Chicken in Lemon and Olives, Slow Cooker or Stovetop

Now I’ve made this recipe many times in many different versions and frankly have loved them all but I decided to make this in the slow cooker/crockpot to see if I’d be as pleased with the results as cooking on the stovetop. Lemme tell you, if you have a slow cooker, do this. It’s ridiculously easy and produced the same results as cooking on the stovetop.

Let me clarify something here, you do not only not need to sear (brown) the chicken here, you should not. It’s not the way it’s cooked and the idea is super soft chicken with a lemony yellow color (from the turmeric) and it melds with the spices and vegetables into a delectable sauce. Make sure to make a simple rice dish to go with so you can pour some sauce on top. And of course, bread/pita/challah to sop the divine sauce as well.

Okay, so it’s actually not a complicated dish at all. Start with your tomato and onion.

You will finely chop or julienne either by hand, a mandoline (above) or in a food processor if you wish the tomato and the onion, like so:

So the tomato less so since it’ll cook down easily but the onion must be fine, we want it to sorta melt into the sauce. No browning onions!!! No no no, it’ll give the wrong flavor and aren’t you happy you don’t have to sautee anything? K. Remember, you can do this on the stovetop as well, but in the 8 liter/quart crockpot I have, I’m able to prepare 9 pieces of chicken which I could never fit into a regular frying pan, one more advantage. Place the tomato and onion into a slow cooker (or cooking bag suited for slow cooking) and then put in the bunch of parsley, garlic and turmeric, black pepper, pinch of ground ginger, hint of cumin (really, this should be a subtle amount, not pronounced) and paprika.

Note above, I added grated lemon peel from 1/2 a lemon and juice of half a lemon for an added touch of lemony flavor, and DON’T add the olives now, just towards the end. Just a warning. If you add the olives from the very beginning, it will give the dish an overly salty and slightly bitter flavor. You really don’t want this. You want a harmonious blend, so add towards the end of the cooking. Patience is a virtue. K. Now add the olive oil, this is necessary even though you are gently simmering the chicken for both flavor and the texture of the sauce, so don’t skip it. Now I nearly always have some chicken stock in my freezer (lucky I still had some) so I use that as the liquid but you can use water or add a tablespoon of chicken soup powder to the water and it’s pretty good too. Add about 2 cups of the liquid to the vegetables and stir.

You see? It’s already a lovely sauce.

FOR STOVETOP:

Do all the above but in a deep wide pan with a cover. Add the chicken to the sauce and gently bring to the boil and immediately lower to very low simmer. Cook about 1 hour till chicken is soft and then add the rinsed drained olives (as explained below) and cook another 1/2 hour or so or till chicken is super soft.

For crockpot/slow cooker continue here:

Turn the crockpot to high and take your cleaned chicken (no need to pat dry) and submerge into the liquid. If you have a 6 liter/quart crockpot, you probably can only fit 6 full thigh/drumsticks in there so beware.

As you can see, the chicken pieces were placed skin side down quite on purpose since you want them colored by the liquid, no pale faced chickens for us. Also, don’t worry that the liquid isn’t covering the chicken completely since as it cooks it will give up it’s own liquid and will mostly cover it. However, do press down firmly to try to submerge at least the tops. Now cover the slow cooker and let cook on high for 4 hours or till chicken is soft.

Now while this is happening you take your can of pitted green olives, drain them and (carefully! don’t burn yourself) pour very hot water right into the can (do it in the sink) and using a glove for protection, pour off the liquid again. Do this 2-3 times. Canned olives are very salty and as you see, you don’t add salt to the chicken and this will give just a hint of brininess whilst the olive flavor will shine through without being overwhelmed by saltiness. So don’t skip this part. Okay. Onward. What I do so I won’t forget the olives is leave the drained can right by the slow cooker so I will spot it and not forget to add them.. After 4 hours (approximately) add the olives and stir gently into the liquid and cover and continue to cook for approximately one hour or till chicken is super soft.

Serve to very happy eaters with a bowl of rice and generously ladle the sauce over the chicken. A note, for Passover this is equally delicious served over mashed potatoes.

Chicken in Lemon and Olives, Slow Cooker or Stovetop

3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions peeled and chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
2-3 tomatoes roughly grated/chopped
Grated peel and juice of 1 small lemon
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 -1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
small bunch of washed cleaned parsley
Pinch of pepper
6 chicken thighs with drumsticks, cleaned
1 can pitted green olives with liquid drained
1 3/4- 2 cups water (you may add 1 tablespoon of chicken soup powder)/chicken stock
parsley for garnish optional

Directions:

For stovetop and/or slow cooker/crockpot prepare the sauce: If using a crockpot, I like to use the slow cooker bags to make cleanup a snap. Just sayin’. Place oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes, paprika, turmeric, ginger, parsley, lemon peel and lemon juice and pepper into deep frying pan (which has a lid) or crockpot. Add the water or chicken stock and stir well. If you wish to add depth to the cooking broth, add a tablespoon of chicken soup powder to the water. In the frying pan, add the chicken, put it skin side down, to this liquid and gently bring to boil and immediately lower to gentle simmer, covering with a lid on a tilt.
In crockpot, add chicken to liquid and put it skin side down and push gently to submerge mostly into liquid. The chicken will give up it’s own liquid as it goes along so if it seems to be missing a bit of liquid, no worries. Turn crockpot to high and cook for 4 hours.
In frying pan, cook for about an hour.

Take the whole can of pitted green olives which you have drained the liquid from, add pour very hot water right into the can (carefully!) and using a glove, pour out the liquid and do it one more time. Taste an olive to see if it’s still very salty. You may wish to do it once more. Now for both ways of cooking, add the olives. Cook in frying pan another 1/2 an hour or till chicken is super soft. Cook in crockpot an additional hour till super soft. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.