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This Slow Cooker Ground Chicken Ragu is thick, rich, savory, hearty and delicious with artichoke hearts, red pepper, tomatoes, garlic, green onion. A healthy family dinner!
This recipe is incredible. I would even go so far as to say it’s badass! Slow Cooker Ground Chicken Ragu is thick, rich, savory, hearty, creamy, and absolutely delicious! Chicken never has this much flavor!!! The key is to brown the meat first to infuse big flavor. Then I add artichoke hearts, red pepper, tomatoes, garlic, green onion. To bring thick, creamy texture and a deep flavor? Hummus! The flavors are complex, but the recipe is super easy because after you sear the ground chicken, you toss everything in the slow cooker!
Slow Cooker Chicken Ragu is Easy & Healthy
So…why is this Slow Cooker Ground Chicken & Artichoke recipe so badass, you ask? Well, aside from the obvious slow cooker goddess machine, let’s start with the badass ground chicken. I am on a ground chicken kick these days since discovering how to take it to new unbelievable badass levels through deep, dark browning of the meat. What was once a boring, flavorless, bland, but very healthy white meat is now a badass, ultra flavorful, seared and browned healthy white meat chicken. It’s white meat chicken incognito. Badass.
Since there is not much fat in this white meat ground chicken, you do need to add some to the skillet, but just enough to coat so it doesn’t stick. Then let it sit and get brown…and sit…and sit until really brown. Then start to break it up and flip it around and then let it sit…and sit some more.
Once the meat is browned, you can only imagine the brown bits and goodness that are left caked on the bottom of the skillet. Don’t leave that goodness behind! Add the broth to the skillet and scrape it all up. Then pour it into the slow cooker.If you don’t have a Slow Cooker, click here to see the Crock-Pot that I have and love!
The Secret Ingredient: HUMMUS!
Remember at the start of this post I mentioned this recipe hold secrets? Well here is the biggest secret of all…you add hummus. Yep, hummus. The hummus addsanother layer of flavor and a creamy texture. And I don’t know about you, but it seems I always have some leftover hummus in our fridge so this is a great use for that!
Can I eliminate the hummus?
Yes, you can eliminate the hummus if you either don’t have it or don’t like it. I would encourage you to try it if you you just don’t want to. It transforms into a thickener and flavor deepener vs. giving this ragu a hummus taste. However, you can eliminate the hummus; the recipe will just not be as thick.
Add All Ingredients and Cook
Other ingredients are artichoke hearts, diced red pepper, diced tomatoes, oregano, garlic, and scallions. Mix them all together in the slow cooker and set for 8 hours.
Can I swap with different Veggies?
You can replace the red peppers with diced carrots. For the artichoke hearts, they add wonderful texture and tang to this ragu. However, if you don’t have artichoke hearts, you can replace then with a second can of diced tomatoes.
After 8 hours, the tomatoes, red peppers, and artichokes all cook down into this hearty ragu with so much depth of flavor from the hummus, garlic, scallions, and herbs.
Did I mention this Slow Cooker Artichoke & Ground Chicken Ragu is badass? Serve it over rice or pasta and ENJOY!
5 from 1 vote
Slow Cooker Ground Chicken Ragu
This Slow Cooker Ground Chicken Ragu is thick, rich, savory, hearty, creamy, and absolutely delicious! Chicken never has this much flavor!!! The key is to brown the meat first to infuse big flavor. Then I add artichoke hearts, red pepper, tomatoes, garlic, green onion. To bring thick, creamy texture and a deep flavor? Hummus! The flavors are complex, but the recipe is super easy because after you sear the ground chicken, you toss everything in the slow cooker!
CourseMain Course
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 15 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Carrie Tyler
Ingredients
- 16ozGround White Meat ChickenFree Range, no antibiotics used
- 14ozArtichoke hearts1 can
- 1Red Pepper
- 6Scallions
- ¾CupHummus
- 14ozDiced Tomatoes1 can
- 1CupChicken Brothor veggie broth
- 2teaspoonDried Oregano
- 2clovesGarlicabout 2 tsp
- ½teaspoonSaltor to taste
- ½teaspoonFresh Ground Pepperor to taste
- 1TblsCoconut Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 CupRice, uncooked
Instructions
Pre-Ahead
1-2 days prior or right before cooking, you can chop/dice the veggies. Dice the entire red pepper. Slice the scallions. Mince the garlic. Drain, rinse and rough chop the artichoke hearts.
Prepare the Ground Chicken
Preheat a medium size skillet to HIGH and then add 1 tbls Coconut Oil and the ground chicken with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper. Break up the chicken and spread it around to create a flat layer to fill the skillet. Let it sit there until it gets a brown sear, about 5 minutes. Since white meat chicken will not have as much flavor as dark meat, you really want to bring out the flavor through browning!
Add 1 teaspoon Dried OreganoStir up the meat to brown on all sides. Let it sit for another 3-5 minutes until browned and there are brown bits on the bottom of skillet.
Add the 1 cup of brown and stir to get all of the yummy brown bits off the bottom of the skillet
Slow Cooker
To the slow cooker, add the cooked ground chicken and broth, plus the artichoke hearts, scallions (save some of the greens for garnish), the red pepper (save some for garnish), the hummus, the diced tomatoes, the garlic, the remaining 1 teaspoon of Oregano, and another dask of freshly ground pepper.
Place the slow cooker on the 4, 6 or 8 hour setting, depending on your schedule, as they all work great.
Now comes the fun! Serve over Rice or pasta or polenta, then garnish with the remaining scallions and ENJOY!
