Award Winner! Paula Deen chose this one for her slow cooker contest!
This takes a little prep, but is really good and low calorie too!
Ingredients:
- 8 Chicken Thighs, skin removed
- 2 TBPS Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 or 2 Poblano Peppers (the big dark green ones)
- 1 Onion (I use yellow) cut into medium sized chunks
- 2-3 cloves of Garlic, smashed or chopped
- 2 heaping tsp. ground Cumin
- 1 can of Diced Tomatoes
- 1 cup Chicken Broth
- 1 cup Orange Juice
- 1 tsp. Salt and add pepper to taste.
- Stems from one bunch of Cilantro, chopped finely
- 1 Sweet Potato, (the darker fleshed, red skin kind)
- 2 TBSP. Tabasco Chipotle Sauce
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 2 green onions, finely sliced
- Cilantro leaves to taste
Steps:
Heat olive oil in heavy pan, salt and pepper the chicken thighs liberally, then brown in pan, a few at a time, about 4 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan and set inside the slow cooker. ***
While chicken is cooking, char the poblano pepper. I put it over the gas flame on my stove, but you can do this with a broiler. Set aside to cool, then peel, remove the seeds and roughly chop.
Peel sweet potato, cut into large chunks and nestle them against the walls of the slow cooker, next to the chicken.
Add onions and garlic to the hot pan and cook until softened just a little, loosening the yummy chicken bits from the pan with a wooden spoon.
Add the ground cumin and stir for about 30 seconds to release the flavor, then add the poblano pepper, tomatoes, chicken broth, orange juice and cilantro stems. Stir and let it just come to a boil then pour on top of the chicken and sweet potatoes.
Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and cover to keep warm. Use an immersion blender to blend everything left into a smooth sauce. If you use a blender instead, only fill it half way with the hot liquids to blend in batches, otherwise, it might explode all over your kitchen (and you).
Stir in 1-2 Tbsp. of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce, season with salt to taste. Serve sauce under or over chicken and garnish with cilantro leaves and finely slices green onions. Serve with rice if you want to add some carbs. Leftover sauce can be soup the next day.
***If you don’t have a slow cooker, cook in the oven in a covered heavy stockpot for 2 1/2 hours at 300 degrees.