Slow Cooker Sunday! Stoutly Chicken Stew

Tags

chicken & Guinness stew, chicken stew, flaky pastry crust, Guinness Stew, living in england, slow cooker, slow cooker sunday, Stout & Chicken stew, tender meat

If I bring home Guinness, not only is my husband automatically excited but we know that dinner is going to be pretty tasty, which is exactly what this turned out to be.

Living in England has truly been a gift and one of the best meals that we enjoy every so often is lunch or dinner in a pub. I judge each pub by their steak & ale pie or chicken & stout pie. A perfect one will have tender meat with the subtle after taste of a nice, local ale and a crispy round of buttery, flaky pastry crust on top all in it’s own individual dish.

one tasty broth…

This is one of the dishes that I am working on getting just right so when we leave here, we can still indulge in some of our favorite dishes – taking the comfort of our favorite foods from each place with us.

the girls,… “helping”….

For the slow-cooker, this dish is fairly forgiving. Feel free to include or exclude any of the veggies that you like – if there was room for it, we would have added fresh peas in the last half hour of cooking. I also opted not to cut up the chicken, but keeping them whole so one whole thigh could be served with each bowl full. And because we are working on our Eat the Pantry Challenge, I baked out some Pillsbury biscuits we had in the fridge to have with it and it was perfect for sopping up the stoutly broth at the bottom of the bowl.

the slow-cooker, a bit more full than we would like… but tasty lookin’ nonetheless!!

For Mei, we cooked up some simple white rice to have with it and that was good for soaking up the broth as well – she ate all the veggies in it and her rice, it was a really good meal for the entire family!

Note: if the stew is a little too bitter once you have made it or after re-warming the next day, add just a teaspoon or two of sugar and it will return to the same level of flavor it was when it was first made and cut any bitterness.

Ingredients:

• 6 TBS all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cajun seasoning mix
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 lbs chicken, boneless & skinless
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 1 TBS bacon fat
• one 14 oz can of Guinness or other stout ale
• 1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
• 1 head of celery, chopped
• I small head of cabbage, chopped medium
• 8 oz of mushrooms, quartered
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1/2 lb potatoes, diced
• 2-3 C broth

Heat the olive oil & bacon fat in a medium saucepan then whisk in the flour and toast until it smells nutty and turns a light brown color, over medium heat.

Slowly pour in the 2-3 cups of broth until it is as thin as you would like. Stir in the salt, pepper, cajun seasoning, thyme, rosemary and garlic powder. Then stir in the Guinness or stout that you have chosen.

In the crockpot, put in the carrots, celery, cabbage, mushrooms, onion and potatoes, stirring them together and lightly seasoning with salt and pepper. Place the chicken on top, seasoning each piece with salt and pepper.

Pour the broth over the mixture and cook for 4-6 HOURS on HIGH or 7-8 HOURS on LOW.

Once the chicken has been cooked through, check the broth for seasoning, if it is too thick, add just a little bit more broth to thin it out or add milk. We added about one cup of milk to ours and it was very creamy tasting without being too rich and overshadowing the Guinness.

Butternut & Onion Squash Soup

Tags

butternut squash, butternut squash soup, creme fraiche, onion squash, squash soup, sweet potato, winter soup

This is a great soup for a cold, dreary wintry day!

It comes together very quickly and has a lovely balance of sweetness from the squash and sweet potatoes with a subtle layer of heat from the chili powder and some wintry warmth from the cinnamon and nutmeg.

In short? A perfect soup!

We had this with grilled cheese sandwiches and ate at least three quarts the first night! The bowls seemed to magically re-fill themselves, and the cold dollop of sour cream on top added a great coolness to the piping hot soup that made this even more irresistible!

Ingredients:

• 2 butternut squash – peeled, seeded and chopped into equal pieced cubes
• 1 onion squash – peeled, seeded and chopped into equal pieced cubes
• 400 g or 1/2 lb sweet potatoes – peeled and cubed
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves of ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 TBS fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 3 TBS butter
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 dashes of chili powder (or more to taste)
• 1 dash of ground cinnamon
• 1 dash of nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4-6 C of chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/4 C cream (can be heavy or light)
• sour cream or creme fraiche for garnish

Heat the oil and butter in a large soup pot until bubbling and sizzling. Then add the garlic and ginger cooking over medium heat until fragrant and soft. Add the onion and cook until just soft.

Then add the butternut, onion squash, and sweet potato cubes, stirring until they are coated and glistening. Add the chili powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir to combine the spices then add enough broth to cover everything.

Cover and bring to a boil. Then remove the lid and cook until the squash is fork-tender. Remove from the heat then use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth. Alternatively you can transfer small batches of the soup to a blender and blend it to your liking that way. You can also remove 1/3 or more of the cubes of squash, setting them aside then blend the rest of the soup and add the chunks back in.

Once the soup is blended to your liking, add the cream and stir to thoroughly combine. Check for salt and pepper again and if necessary, re-heat. Serve piping hot with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream and a dash of cayenne pepper – if you would like a little more heat in your soup!