Chicken Tagine in the slow cooker

serves 4-6

1.2 kg chicken pieces, drumsticks or a whole chicken

2 medium onions, sliced thickly

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tsp paprika

3 tsp ground cumin (you can use whole cumin seeds, just lightly toast and grind up)

½ tsp ground turmeric (you can use fresh-2 tsp if you have it, just peel and finely grate)

½ tsp ground coriander (you can use whole seeds and toast with cumin seeds)

1 tsp ground ginger (you can use fresh- 2tsp, just peel and finely grate)

A pinch of saffron threads

2 cups of chicken stock

1 cinnamon quill, broken in half (or 1 tsp ground cinnamon)

1-2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

I like to add ½ cup of a dried mix of apricot/prunes/dates but you can leave this out

Vegetable of your choice: I use carrots, zucchini and potato/sweet potato. Simply halve the carrot and zucchini; you want them chunky so they do not turn into complete mush! Have you potato a similar size, so it may be in half or quarters depending on size. Alternatively just leave out these vegetable and have steamed vegetables on the side when the chicken is done. If you want 3 serves of veg use 225g veg per person (75g= 1 serve) So for 4 people cut up 2 medium carrots, 2 medium zucchini, and 2 medium potatoes.

Method

Place your vegetables in the bottom and then the chicken. Put all the spices in with the stock, mix then pour over the chicken. Follow your slow cooker instructions. Usually 4-5 hours on high and 7-8 hours on low. When the chicken is done I like to take all the chicken and veg out and then drain the liquid off then put in a pan a reduce the liquid until it is thick like a gravy and then drizzle the gravy over your dinner.