Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe with Turmeric and Vegetables – Turmeric is the perfect, anti-inflammatory miracle spice, and I am always on the lookout for new ways to use it.
This is a slow cooker dish that lives up to the slow cooker hype; dump all of the ingredients into the pot, hit the button and return several hours later to a perfectly cooked dinner. If you’re looking for a quick and easy, healthy meal the whole family will love, this is the recipe for you!
Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe
If you’ve ever struggled to maintain a clean eating diet, you’re not alone. Eating clean takes time, energy, and a lot of planning that can easily become overwhelming when trying to balance such busy lives. This is where slow cooker recipes come into play!
Slow cooker recipes are great, because they make clean eating simple and easy! Simply dump all of the ingredients in a slow cooker, and come back 4-6 hours later. You’ll return to a warm and healthy meal that will make for multiple leftovers throughout the week!
Not only is this Slower Cooker Chicken Recipe healthy, it’s also something you’re going to WANT to eat. Although the vast majority of slow cooker meals won’t be very tasty if you don’t do a little prep work first, this Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe with Turmeric and Vegetables really is a set-it-and-forget-it tasty one dish wonder. It embodies the true spirit of slow cooking.
The Best Chicken for Any Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe
If you have our Clean Cuisine book, you know we always recommend eating a pasture-raised chicken over free-range, organic, vegetarian-fed, etc. Not only are pasture-raised chickens healthier, they are also much tastier. You really can taste the difference!
Whatever slow-cooker chicken recipe you are making, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of eating chickens that are pastured, and fed the natural diet chickens are supposed to eat.
The quality and nutritional value of the chicken you eat varies widely depending on what the chicken ate. The natural chicken diet is one that contains fresh pasture, worms and bugs. Chickens are not supposed to be vegetarians!
If the chicken eats a deviant diet from what a wild chicken would eat then it won’t be as healthy, and neither will you if you eat it.
A chicken allowed to consume a natural chicken diet has a more balanced ratio of omega-6 fat to omega-3 fat. The chickens themselves are also leaner because they get to exercise.
The eggs from pastured chickens are also healthier. Compared to commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture contain about 1/3 less cholesterol, less saturated fat, more vitamin A, omega-3 fat, beta carotene, vitamin E (more than twice the amount), and less omega-6 fat.
Pasture Raised Chicken
Pastured chicken is the healthiest choice. It is naturally higher in omega 3’s and antioxidants, healthy fats and much better flavor too!
The Benefits of Turmeric
Like mentioned above, turmeric is an incredibly healing and medicinal superfood!
Turmeric is a spice that has been used medicinally for years because of its ability to reduce inflammation, improve immunity, aid in weight loss, improve mood, reduce oxidative stress, increase HDL (good) cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, and much more!
It greatly boosts the body’s detoxifying glutathione levels, and is a superfood we highly encourage adding in as a regular part of your diet.
Recipes with Turmeric
Because of the endless benefits of turmeric, we add it into as many dishes as possible! Turmeric is versatile, making it great in both savory and sweet recipes.
Here are some of our favorite recipes that include turmeric:
Turmeric Smoothie: Turmeric Smoothie not only tastes delicious (really!), but also has the potential to significantly improve your mood and overall well being.
Turmeric Salad Dressing: Mild tasting turmeric recipe for salad dressing that is full of flavor and healthy. Great for salads, marinade for chicken, dipping sauce for vegetables and so much more.
Golden Milk Recipe: This Golden Milk Recipe is an amazing way to reduce inflammation, and give you a big burst of energy!
Turmeric Shot for Weight Loss: This Turmeric Shot with Ginger is a super powerful 100% natural anti-inflammatory cocktail with anti-aging and antioxidant benefits too.
Make it a Meal!
This Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe is a filled with whole grains, veggies, and pastured poultry. It really does make a great meal all on it’s own! However, if you want another side dish or two to diversify your meal a bit more, here are some of our best pairings…
- Recipe for Dinner Salads: A side salad a great addition to this Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe! Want to learn how to make the perfect salad on your own? Follow these tips!
- Twice Baked Potato: This Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe is not only creamy, savory, and delicious, but they’re healthy too! It’s also the perfect addition to this Chicken Dinner.
- Recipe for Cornbread Muffins: Recipe for Cornbread Muffins is easy to make and whole grain nutritious. Plant-based milk paired with natural sweeteners is the perfect blend.
Now since you know all about the benefits of this Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe, let’s get on with the recipe!
Kitchen Favorites
Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe with Turmeric and Vegetables
This Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe with Turmeric and Vegetables is a set-it-and-forget-it tasty that yields incredibly moist chicken.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 240 minutes
- Total Time: 260 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- One 3 1/2 pound whole pasture-raised broiler/fryer chicken, rinsed and patted dry inside and out
- 2 onions, sliced into thin strips
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 8 carrots, sliced into thin strips
- 2 red bell peppers, sliced into thin strips
- 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes, *see notes
- Steamed short grain brown rice
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon turmeric root powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt, plus more to taste
- 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon raw honey
- 1 whole lemon
- Optional: 1 1/2 cups chopped parsley (you will want to add the parsley about 30 minutes before the chicken is done. If you add the parsley right from the beginning, you’ll just end up with a wilted, discolored parsley mess)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together the cumin, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt. Add the honey and the juice from one whole lemon (reserving the lemon rind) and mix well.
- Using your hands, apply the turmeric spice mixture generously all over the inside and outside of the bird. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with half of the onions, half of the garlic and the reserved lemon rind.
- Place the remaining onions and garlic in the bottom of a 5 or 6-quart slow cooker. Add the carrots, bell pepper and crushed tomatoes. Season with salt to taste.
- Place the chicken on top of the vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours (Note: Cooking time will depend on the size of your chicken and slow cooker). Add the optional chopped parsley about 30 minutes before cooking time ends. Serve warm over steamed short grain brown rice.
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Notes
*Crushed tomatoes can vary tremendously from brand to brand; to ensure the Slow Cooker Chicken recipe turns out properly, I recommend Muir Glen Organic Crushed Tomatoes with Basil.
Keywords: Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe with Turmeric and Vegetables
Joey
Thursday 16th of January 2020
This was a big hit in our house (with the kids, too!) I have an allergy to garlic and onion, so i made it without, but the chicken spice mixture with lemon and honey was delicious! We drizzled the extra juices over a quinoa/rice mixture. So yum!