Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs and Carrots and Thai Basil Chicken Soup

I first shared this post back in 2013, and not much has changed since then. 🙂 I still make 2 affordable organic dinners this way, changing up the soup every other time. You can make the soup as follows, or you can use this technique and make the soup with different ingredients. OR you can take the broth as directed below, and use it to make one of the soups in the soup chapter of my book, Easy Paleo Meals.

January is the perfect time to make these 2 dinners, because if you’re like me you’re probably over all of the cooking that you did for the holidays. These dinners practically make themselves 🙂

Here is an example of how quickly and affordably you can make 2 or 3 dinners in your crock pot.

Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs and Carrots

Ingredients:
8 (or more) chicken thighs
2 handfuls (or more) carrots, scrubbed, tops removed
sprinkle of sea salt
pinch of onion powder
dash of balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Lay the chicken in the crock pot and sprinkle with sea salt and onion powder. Add a dash of balsamic.
2. Turn the crock pot on to 4 hours high.
3. After 3 hours lay the carrots on top of the chicken and sprinkle them with sea salt and onion powder. Note: These are skinny carrots. If your carrots are thick, then they will need 2 or 3 hours to cook.
4. When the last hour has passed remove the carrots and transfer the chicken to a broiler pan.
5. Use your broiler to brown the tops of the chicken skin. This only takes a minute or so. Watch carefully so they don’t burn.
6. I like to spoon some of the fat from the bottom of the crock pot over the chicken and carrots on each plate. (Just writing this makes my mouth water.) A dash more of balsamic on each plate is also delish.
7. Serve with salad or another side.

Keep the chicken bones for the following recipes.

Broth:

Use those leftover bones to make broth! Throw the bones back into the crock pot with any leftover juices. Add an onion, some peeled cloves of garlic, a dash of apple cider vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, then fill the crock pot mostly full with water. Set it to 10 hours low. In the morning strain the broth and add Herbamare to taste.

Now that you have your broth you can make soup!

Thai Basil Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
1 (13 oz) can coconut milk
about 1 inch fresh peeled ginger (or more to taste)
about 1/4 cup fresh Thai basil
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 & 1/2 cups packed fresh spinach
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup finely chopped carrots (about 3 whole carrots)
about 2 cups, cabbage, finely chopped
4 cups chicken stock (recipe above)
about 2 pounds chicken breast
Juice of 1 lime

Note: This makes enough for leftovers. You can cut it in half if you prefer (or if you have a small crock pot).

Directions:

1. Blend the coconut milk, ginger, basil, salt, and spinach until smooth. Set aside.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (onion, pepper, carrots, cabbage, broth, and chicken) to the crock pot.
3. Pour the puree from the blender in with the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot, and set it to 4 hours high.
4. After 2 hours crack the lid an inch so that it can reduce slightly for the rest of the time.
5. When another 2 hours have passed turn the crock pot off, shred the chicken.
6. Add the lime juice and serve the soup.

We ate our soup with a side of butternut squash that, yes… I cooked in the crock pot 🙂

To cook butternut squash in the crock pot, place the whole squash inside. Don’t cut or poke it. Add 2 cups of water and set to 4 hours high. Then, let the squash cool until you can handle it. Remove the skin and seeds. I like to let it sit in a strainer over a bowl to remove some of the moisture. You can also squeeze it in a clean dry kitchen towel. To see how I sometimes top my butternut squash click HERE. SERIOUS yum.

So there you have it— I hope you enjoy these recipes!