Here’s a simple and tasty dish that will feed four for less than a fiver! It’s easy to make and a perfect autumn dish…
This is a slow cooker recipe but it can be easily adapted to cook in the oven or on the hob. That’s what I love about simple recipes like this; there aren’t any strict cooking times or temperatures, it’s a case of cooking low and slow until it looks, smells and tastes good! Below you’ll find everything you need to know to recreate this tasty meal.
What you will need:
- 80g frozen chorizo 75p
- 2 small onions 10p
- 4 boneless and skinless frozen chicken thighs £2.25
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes 28p
- 1tbsp paprika 5p
- 1 red wine stock pot 32p (optional but really tasty)
- 200ml water
- Salt, pepper, sugar for seasoning
Serve with:
- Baby potatoes 75p
- Peas 20p
That is just £4.70 for four portions!
I got all of my ingredients from Tesco as I find their frozen meat range is really good quality, especially all the new cooking ingredients like the chorizo I used in this dish. I have worked out the prices for the amount of the pack I have used, for example, the frozen chorizo is £2.25 for a 250g bag but I only used a third of the pack so have costed it accordingly.
Method:
- Cook the chicken thighs for 20 minutes in the oven.
- Whilst the chicken is cooking, slice the onions finely. You could also use ready chopped frozen onion.
- Add to the raw, sliced onion to the slow cooker along with the frozen chorizo, chopped tomatoes, red wine stock pot, paprika, water and seasoning then mix.
- Turn the slow cooker to low and leave to heat up whilst the chicken is cooking.
- After 20 minutes, remove the chicken thighs from the oven and add them to the slow cooker along with any juices.
- Stir until the thighs are coated in sauce and leave on low for 4 to 6 hours.
- If you’re cooking this on the hob make sure you stir regularly and cook for around 2 hours. If you’re cooking it in the oven you can cook it on low and just stir occasionally. You’ll know it ready when the sauce has thickened and when the chicken starts to fall apart.
Crispy Potatoes:
- Boil for 25 minutes
- Place in a roasting tray or Pyrex dish and squash using a potato masher or spatula.
- Drizzle with olive oil or spray with fry light.
- Season using salt, pepper and dried herbs.
- Cook in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
I served my stew with frozen peas as they’re cheap and tasty, plus they take just a few minutes to cook. A fab tip is to cook them in a frying pan with around 100ml of water and a sprinkle of salt. By the time the water has evaporated the peas should be cooked perfectly. You could also serve this with rice, baked potatoes, cous cous, mashed potato and loads more!
It is such cheap, simple and easy dish that has tonnes of warming flavour. The small chunks of chorizo almost melt away into the sauce leaving an amazing rich flavour and the chicken thighs remain succulent thanks to the slow cooking process. You’d never know that the main ingredients had been cooked from frozen.
For those of you thinking that one chicken thigh per person isn’t enough, give it a go as you might be pleasantly surprised. People often use too much meat in their dishes, not only is that expensive, it can be quite unhealthy too. I find the Tesco skinless and bonesless thighs are a good size and one is the perfect portion size. If you wanted to bulk the meal up a little, you could add more vegetables, beans, chickpeas or lentils which will cost around 20p-40p more rather than adding more meat which would cost an extra £2-£4.
Let me know your go to autumn slow cooker recipes in the comments or over on my Instagram.
Thrifty Clair
Thrifty Clair 