Crock-Pot Bengalese Chicken (Southern Living 1979)

This was our recipe from Sunday, January 5.  When Audry chose this recipe for us to try from the 1979 Southern Living cookbook, her challenge at the time was for me to make it a crock-pot recipe.  I love to come home after church to a house that smells good and to a meal that is essentially prepared, so I knew this would be perfect for us to try on a Sunday for lunch.

This meal was really, really good.  I don't recall ever cooking with cardamom before, but it was very tasty.  Everyone liked it - even the baby.  And it turns out the recipe is gluten free, too!

First I noted that Mrs. George Sellers stated that this recipe would yield 10 to 12 servings.  I knew immediately I needed to at least half the recipe.  Kevin does not like leftovers, and I do not like throwing food away.

Crock-pot Bengalese Chicken
1 to 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 1.3 pounds)
2 stalks celery, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
1 to 1.5 cups water
4 ounces tomato sauce
3 bay leaves
1/2 t garlic powder
3/4 t cardamom
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t curry powder
1/2 t ginger
1 (9 to 10 oz) package frozen green peas
2 T raisins
Rice

Place chicken breasts on top of celery, onion, and bay leaves in crock-pot.  Pour water over.
Mix tomato sauce and spices.  Pour over chicken mixture.  Stir if needed.
Cook on Low at least four hours. I cooked mine about four and a half hours; it was perfect.
At about the four hour mark, I steamed the green peas in the microwave.  While the peas were steaming, I cut the chicken in the crock-pot.  When the peas were done, I added the peas and raisins to the crock-pot and let the crock-pot continue to cook on Low while I cooked the brown rice.  Remove the bay leaves.
Serve the chicken mixture on top of rice.

Even just about halving the recipe, we still had plenty of leftovers for me to take to work.

Lindy