This Was Lick-The-Bowl Good.

Sorry to brag, but I have to say last night’s Paleo dinner was stupid good. And stupid easy. Which is the beauty of it. It’s a simple crock pot chicken thigh served over cauliflower puree with a side of broccoli and carrots.

Don’t let the simplicity fool you. It was juicy, flavorful and seriously tasty. Especially on a cold, dark, Minnesota winter night.

Here are the details.

For the Crock Pot

• 3 pounds chicken thighs with skin and bones
  
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (homemade if possible)
• 3 large carrots, peeled, sliced to ¼ inch coins
• Juice of 2 lemons
• Zest of 1 lemon
• ½ tsp of salt, or to taste (watch the salt if you are using a store bought stock that already has salt)

1. Place sliced carrots in bottom of crock pot
2. Remove fat from chicken thighs
3. Heat small amount of grape seed or coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and brown the chicken on both sides (about 3-4 minutes per side). Do this in batches if necessary. HINT: Small amount of oil and patted dry chicken breasts = better sear
4. Place chicken thighs in crock pot.
5. Add about 1/8 cup of the stock to the pan you cooked the chicken in and reduce heat to low. Scrape up any browned bits.
6. Add the remaining stock to the pan, along with the lemon juice, lemon zest and salt.
7. Simmer for a few minutes to pull out the flavors and then pour over the chicken and carrots in the crock pot, making sure to include the browned bits.
8. Set crock pot to low and cook for at least 6 hours. 7 if you want it to fall off the bone.

For the Cauliflower Puree

This is so easy I don’t even use a recipe.

1. Simply chop a desired amount of cauliflower into roughly equally sized pieces and steam until tender.
2. Place cooked cauliflower in a high speed blender with a splash of non-dairy milk of choice and salt to taste. Blend. NOTE: Any blender or food processor will work if you don’t have high speed, but the consistency might not be as smooth.
3. Taste. Adjust liquid and salt as necessary.
4. If desired, you can do this ahead of time and simply heat up when you’re ready to eat.

The amount of milk you need will depend up on how much cauliflower you have and what consistency you want. As you can guess, more milk =  thinner consistency. Cauliflower  has a lot water, so you really don’t need to add much liquid. I’d say I do about ¼ cup for a small head of cauliflower. You really can’t mess this up, as it will taste good regardless of the consistency, so just go for it.

To Serve

1. Spoon the cauliflower puree in the bottom of a shallow bowl.
2. Top with chicken. Either on the bone or pulled into pieces.
3. Sprinkle the carrots around the edges.
4. Add steamed broccoli or other veggies if desired.
5. Spoon sauce over the whole thing.
6. Eat, lick the bowl, receive compliments.