As part of my continued quest to try some new cusine on my family, I decided to cook a meal made from what I could find in my fridge, freezer and store cupboards. In the end I opted to make a casserole in my slow cooker and rather than make a tomato or gravy based sauce, I used some cider we had left over from Christmas and made Chicken and Bacon in Cider. Using chicken thighs makes this much more thrifty than if I had used chicken breast meat and actually in the slow cooler, thigh meat is much nicer because it ends up being so tender and full of flavour. Plus the addition of smokey bacon and apples made for such a comforting and very tasty sauce to accompany my mash and root veg mash.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 skinless chicken thighs, or just remove the skin!
- 6 rashers of smoked bacon, cut into strips
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 2 large eating apples, peeled and thickly sliced
- 1 x 250ml bottle of cider (I used Magners)
- 1 tsp crushed garlic
- 1 chicken stock pot
- black pepper - to season
- 50ml boiling water
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- heat the olive oil and garlic in a pan and add the bacon and chicken and brown for a couple of minutes
- add the cider, water and chicken stock and bring to the boil and allow to bubble for a couple of minutes
- Pour into the slow cooker and add the onion, apples, pepper, carrot and rosemary
- Turn the slow cooker onto low and cook for about 6 hours
- Once the casserole is cooked (the chicken will have fallen apart) , turn off the power and strain the sauce from the meat and vegetables through a sieve into a bowl. Put the meat and veg to one side
- Meanwhile, in a nom stick pan melt the butter and add the flour and stir to make a roux and cook for 1 minute
- Add the sauce and heat gently and it will thicken - add some balck pepper for seasoning
- Add the chicken and vegetables and it is ready to serve
This was soooo delicious and all the family enjoyed this one – even if Burton was reluctant to try it at first! (Nothing new there then!). It was so good infact that I plan to make it again this weekend when my Dad is down! Not only is this a tasty meal but using the slow cooker makes it so easy and the thigh meat so tender. A winning recipe indeed – yaaaay!
This recipe was adapted and inspired by one entitled Pot-Roasted Chicken with Apples & Cider featured in
Never done chicken in cider before! Interesting taste mix! Slow cookers are amazing! I’m making soup in mine today!
That looks delicious!
that looks great & my lot would happily eat a plateful of that!
That looks hearty and warming for such a cold day #52cookbooks