Slow cooking - Moroccan chicken

Last week I picked up a slow cooker in Aldi (€17.99, they may still have some). After a considerable amount of wondering where on earth Id put it, I decided that smack bang in the middle of my countertop would do for now and Ill just have to use it often to argue for its place there. I figured the benefit of having dinner ready when I get home from work might outweigh the fact that in future I may have to balance it precariously on top of my books on my bookshelf.

Shiny new slow cooker at 8am before heading to work

Unfortunately once I got it I couldn't find any recipes that I was dying to try out that weren't on US sites and I was definitely far too lazy for proper conversion and measuring. As a result here is a very made up attempt at Moroccan chicken, which was very very tasty.

The four things I read about the slow cooker were completely ignored so Ill give them to you before I get to the recipe.

1. You don't need very much liquid in slow cooking as it really wont evaporate (you will see later that I used far too much liquid so my recipe has about 1/4 the water that I used)
2. 3 hours in an oven = 8-9 hours at low heat in slow cooker (perfect working hours)
3. Its almost impossible to burn your dinner in a slow cooker if its on low - this is good to remember half way through the day when you get a little worried about those lovely lamb shanks you bought
4. Root veg takes as long to cook as meat, in my case below the courgette were definitely a bit overcooked.

(possibly) Moroccan chicken - for two
Possibly only because its way tastier than anything I had to eat when I visited Morocco

I was told it never burns - this is caramelising

• 2 Chicken legs and thighs chopped into strips
• 1 onion chopped into 8 chunks (halve, then quarter the halves)
• Half a courgette chopped into inch sized chunks
• 1 sweet red pepper chopped into inch sized chunks
• 4 chopped tomatoes
• 1 grated clove of garlic
• 1 dessert spoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• a handful of raisins and some dried apricots if you have them
• 50 ml of chicken stock (homemade if possible)

Ok, I know this seems like a million ingredients but if you chop them all up and put them into a bowl the night before then you only have to bung them in the slow cooker (on low heat) in the morning and when you come home from work you have a tasty dinner.I served this with some couscous but it would be equally good with rice, Bulgar or quinoa.

very hot Moroccan chicken

It made a lovely dinner but I still don't know where I'm going to put it. If anyone has any good slow cooker recipes Id very grateful, it might help get to convince the workman to build me a new shelf!