Slow Cooker Peasant Stew

This Slow Cooker Peasant Stew is comfort food at its finest (and cheapest). It's just tomatoes, beans, and chicken, which doesn't sound like much but with the right Mexican inspired spices and a slow cooker, this turns into everyone's favorite warm dinner. Simple flavors, perfect weeknight dinner. 

It snowed just north of here this morning, and although we didn't actually get any snow here, we awoke to an icy cold wind and grey skies. This would be a lovely portent of winter if I hadn't found myself standing outside in my underwear and a bathrobe and a pair of boots pumping gas in that icy wind before 9 AM. No mistaking me for that mom who has it all together. Nope.

In my defense, I did get the kids to school on time. And they had clothes on.

It's definitely a comfort food kind of day.

This Slow Cooker Peasant Stew is pretty much perfect. In fact, simpler perfection would be hard to find. It's an inexpensive Slow Cooker meal that's short on ingredients and time, but always hits just the right spot. 

Though you could just throw everything into the crock pot for this one, I do think that taking an extra 5 minutes and browning the chicken goes a long way towards making this a really delicious meal. Other than that, just dump, stir, and let the crock pot do the heavy lifting.

As long as the weather keeps blustering around out there, I'm planning on eating many warm bowls of Peasant Stew - no complaints from the kids.

Yield: 6

Slow Cooker Peasant Stew

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Prep Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1.5 lbs)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 (10 oz) cans Rotel (Diced Tomatoes and Green Chile), undrained
• 1 (16 oz) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (16 oz) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• ⅓ cup fresh cilantro
• Sour Cream for serving

Instructions

1. Rub the chicken thighs with cumin, sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken thighs and cook about 5 minutes or until browned on all sides.
2. Pour undrained cans of Rotel into slow cooker. Stir in onion. Place browned chicken on top and cook on Low for 3 to 4 hours. Add in the beans and cook for an additional hour.
3. Serve with fresh cilantro and sour cream.

Notes

Adapted from Cooking Light 2012