Slow Cooker Chipotle-Lime Chicken Thighs Jamaican Rice and Beans

I love my crock pot, but I often get tired of the usual crock pot recipes because they all tend to be so similar: chicken with potatoes and carrots; beef with potatoes and carrots, pork with potatoes and carrots. You get the picture. If you also feel this way, you will LOVE this new recipe! It is a great dish, easy, easy, easy and so pretty on the plate. It's so great looking and tasting I would easily feel comfortable serving this to guests. As a bonus, my kids even liked this. I have to give credit where credit is due, so a big thank you to Robin Miller from foodnetwork.com! for this great recipe! I halved this recipe, but I would really recommend doing the whole thing. It would warm up great, and chicken thighs are so small that we could have had more. Note: there are two recipes here, one for chicken and one for rice, which is not in the slow cooker, but is really easy and quick. *I added some notes at the bottom from when I cooked this dish.*

What you need:

For the chicken

1 cup sliced onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
4 lbs skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 (15-oz) can tomato sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1 Tbs minced chipotle chilies in adobo sauce with 1 tsp of the sauce from the can
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 avocado, diced
cilantro, chopped and stems for garnish
Lime wedges for garnish

Put the onion, celery, and carrots on the bottom of your crock pot. Season the thighs with salt and pepper and place on top of veggies.

In a medium bowl, combine tomato sauce, lime juice, chipotle chilies with sauce, and garlic. Pour over chicken.

Cover crock pot, cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Serve topped with avocados and cilantro.


Jamaican Rice with Beans:

2 cups instant white rice
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
1 cup water
1 (15 oz) can red beans, drained
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp finely grated lime zest
1/4 cup chopped scallions
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a medium saucepan, combine rice, coconut milk, water, beans, thyme and lime zest. Set pan over high heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce to low, cover and simmer 5 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. Fold in scallions and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Ok, my notes:

I did all it said for the chicken. But with the time range, I think done on low for 6 hours would be the best and make the thighs really tender and flavorful. If I wasn't feeding a baby, I could have used more chipotle chilies. It would have kicked it up a nice bit.

Some of the ingredients are a bit pricey (ie coconut milk, chipotle chilies), so I poured the rest of the chilies and their sauce into a freezer bag. They're all ready to go for next time. Oh, and there will be a next time. The coconut milk? I tell myself it's ok to splurge a little sometimes.

For the rice, I used jasmine rice instead of instant. I think it has better flavor. But, if you do this, you need to increase your cooking time up to about 15-20 minutes (follow your package directions). Be sure and season it very well. Salt and pepper just seem to be absorbed back into this dish with not a lot of flavor remaining, so season well. Last thing, I love cilantro in almost anything, so I added cilantro to my rice on my own plate (my hubby and kids aren't as nutzo about cilantro as I am). Oh yeah, dish all that yummy sauce left over in your crock pot into a bowl and serve it on the table. It's awesome poured over the rice.