Slow Cooker Chicken Afritada

 

Chicken Afritada is one of the most popular chicken dishes among the Filipinos next to Chicken Adobo. When one of my daughter's friends was trying to prove to us that he was part Filipino, he convinced me when he said that his mom cooked Chicken Afritada for him.  Chicken Afritada is not as popular internationally as Chicken Adobo and there is no way he would have known about it had he not grown up in a Filipino household.  Once you taste this dish you will be hooked and it will be your second best Filipino chicken dish.  (Update:  Read Adora's Box discussion on Filipino cuisine and its popularity compared to other Asian ones and try her excellent version for Chicken Afritada). 

Here is a crockpot version of the dish.  Instead of cooking the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients which you could also do, I decided to roast them first in the oven.  My family loves the potatoes cooked this way and I even serve it sometimes as a side dish instead of mixing it with the rest of the Afritada. 

I eat this dish with rice and with additional fish sauce on a little saucer to dip the chicken in.  Filipinos prefer to leave to each person to decide how salty they want most of their dishes to be and they provide fish sauce and other condiments on the table as well as those little saucers per person.  However, if serving Afritada at a party I might add the salt or fish sauce to this dish at the end of cooking till the desired saltiness is reached since it is more convenient to do so.  

Slow Cooker Chicken Afritada

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 carrots, cut into 2 inch bias pieces
• 2 green bell pepper, sliced in 1 inch squares
• 1 red bell pepper sliced or roasted bell pepper from a jar 
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp peppercorn
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (and more for dipping during the meal if desired)
• 6 - 8 pieces chicken thighs (skin removed if you prefer)
• 4 potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder (if roasting)
• olive oil (if roasting the potatoes)

You can saute the onion, garlic, tomato and tomato paste in a little olive oil in your slow cooker or just add them to the slow cooker bowl without sauteing. 

Add the carrots, peppers and fish sauce.   Add the bay leaves and peppercorn (these two can be placed in a tea infuser for easy removal). 

Potatoes can be added to the mixture or roasted separately then added later on (see instructions below).

Rub the chicken pieces with salt and pepper then add to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients. 

Cook on low for 8 hours or at high for four hours.  In the Aroma rice cooker/slow cooker I cooked it for two hours at slow cooker setting.

Serve over rice.

Roasted Potatoes

Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to the potatoes and then drizzle with olive oil.  Toss to mix the seasonings with the potatoes.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Mix the roasted potatoes with the cooked afritada before serving or as a side dish.