So you may have noticed that I’m on a bit of a mission to help make your lives a little easier. I told you on my last post about my wonderful slow cooker and all the glorious deliciousness it brings into our home, with very little effort!

I’m going to be sharing some recipes with you for the next few weeks to prove to you just how easy and yummy these meals are. Yesterday I put on a Chicken and gammon cooker and I honestly have no words! ( Except maybe, delicious, scrum, juicy, smokey, rich, mouth-watering, heavenly…. OKAY you get the point?)

Most recipes will suggest chicken and bacon to attempt a French-Style coq au vin of sorts but I tried it with a beautiful pink gammon steak instead. You get three lovely steaks in a pack at Woolies (for only R67 or something and I only use one for each pot to give the chicken a bit of a smokey flavor.)

You are hating me right now hey? All you want is some of my left over stew, especially in this weather. Well, you can’t because I sent it off with the husband to have for lunch at work. Such a nice way to get extra meals in too! I guess you are now all kinda wondering where he works? HA!

Well, if you don’t want to be in FOMO mode for the rest of the winter, then I suggest going out to buy a Slow Cooker so you can put some of these yummy recipes to the test. In the States they are called Crock Pots which I can’t seem to say without giggling. Seriously though they are under R600 so do yourself a favor. I’m trying to get my hands on one to giveaway on the blog, so keep your eyes peeled, maybe I’ll have some good news for you in the next little while. Anyway! Without further ado, here is my very own Smokey chicken and Gammon Recipe, made in a cracking 10 minutes. No jokes!

Smokey Chicken and Gammon

Ingredients;

Whole chicken pieces (skin ON!)

1-2 gammon steaks depending on how rich and smokey you want it.

Alternatively you can use a pack of bacon (which actually makes it more smokey than gammon)

6-8 carrots

1 cup diced pumpkin/butternut

6 courgettes halved both ways

1 cup string beans

1 stalk celery

2 onions or lots of baby ones!!

4 large black mushrooms ( SO much tastier than button mushrooms)

2 cloves garlic

Chicken stock (2 tablespoons)

Two large sprigs rosemary and any other herbs you have.

A cup white wine

Salt and pepper

Tinned tomatoes optional

For the mash

Sweet potatoes (You could do plain potatoes, cauliemash or butternut mash too)

2 Apples

Butter

How it’s done

1. First I like to brown my meat and onions. (You don’t HAVE to brown your meat at all but it can help)
2. Then I throw them into the cooker. I throw the browned gammon steak in whole because it eventually comes apart after cooking.
3. I add all my chopped/diced veg chopped herbs, garlic, tinned tomatoes, stock (just the powder) and wine, a decent amount of salt and pepper. A little stir and on goes the lid.

And THAT my friends is it! If you are really hating the idea of peeling carrots and other veg, buy ready cut veggies to chuck in.

If you are leaving it to cook the whole day I would put it on low, if you have put it on midday, it’s a good idea to put it on high and turn down if you need to.

If you are fussy about the consistency of your gravy, you may want to thicken it up a bit but we love the way the French do it, served in a deep bowl with a broth like gravy that all the yummy stuff sits in. YUM!!

For the mash

I boiled the sweet potatoes and apples until soft, drained them and then used my hand-held blender to puree it until it’s nice and smooth. Add salt and pepper, some extra butter and VOILA!

The idea behind the apples is for it to compliment the gammon. Think gammon and applesauce! It’s a little secret I learnt from mama bear and one I plan to keep. Well, the secret is out but I will be keeping using it!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/white-wine-coq-au-vin

Hope you find it as yummy as we did! Please send me some of your recipes that I can try too! leeloobaggins@hotmail.com or leave a message below 🙂 I LOVE hearing from you!!

XOXO

Hi I’m Leigh! Did you enjoy reading this post? I really hope so and would love you to stick around a little longer! Please feel free to browse my blog for other articles or to keep up with all the latest news and to be the first to hear about some great competitions, come and find me me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also email me directly at leeloobaggins@hotmail.com or simply subscribe below and never worry about missing out!