Slow Cooker Chicken and Beans

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken and Bean Stew simmered with garlic, onions, tomatoes, ginger, thyme and Caribbean spices. Comfort food never tasted so good! Pull out your slow cooker cause you're going to want to make this ASAP!

Course Main

Cuisine Caribbean

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 4

Total Time 4 15

Servings

Calories 480kcal

Author Imma

Ingredients

2 – 2 1/2 pounds chicken breast or thighs
2- tablespoon canola oil
1 onion finely chopped
2-3 green onion diced
1 small jalapeno pepper seeded and minced (use scotch bonnet pepper if you want more heat)
1-1/2 Tablespoons minced garlic
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon cumin spice
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 teaspoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 large bay leaf
¼-½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2-3 medium tomato chopped
4 cups cooked beans or 1-2 15oz. cans rinse and drained
2 cups chicken broth or more
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder optional
Salt and white pepper to taste
Fresh cilantro/parsley leaves optional

Instructions

Place chicken thighs in a large bowl. Then season with your preferred seasoning, salt or marinate with garlic, ginger, paprika, white pepper and thyme.
When ready to cook, heat up a skillet or large sauce pan with about 2 tablespoons oil, and then brown the chicken about 3-4 minutes until chicken is golden brown. Remove and place in the crockpot. Drain any excess oil from the skillet and leave about 2 Tablespoons of oil or add more if needed.
Add the onions, garlic, green onions, thyme, ginger,cumin, paprika, all spice, jalapeño and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add to crockpot.
Then add beans, chicken broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, bouillon powder, and salt. Cover and cook on high for about 3-4 hours.

Stove top method

Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 35 minutes or more until chicken is tender and has reached desired consistency.
Adjust seasonings and thickness of soup according to preference with broth and spices.
Remove shredded chicken, if desired, and serve warm with corn bread. Garnish with parsley ,green onions or cilantro.

Notes

Since slow cookers mellow out he flavors of spices, it’s always good to adjust your spices as needed towards the end of the cooking.
If you don’t own a slow cooker, you can always make this stovetop too, it’s just that easy and practical. Just follow the same instructions and instead of, adding everything into the pot, you add some stock, bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and let it simmer. Until chicken cooked through. Easy!
When adding chicken, it is a great idea to brown the chicken first, for a few minutes, sauté the garlic, onions and other spices stove top, before adding to the crockpot. Seriously adds flavor.
If you want to throw everything in the crockpot and cook away, that’s fine too, but sauté and I always brown before adding to slow cooker.

Nutrition