Slow Cooker Spiced Chicken Recipe

There is a new revolution going on, have you heard? In the culinary or rather shopping for culinary area. Yes, people are rushing to catch the best deals on the latest best kitchen device, that is the pressure cooker. It cooks fast, and super delicious, as I have heard from the raves everywhere. And nowadays with online shops like Lazada, it is not impossible to get the best deals anytime, especially during this festive season.

While the others are moving towards fast cooking pressure cookers, I am slowing my cooking down, and heading for a slow cooker. Often I got asked, why not buy a pressure cooker? And I am like, I need the food to be ready once I am home from work. It has the whole day to cook, hence the slow cooker.

And, oh, did i mention? I have started working for a software development organization. In the meantime, I am still a full time slave to the boys at home. Due to that, I have managed to find a solution for us to be able to have home cooked meals at least 2 or 3 times a week.

Here I present you the menu for this week. Spiced chicken with Chinese cabbage and oyster mushroom. It has the protein, the vegetables, and sufficient amount of spices for the goodness of it all! Fair amount of gravy, thick and flavourful, that my boys love, to be eaten with fragrant rice cooked with a tablespoon of virgin coconut oil.

One thing with the slow cooker, once you step into your house, you are greeted with lovely aroma of the stew dish that you have been slow cooking the whole day. Don't let the ugly picture deceive you, it has no indication of the taste whatsoever.

The recipe is very simple. You simply need to prepare vegetables and gather your seasonings and dump everything into the slow cooker and let it cook away.

You need:
1kg chicken, cut medium side
Chinese cabbage and oyster mushroom, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
some fish sauce
salt to taste 

Seasonings to blend1 potato
1 carrot
1 star anise
a few cloves and cardamom
5 cloves of garlic
some black peppercorns
some ginger
1 onion 

Method:1) Blend the seasoning ingredients till fine.
2) Spread the vegetables in the base of the slow cooker. Top it up with the chicken.
3) POur in the seasonings and the blended seasonings next. Give it a quick stir.
4) Cook on slow cooker for 4 hours.

The slow cooker can be set to cook at low, high or auto. I bought a socket timer to control the amount of time the food is cooked, for safety and also to make sure the meat is not overcooked. As I go on I am picking up a few tricks and best practices in using the slow cooker. Surely I would share once I have got my hands and slow cooker dirty!

The final result is tender and falling off the bones chicken meat. The leftover chicken has been useful too as I got the meat shredded  and brought in to office for lunch with some tortilla wraps and leftover salad!

And in the meantime, I will remain faithful to my old Indian-made-lugged-all-the-way-from-India Prestige pressure cooker which has been serving me well for the past 5 years, never failing me with yummylicious dhal everytime.

Till then, slow cooking away!