Coconut-Chipotle Chicken Stew

This is a new favorite in our house.  Made this for the first time this week and it was a hit.  I love love love spicy food, but my kids.  Not so much.  I'm slowly working on building up their heat tolerance, but I have to be careful or they will refuse to eat it.  I cut the adobo sauce in half and it was perfect for them.  For me I added some Valentina hot sauce to my dish.  Add the full tablespoon of adobo sauce if you like some good heat.  I also did the slow cooker method.  Drop all the ingredients in, in the morning and boom!  Delicious smelling home and dinner ready when you return.  Anyway, I made minimal adaptations to this recipe that I got from Satisfying Eats.  Her picture of this stew is way better than mine, but I wanted to prove to you all that I really did make this.  Ha!  I also doubled the recipe below.  We love leftovers for lunch!

Serves 4-6

2 tbsp coconut oil
2 lbs chicken boneless & skin-less chicken thighs
2 bell peppers, cut up into 1” chunks
1 sweet onion, cut in 1” chunks
15 oz diced tomatoes
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
2/3 cup full fat coconut milk
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 individual chipotle in adobo, chopped, plus 1/2 tbsp sauce (less if you don’t want as much heat)

Additional Toppings:  Avocado, more lime juice, chopped cilantro and more coconut milk. 

Directions

Stove Method

1.  Season liberally chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Add oil to dutch oven or large pot and bring to medium-high heat. Add seasoned chicken thighs and brown on each side for 5 minutes. ( You are not trying to cook chicken thighs all the way.)

2.  Add onions and bell pepper.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.  Add tomatoes, lime juice, coconut milk, garlic and Chipotles in Adobo. Stir.

4.  Reduce heat to med-low. Cover and cook for 1 hour on top of stove or finish off in oven for 1 hour at 300 degrees F. After turning oven off, you can let it stay for a few more hours until we were ready to eat. 


Slow Cooker Method

1.  Place chicken thighs in bottom of crock pot.  You can place coconut oil on bottom of crock pot if desired. Season liberally with salt & pepper.

2.  Add onions, garlic and bell pepper to slow cooker.

3.  In a small bowl, blend tomatoes, lime juice and coconut milk and chipotles in Adobo. Stir and pour into slow cooker.

4.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or 2-4 hours on high. 

Serve in bowls and squeeze just a bit of lime over dish and add chopped cilantro and avocado and pour about 1 tbsp of coconut milk over top of each serving.