Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken Dinner
I am all about sharing complete meals when I can with y'all because I am always seeing recipes and I have no idea what I should make with it! So here is an amazing Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken with a couple sides you can pull together in about 30 minutes to create a Moroccan feast your tummy and family will love. I paired the chicken with some spiced carrots and toasted cauliflower rice with pine nuts and caramelized onions. My girls gobbled it up and I am sure it would be a hit with company!
This chicken, let me tell you is so freaking delicious and packed with flavor. Please do not be afraid of the list of spices, if you have to buy some, you will find that you can use them in so many different dishes. Plus spices make food so delicious and when you want to make healthy dinners, flavor is the ticket to not feeling deprived! Pairing the spices with the lemon, olives, and raisins make this a punchy and balanced flavor: sour, salty, and sweet!
This dinner makes delicious leftovers too, I used the components to create a salad that was out of this world with a little creamy balsamic dressing. This can also be portioned out for meal prep for easy lunches and dinners for the week.
Moroccan Chicken Dinner
Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken
Inspired by Simply Recipes
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 5 garlic cloves, peeled
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1 cup green olives, drained
- 1/2 fresh lemon, thinly sliced
Spiced Roasted Carrots
- 6 large carrots, washed, peeled, and sliced diagonally
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Pine Nut Cauliflower Rice
- 2 cups riced cauliflower, frozen or fresh
- 1 Tablespoon oil + 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1/4 cup pinenuts
- salt and pepper to season
- combine all the spices for the chicken, smoked paprika through nutmeg, in a small bowl. In the slow cooker, place the onions at the bottom, spread evenly. Sprinkle each chicken breast with the salt and and spice mixture on both sides. You will use all of the spice mixture on the chicken. Top with the garlic, raisins, olives, and lemon slices.
- Cook on LOW for 4-4.5 hours or HIGH 2-2.5 hours until chicken is tender.
- You can roast both sides in the oven in about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 425. Toss the carrots with the oil and spices on a small baking sheet. Then toss the cauliflower rice with 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle of salt and pepper in a small baking dish.
- While they roast, heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in a small pan on medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until browned, stirring occasionally. When the onions are ready, add the pine nuts to toast for a few minutes.
- When the carrots and cauliflower rice are ready, take them out of the oven. Add the onion and pine nut mixture to the cauliflower rice and serve.
This is a bowl of flavor, all these beautiful spices work together to create an exotic and warm flavor for your chicken. Mix it up and set aside.
Here is the layering process in your slow cooker. Roughly chop the onions, arrange evenly on the bottom, this will be the "bed" for your chicken. As you place the chicken breasts into the slow cooker, sprinkle with salt and the spice mixture, be generous. Then toss in the extra flavor bombs: garlic, raisins, olives, and thin slices from half a lemon. More lemon than that will be super potent, I've done it and regretted it! You can pop this into the fridge until you are ready or get this dinner cookin'
The carrots are simple and delicious with some of the same spices that were used in the chicken. Roasting carrots gives them such good flavor and brings out the sweetness, naturally without added sweetener.
I love when I can prep sides at the same time at the same temperature! Here are the carrots and cauliflower rice getting their roast on! Don't mind my dirty oven, real life here only!
Caramelizing the onions and toasting the pine nuts gives an immense amount of flavor and depth to simple cauliflower rice, plus that crunch cannot be beat. Serve everything family style or dish out!
My kids loved it too! My little one didn't eat the olives and my big one didn't eat the raisins but they still got all that goodness. Also, they aren't fans of cauliflower rice (weirdos) so I made some basic white rice and added some of the onion and pine nut mix to it, they loved it. Simple hacks to have what everyone needs and wants with minimal effort.
And like I mentioned, this made the most incredible salad the next day. I chopped up everything a little smaller and topped a spinach/kale salad mix and dressed it with Creamy Balsamic Dressing that is Whole30 approved and 100% delicious.
