Not Just Cholent

For Saturday lunch this weekend we had company.  We don't use fire or electricity on the sabbath, and since I'm not a huge fan of leaving my oven on over the entire sabbath, or keeping a hot plate plugged in the whole time, I usually stick to cold/ room temp foods or cholent that can go in my slowcooker.  This weekend, however, I wanted to try something different from my usual beef cholent, so I looked for some chicken stew recipes online.  After much searching, I found a French Chicken Stew and figured I would give it a try.  Since I was going to be cooking it a lot longer than the 8-10 hours, I had to do some doctoring...instead of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that were diced up, I decided to use bone-in, skinless, chicken thighs so that they wouldn't dry out.  I also wanted it to be more stew-like so I added some quinoa.  And, I wanted to make sure it didn't end up dried out, so I added more water...and some white wine for added flavor.  Oh, and I adjusted the seasonings because...well because I'm almost incapable of following a recipe as it's written.

Anyway, everyone at lunch seemed to like the stew...although it's always possible that everyone is just saying it's good to be nice.  But, I do know that Henry happily ate chicken from the stew on Saturday, and then gobbled up a pretty big bowl of it today.  So, my toughest critic seemed to approve!

French Chicken Stew (adapted from topcrockpotrecipes.com)
1 cup navy beans (soak the night before, and then throw out water)
8 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 large carrots, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 tsp granulated garlic
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp ground sage
1 heaping tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp chicken consomme powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup white wine
3 cups water

Spray cooking spray in your crockpot.  Put all the ingredients in (I tend to put the beans on the bottom so if they burn it's a cheaper ingredient that's lost).  Cook on low setting for at least 12 hours.  (Mine cooked for about 20 hours).

Happy and (mostly) healthy eating!