Slow cooker Basque chicken and rice

Since my workplace lacks Dave Care®, I’m forced to leave food so he doesn’t just eat peanut butter sandwiches every night. So the slow cooker gets a workout during the night stints. This recipe comes from one of my favorite crockpot recipe books. (And thanks to Jarrett for clueing me in.)

Basque Chicken and Rice Casserole

From “Ready and Waiting” by Rick Rodgers. See the full original recipe here.

Ingredients:

10 pieces of chicken

1 lemon, juiced

1 cup chopped ham

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 minced garlic cloves

2½ cup water

1¾ cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 pinch saffron threads

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¾ teaspoon salt

2 cups rice

Method:

Brown the chicken pieces in enough hot olive oil to mostly coat the bottom of a large skillet. Remove from pan to a plate. Squeeze lemons over chicken and set aside.

In same pan, add ham, onion, red bell pepper, and garlic, cooking until onions are softened. Transfer that mixture to the slow cooker. Top with water, broth and spices.

Stir in the rice, then top with chicken. (Put white pieces on top of dark, if using.) Cook in slow cooker for 5 to 6 hours on low.

This is from a fun little book with 160 recipes for the slow cooker, and not a cream-of-soup ingredient in sight. All the ones I’ve tried so far are just slow-cooked real food, the kind you’d make in a Dutch oven on the stove top if you were home on a cold winter’s day.

Since I wasn't home for the big reveal, I'll have to take Dave's word on how it turned out originally. I can attest that it made perfectly tasty leftovers even cold when I sampled it when I got home.