Easy Slow Cooker Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken

With the addition of some new seasoning sauces on the market by Spur Tree manufacturing, making Jamaican homestyle dishes have become a lot easier. These sauces, available in most Jamaican stores and ethnic markets,  are so well-balanced for flavor that the addition of more spices is not at all necessary. This is an easy recipe for Jamaican Brown Stew or Fricassee Chicken. It uses 2 types of Spur Tree sauces and a few additional ingredients. Once in the slow cooker, you can relax and come back to a cooked meal 4-6 hours later.

2 lbs Chicken meat (thighs are best)

1/4 cup Spur Tree Brown Stew Seasoning

¼ cup Spur Tree Jerk Seasoning (make sure to remove any bits of thyme stems you see in the seasoning)

2 tablespoons oil

1 10 ozs can diced tomatoes and chilis

1 medium yellow onion, cut into large pieces

½ cup Chicken Broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1.      Marinate the chicken pieces overnight, in the fridge, with the Spur Tree seasoning sauces.

2.      Place the marinated chicken and the onions in separate baking dishes and mix in 1 tablespoon oil into each of them. Bake both at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the onions for about 20 minutes, the chicken for about 40 minutes. Remove from oven.

3.      Puree the onion to a paste.

4.      Mix all ingredients in an 8-quart slow cooker i.e chicken pieces, tinned tomatoes, pureed onions, tomato paste, and chicken broth. Place a Scotch Bonnet pepper on top, if desired, and cook for 4-6 hours on high. Thicken gravy if needed with a little cornstarch mixed with water.

Easy Slow Cooker Jamaican Stew Beef

I like to do things the easy way and was very happy when I recently discovered this trio of Jamaican seasonings by Spur Tree that would allow me to make my favorite Jamaican dishes with minimum effort. More importantly is the fact that the sauces are so perfectly balanced, that they really do not need much done to them to make them better. I still like to add my own personal touch to them so that the flavor I end of with, reminds me of my own family type cooking. Just to be clear, I have not received any monetary reimbursement from the company. I just happen to like their seasonings!

With this in mind, I decided to use the Oxtail seasoning sauce to make stew beef (same beef but just a different part of the cow). This recipe is a result of that need. Yes, it does take some preparation but once all the ingredients are put in the slow cooker, the rest of the day is yours to enjoy. The best part is that at the end of the day you will end up with a hearty stew with the taste of home. I plan to experiment using these seasonings to develop more recipes as well as explore the other seasonings that the company markets. Be sure to search the marinade for pieces of Thyme stems, just like you would if your were using Thyme in your own seasoning!

3 lbs stew meat cut into chunks (choose a mixture with a few fatty pieces)

2 tablespoon oil

6 fluid ozs (3/4 cup) Spur Tree Oxtail Seasoning (make sure to remove any pieces of Thyme stems you may find)

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces

3 stalks of celery OR 3 Chayote (Cho-Cho, Christophene) Squash, peeled and cut into chunks

1 medium sized onion

1 small tin (10ozs) diced tomato and chilis

1 small tin (140zs) Swanson beef broth

1 medium tin large butter or broad beans

1 Scotch Bonnet Chili (optional)

1.      Marinate the beef with the Oxtail Seasoning sauce in the fridge overnight. As you would if you were using fresh thyme in the seasoning, search carefully to find and remove any pieces of Thyme stem from the marinade.

2.      Mix the meat with 1 tablespoon oil and place in an oven proof baking dish

3.      Peel and cut the onion into large chunks. Mix with 1 tablespoon oil

4.      Bake the beef and the onion pieces in separate baking dishes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until the beef is browned and the onions appear wilted. Stir the meat a couple of times so that all sides can be browned. Much of the water from the meat will evaporate at the high temperature. Remove from oven. The idea is to sear the meat and brown the marinade in the oil since that is the “carrier” for the flavor.

5.      Place the carrots, celery or Chayote squash in the bottom of an 8 quart slow cooker. Add the tinned tomatoes, the oven baked beef chunks with any remaining liquid. Puree the onion pieces to a paste and add to the mixture. Add the tin of beef broth, mix everything together in the slow cooker,  and put the scotch bonnet pepper on top.

6.      Cover and cook at high for about 4-6 hours. Add the tinned butter beans an hour before finishing. Thicken the gravy either by adding flour dumpling spinners, and cooking till they are done or use 2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with a little water to do the same thing.

Date Oat Bran and Flax Breakfast Muffins

I like dates, oats, oat bran and flax meal so decided to roll them all into a breakfast muffin. I could not find any recipe on the Internet that offered me the option to use all the ingredients, so I made my own recipe! These are very moist (almost wet because of the juicy dates), sweet with a hint of Cardamom which goes well with dates. They will need the full 25 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

1/2 cup sliced Medjool dates

½ cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup boiling water

¾ cup oat bran

¾ cup flax meal

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Juice of 1 Lemon

1/2 teaspoon of Ground Cardamom

½ teaspoon Allspice

½ cup brown sugar lightly packed

1 egg beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup half and half

½ cup no fat plain Greek style unsweetened yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 375℉ . Position rack to middle.
2. Paper line 12 muffin cups.
3. Combine the dates, cranberries and boiling water in a small bowl. Let the dried fruit soften and plump up. Set mixture aside to cool. When cool, puree about half of the dates and cranberries to a paste then add back to the liquid mixture.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, oat bran, flax meal, flour, baking soda, spices, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Whisk together. Set aside.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, oil, yogurt and half and half. When it has thickened slightly and got a bit paler in color, add the lemon juice and the date mixture.
6. Add the dry ingredients (including the date/cranberry mixture) to the liquid ingredients. Stir with wooden spoon until just moistened.
7. Fill muffin liners 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out clean.