My daughter and her husband were flying in from a holiday Malaysia last Monday night – their first wedding anniversary celebrated with this overseas destination. And judging by the luggage plenty of shopping was done 🙂 as well as sight seeing.

The one thing you can guarantee in Auckland is the traffic will be appalling – and then add air travel and the likelihood of the flight being on time – I thought to put my slow cooker to work. At least dinner would be on time and waiting for us when we got home from the airport with our tired intrepid travellers, and meals in a slow cooker can not ruin if they stay cooking a bit longer than planned!

For this tasty Moroccan Chicken casserole you will need the following ingredients to serve 4 adults:

• 8 chicken thighs bone in trimmed of excess fat
• 1 teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon minced ginger
• ½ teaspoon minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon cumin spice
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika

Place chicken and all of the above ingredients into a bowl and mix everything together well. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1-teaspoon  ground coriander
• 3 teaspoons garlic minced
• 1-teaspoon ginger minced
• 1-teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 small bay leaves
• ½ tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 medium onion sliced
• 1 can canned diced tomatoes
• ½ cup green olives
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 canned chickpeas rinsed and drained
• ¾-cup chicken stock or water

Place canned tomatoes in the slow cooker base.
When ready to cook heat up a large pan with about 2 tablespoon oil, and then brown the chicken about 3-5 for about minutes until chicken is golden brown: remove and place in the crockpot. Drain any excess oil from the skillet
Add onions, garlic, smoked paprika, cumin, coriander. Salt and add cayenne pepper to taste. Stir for about 1 or 2, for the flavors to come together and bloom.
Then add to crockpot, deglaze pan with about ¾ cup of water and to slow cooker, together with chickpeas and olives
Cover and cook on high for about 4 hours.

We had a serving of mashed potatoes and green vegetables with our chicken, however I would normally serve this with couscous.

After two flights, 13 hours plus flying time and about 8,807 kilometres – our intrepid travellers tucked into this ‘comfort food’ dinner, and after a hot shower, crashed!

With the colder weather now, get the slow cooker into action and give this chicken dish a go. The family will appreciate the warm aromatics when they walk in the door after work or sports practice on a cold winters night.

Happy slow cooking xx