On a recent snowy day, I decided to pull out the slow cooker. Actually, it was already out, having been used to keep a pot of chile warm for a teacher appreciation luncheon at my son’s school, which is what made me think of using it. Mine is a ceramic relic from the 1970s in classic harvest gold with dirt-brown trim, a bit like Charlie Brown’s shirt. But that’s beside the point.
I don’t often use my crock-pot because I find all of my crock-pot meals kinda taste alike at the end of the day. This is one of the reasons I developed Glorious One-Pot Meals in a Dutch oven, after all.
But this time I was determined to do differently and make something exciting and fun in the crock-pot. It worked: pomegranate seeds and two kinds of mustard brought a new life and flavor to a familiar slow-cooker recipe of chicken, spinach, carrots, and potatoes.
The pomegranate seeds maintained a lot of their crunch, which three out of four eaters enjoyed, and the fourth has some sensory issues (he seemed to be more accepting when we warned and reminded him that there would be crunchies in his food, but he has always had an issue with seeds in foods. Sigh: the trials of parenting!), although he liked the flavors.
I used frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs, and frozen blocks of spinach and diced carrots. You might add more mustard for more intense flavor. Everything cooked on High for about 4 hours.
Here’s the recipe:
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Slow-cooker Chicken with Mustard and Pomegranate Seeds
6-8 chicken thighs
4 red boiler potatoes, cubed
2 10-oz packages frozen spinach, or fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped
2 10-oz packages frozen diced carrots, or fresh carrots, diced
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
3 Tbsp. country or German mustard
3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Put everything except the mustard into a slow cooker and add about 2″ of water. Mix mustard into the water until mustard is emulsified. Cook on High for 3-4 hours, or on Low for 7-8 hours.
