Slow cooked Caribbean chicken, beans & rice
If you like pulled pork .......
Low Sugar
Gluten Free
3 of 5 A-Day
Slow cooked Caribbean chicken, beans & rice
Servings:
6
Ready In:
10 mins prep + 7-9 hours cook
Good For:
Anytime
About this Recipe
I love this recipe all year round. The flavours lend themselves to the summer, yet the texture is so comforting its a great dish for colder months too. Its also a great dish for entertaining, batch cooking, & leftovers.
Chicken thighs are better for slow cooking as they don't dry out and have much more flavour than chicken breast.
This flavoursome dish can also be made vegan by leaving out the chicken.
Ingredients
- 200g short grain brown rice
- 8 bone-in organic chicken thighs (optional skin on)
- 4 tsp jerk spice mix
- 1 tbsp oil of your choice
- Zest & juice of 1 lime
- 2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- A thumbnail piece of ginger, peeled
- 1 tin of full fat coconut milk
- 400ml chicken stock
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 40g dried mango, cut up small
- 2 large courgettes, diced
- 1 tin of aduki or kidney beans
- 2 carrots, grated
- 200g frozen peas
- 200g frozen sweetcorn, or strip the corn off 2 fresh corn on the cobs
- Fresh coriander to serve
Method
- Start the night before by soaking the rice in 1 bowl,
- I prefer to cut as much skin off the chicken as I can, but that is up to you. The chicken is better marinated, the can also be done the night before or at least 4 hours before cooking. Mix 2 tsp of jerk spice mix with the oil and 2tsp lime juice, season. Thoroughly spread over the chicken, cover & keep refrigerated
- Just before you want to start cooking, in a bowl or large jug mix place the onion, garlic, celery & ginger + the coconut milk, & remaining 2 tsp jerk spice. Whizz with a hand blender if you have fussy eaters in your family who pick out vegetables.
- Pour this into the slow cooker then refill the tin with chicken stock & pour this in too. Add the chicken pieces, mango, peanut butter, courgette, & then cover & leave for about 6-7 hours, depending on how quickly your slow cooker cooks. The rice is ready to be added when the chicken is starting to fall off the bone.
- About 75 minutes before you want to eat drain & rinse the rice well. Add this to the slow cooker along with the grated carrot. Stir well.
- Check on this after about 40 minutes, stir well, add the zest & remaining lime juice, beans, peas & sweetcorn.
- After approx. another 35—40 minutes it should be ready. Season, add a handful of chopped coriander and serve.
Health Benefits
Onion, garlic, celery—This basic stock base is great for the gut (prebiotic fibre), reducing blood pressure, the heart. Multitude of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Celery is a great detoxifier. Garlic is nature’s own antibiotic. Onions contain potential cancer fighting compounds.
Brown rice—rice forms the main grain diet for more than half the world’s population. Popular with coeliacs as it is gluten free. A source of Vitamins B & E, plus brown rice is high in fibre. Soaking in advance helps eradicate the trace elements of arsenic, & makes it easier to cook & digest.
Beans & lentils - Great for the heart, steadying blood sugar levels, satiety levels and energy, fibre. They have high levels of polyphenols in the darker beans, and count as 1 of your 5 a day. High in folate, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, copper & iron.
Chicken—a good source of lean protein (30g of protein for every 100g of chicken). Also rich is selenium (good for your moods, anti-ageing, increasing immunity), Vitamins A, B & D. Cooked low and slow like this with the bones in this dish is great for the gut, full of prebiotics & fibre.
Coconut milk— thought to be great for the brain, immunity, and is anti-viral. High in saturated fat (which makes it very filling). an area of much current research which indicates this works in a better way in the body that saturated animal fat.
