredients weren't really measured.

Butter Chicken...mmmm..
Slow Cooker Butter Chicken
2 onions diced ( I did these in big chunks, since you will be blending the sauce up anyways)
3 garlic minced (just cut them in half)
3 T butter
2 T chopped ginger
2 T brown sugar
2 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp each coriander and tumeric
1/2 tsp each cinnamon and cumin
salt & pepper
1 can diced tomatoes (I used the seasoned hot pepper italian diced tomatoes)
1 can chicken broth (I used vegetable broth powder, was all out of chicken broth)
1/4c almond butter (I used peanut butter)
3 lbs chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts cut in bite sized chunks)
1c sour cream
2 T cilantro chopped

In the slow cooker, combine the first 10 ingredients.  Whisk broth with almond (or peanut) butter and pour into slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low 5-8 hours (mine cooked for about 10 hours; you can't overcook in a slow cooker, so go nuts!).  With a hand blender, puree the sauce until smooth.  Add the chicken, and cook covered on high 30-40 minutes (I did another hour).  Stir in the sour cream and serve sprinkled with cilantro.  I served this over rice with some store-bought naan that we warmed in the oven first.

CF's Hot Sauce
About 3 jalapeno's, seeds and all
About 6 green chilies
A couple of cloves of garlic
1/2c vinegar
1/2c water
pimentos
thyme

Put all except pimentos and thyme in a food processor and process until smooth.  Pour into a mason jar, add pimentos and thyme, seal and put in the refrigerator.  Best hot sauce ever, and it gets better with time!
This really was one of the best butter chicken recipes I have tasted.  It was so fast and easy, with hardly any effort,  but it tasted like I had slaved over it for hours.

Definitely give it a try.

What next?  Hmmm...

Comments