Chicken and chorizo in a rich tomato sauce with a subtle warmth, this Slow Cooker Chicken & Chorizo Stew is perfect for a cold winter night served with rice or tortillas and salad and a dollop of soured cream.
My love of Mexican food is no secret and I am constantly thinking of new recipe ideas whether it is adapting traditional recipes or using Mexican flavors to come up with yummy dishes of my own. This Slow Cooker Chicken & Chorizo Stew is by no means traditional, it just borrows some delicious Mexican flavours to make a comforting and tasty dish.
There are always chicken thighs in my freezer and chorizo in my fridge. I love chicken thighs because they have so much flavour. I must admit I always prefer leg and thigh meat on a roast chicken, breast is very tasty but has nothing on thigh meat in my option. Thighs are also great in slow cooker dishes because they don’t dry out as easily as breast meat can.
With the chorizo, I am lucky that my parents often bring me a delicious ring back from their trips to Fuerteventura. You can buy a normal or spicy chorizo, so buy whichever you fancy. The rings to tend to have a papery covering to make sure you peel this off before you cut it up.
Even though I have quite a collection of chile powders, I realise that not everyone does. So with this recipe I have tried to keep it to chile powders and flakes that I have seen in supermarket. If you still can’t find them, it isn’t the end of the world and you can just substitute it with any chile powder you have, just use less if it is hot and more if it is very mild. I love to use Mexican oregano because it has a citrus flavour but again, if you don’t have this normal oregano will be great.
As I haven’t browned the chicken off before adding it to the slow cooker, the chicken will shred really easily and become almost part of the sauce. If you would prefer the chicken to remain in chunks, either skip the shredding step or cut the chicken up and brown it at the same time as the chorizo. As with most dishes, you can adapt this to your tastes.
Slow Cooker Chicken & Chorizo Stew
Chicken and chorizo in a rich tomato sauce with a subtle warmth, this Slow Cooker Chicken & Chorizo Stew is perfect for a cold winter night served with rice or tortillas and salad and a dollop of soured cream.
Ingredients
- 100 g chorizo
- 3 peppers sliced
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 500 g chicken thighs deboned and skinless
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ancho chile flakes
- ½ tsp chipotle chile powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 300 ml water
- 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
Instructions
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Remove the 'skin' from the chorizo and fry either in a dry pan or in your slow cooker basin on the hob (you’ll know if your slow cooker has this function). You just want the chorizo to get slightly browned and release its oil
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Add the sliced peppers to your slow cooker along with the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic and water and stir everything together
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If they aren’t already, debone your chicken thighs and remove the skin.
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Sprinkle both sides of the chicken thighs with the oregano, paprika, chile flakes, salt and pepper and then lay them on top of the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker
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Cook for 4 hours on high or 6 on low before removing the chicken. Shred the chicken before adding back to the slow cooker and stirring everything together
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If you want the sauce to thicken, add the cornflour and water mix and stir through
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Cook for a further 30 mins and serve either with rice, salad or tortillas and sprinkle with chives or spring onions and some feta
Recipe Notes
I use a 3.5L slow cooker
Even if I buy chicken thighs de-boned and skinless, I always check them over to trim of any excess fat, remove any veins and check for any small bones that may have been missed
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Oh yum! This looks amazing – so rich and full of flavour! It’s definitely my kind of meal.
It’s so lovely and comforting 🙂
Thanks for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice as well!
Yum this looks so rich and deep in colour and flavour! The Slow Cooked Challenge is now open for December and this would be a marvellous addition to it if you fancy joining in 😉
Thanks 🙂 I missed November’s because I didn’t have a new slow cooker recipe to link up, but I will definitely be over to link this one up soon x
Thanks very much Cat for joining in! I just love the look of this dish, will try it this month I think, we all love chorizo here.
Thanks 🙂
YES PLEASE! This is absolutely my kind of recipe – so many of my favourite flavours!! Very jealous of you having your parents bringing you back lovely edible goodies from Spain. And I totally agree about the chicken thighs – so much tastier than breast meat and so much better in a slow cooked dish like this – I love the way you can shred them and, as you say, they become part of the sauce – mmmm! Thanks for linking this up to #CookBlogShare. Eb x
I know I’m very lucky. I was so happy with how this recipe turned out – definitely going to be a regular in my house!x
I’m always on the look out for slow cooker meals with a thick, tasty sauce – I think this one is going to go down well in our house, thank you . We always go for thigh over breast, the family prefer the taste and its cheaper too x
Yay for the thigh fans! Hope you enjoy 🙂 x
This look absolutely delicious, I really love the flavours you’ve used. I don’t have a slow cooker, can this be made in a pot in the oven instead?
Thank you 🙂 Absolutely it would work just as well in the oven 🙂 x
Looks delicious perfect for this cold weather atm.
It is indeed. Perfect anytime though really!
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