Crock Pot Moroccan Chicken

It is crock pot season!  My new goal is to fit in some healthy home cooking by doing a quick grocery shopping on Tuesday nights (my grocery store has cheese plates and wine that you can enjoy there, so it's not too bad), and to throw things together Wednesday morning for consumption the rest of the week.  It had to be planned because things have gotten so busy schedule-wise in my house that we found ourselves eating take-out just too often.

One of my favorite recent recipes (and these are so easy) is this Moroccan Chicken with sweet potatoes.  One of my students came in for lesson and said, "It smells even better today!"  So.

Moroccan Chicken
A perfect five syllables
A tasty haiku

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs bone-in skinless chicken thighs (if you can have a glass of wine while the butcher at your grocery store skins the chicken for you - even better)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (this is a new addition to my spice drawer)
• salt and ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 15oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1 15oz can white kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• cooked couscous or quinoa for serving
• sliced almonds to garnish

1. In a large ziplock bag or tupperware, combine chicken thighs with cumin, coriander, pumpkin-pie spice and 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper.  Refrigerate overnight.
2. In slow cooker bowl, combine chicken brother, tomatoes, beans, sweet potato, onion and apricots.  Place chicken in slow cooker bowl on top of vegetables.
3. Cover and cook 5 hours on low or until chicken is cooked through or until you get home from work later.  At this point, you could remove the chicken and debone it and skim and discard the fat from the cooking liquid.  Or you could just call it a day and dig in.
4. Serve chicken and vegetables over cooked couscous or quinoa, drizzle cooking liquid over to and garnishing with sliced almonds.