Caribbean Slow Cooker Chicken and Beans

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Caribbean Slow Cooker Chicken and Beans

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken and Bean Stew simmered with garlic, onions, tomatoes, ginger, thyme and Caribbean spices. Comfort food never tasted so good! Pull out your slow cooker cause you're going to want to make this ASAP!

Servings:

Calories: 586kcal

Author: Immaculate Bites

Ingredients

Chicken rub:

2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons paprika

Remaining ingredients:

2 ½ pounds bone-in chicken thighs
2 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 ½ tablespoons garlic minced
3 green onions whites and greens separated, sliced thin
1 ½ teaspoon fresh thyme
2 teaspoon fresh ginger minced
½ teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 small scotch bonnet pepper seeded and minced; use jalapeno if you want less heat
2 15 ounce cans beans rinsed and drained, or 4 cups of cooked beans such as Domingo Rojo
2 cups chicken broth or more
3 medium tomatoes chopped
1 large bay leaf
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder optional
salt to taste
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
white pepper to taste
cilantro leaves or parsley, fresh, optional

Instructions

Prepare the beans:

If using dried beans, soak and cook ahead of time.

Prepare the chicken:

Mix chicken rub ingredients together in a small bowl.
Trim chicken thighs of any excess skin around the edges then poke the skin of each thigh about 10 times with a skewer or paring knife to help render more fat from the skin while browning.
Place chicken thighs in a large bowl. Then season generously with the chicken rub.

Brown the chicken and sauté the aromatics:

When ready to cook, heat up a skillet or large sauce pan with about 2 tablespoons oil, and then brown the chicken about 3-4 minutes per side until chicken is golden brown.
Place the chicken in the crockpot. Drain any excess oil from the skillet and leave about 2 Tablespoons of oil or add more if needed.
Add the onions, garlic, green onion whites, scotch bonnet, thyme, ginger, cumin, paprika, and allspice, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add to crockpot.
Stir in beans, chicken broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, bouillon powder, and salt. Cover and cook on high for about 3-4 hours.

Finish and serve:

Remove the chicken and allow it to cool enough to handle, then remove the skin and shred the chicken. Discard the skin and bones.
Stir the shredded chicken back into the beans.
Garnish the beans with green onion and serve with cornbread.

Stove top method:

Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 35 minutes or more until chicken is tender and has reached desired consistency.
Adjust seasonings and thickness of soup according to preference with broth and spices.
Remove shredded chicken, if desired, and serve warm with corn bread. Garnish with parsley ,green onions or cilantro.

Notes

Since slow cookers mellow out the flavors of spices, it’s always good to adjust your spices as needed towards the end of the cooking.
If you don’t own a slow cooker, you can always make this stovetop too, it’s just that easy and practical. Just follow the same instructions and instead of, adding everything into the pot, you add some stock, bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and let it simmer. Until chicken cooked through. Easy!
When adding chicken, it is a great idea to brown the chicken first, for a few minutes, sauté the garlic, onions, and other spices on the stovetop, before adding to the crockpot. Seriously adds flavor.
If you want to throw everything in the crockpot and cook away, that’s fine too, but sauté and I always brown before adding to slow cooker.

Nutrition