Syn Free Slow Cooked Chicken & Butternut Squash Curry

This slow cooked chicken and butternut squash curry couldn’t be much simpler! Totally syn free it’s a true ‘dump and run’ recipe, and by that I mean you chuck it all in the slow cooker, give it a bit of a stir and leave it. It genuinely doesn’t require any more stress than that, and whilst you leave it to cook for three hours it probably takes no more than 10 minutes of actual hands on time. Moreover, it’s a seriously cheap recipe and feeds six (or makes six individual portions depending on your set up) for well under £1 per portion. 

Butternut squash isn’t an ingredient that I’ve used a lot in the past, but I was inspired by the fabulous Easy Peasy Foodie‘s ‘Cranberry, Feta and Quinoa Stuffed Butternut Squash’ recipe this week to use it in my next meal. Obviously this is a totally different way of using it, but stuffed butternut squash is definitely on the agenda! I’m so pleased that I was inspired to buy it again, because as we all know butternut squash is a speed food which means it’s a big YES on Slimming World! Speed foods are the foods that have the filling power without the calories and as everyone on Slimming World knows you should aim to fill at least a third of your plate with speed food whenever possible. With the combination of butternut squash and tomatoes in this curry you tick that box without a doubt and you could even enjoy it without the rice for a perfect SP meal. If you’re not sure what other foods are speed food you can find the whole list on my ‘Speed Food Shopping List‘. I made some fluffy white rice to go with my curry, which I cooked with a chicken stock cube (hence the slightly yellow colour) to give it even more flavour. 

Depending on how hot you like your curry you can use different curry powders. I wanted to a more mild curry, so I used two heaped teaspoons of Gram Marsala which gave it that beautiful aromatic flavour and smell without being spicy. You could however use hot curry powder as well or instead to get something with a bit more of a kick to it. The spices work really well with the coriander, with the small amount of fat free plain yogurt giving it an added smoothness.  

This beats any takeaway curry hands down, because it’s not dripping with oil and you have the satisfaction of making it yourself. However, I know all too well that takeaways get ordered because they are the convenient option when we just can’t be arsed to cook. That’s where the slow cooked element of this comes in, because you can simply chuck it all in before you head out for the afternoon and have it ready for you when you get back. If you have a slow cooker with a timer on you can even set it before you head off to work in the morning to begin to cook three hours before you get back! We don’t have to be slaves to the convenience of a takeaway, and fakeaways are just as (if not more) satisfying to eat.

I made this curry in my Instant Pot, which is the best multi-cooker around. Not only can you slow cook, but you can pressure cook, rice cook, make yogurt and do just about everything else (including pasteurising milk if you fancy!). You can pick them up on Amazon here, where they’re currently £100 off for just £69.99!!!! You can also pick up a whole range of slow cookers on Amazon for really great value and loads are on sale at the moment too!

Pick up the Instant Pot here. 

Find slow cookers here. 

You can pick up my exclusive Muscle Foods hamper here, where you get 68 pieces of meat, including 5kg of gigantic chicken breasts for just 73p per item! This keeps the cost of meals right down and makes this even cheaper. You’ll see in the recipe that I just used two of the Muscle Foods chicken breasts but if you’re using regular supermarket ones you’ll need to use four to make up the same quantity.

Serves 6

Syn Free Slow Cooked Chicken & Butternut Squash Curry

The perfect slow cooked fakeaway!

10Prep Time

180Cook Time

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Ingredients

• 2x Muscle Foods Chicken Breasts (or 4x regular chicken breasts)
• 1x Butternut Squash (peeled, seeds removed and chopped into chunks)
• 1x Onion (diced)
• 1x Tinned Tomatoes
• 3/4 Pint Chicken Stock
• 2tsp Gram Marsala (or curry powder)
• Handful Chopped Coriander (plus extra for garnish)
• Fat Free Yogurt (to garnish)
• Salt & Pepper (to season)
• White Rice (to serve)

Instructions

1. Add the onions, butternut squash and tinned tomatoes into the slow cooker.
2. Cut the chicken breasts in half across the middle and place them on top of the veg in the slow cooker.
3. Add the Gram Marsala and coriander and then pour over the chicken stock and season with salt & pepper.
4. Mix it all together and set the slow cooker to cook on medium heat for three hours.
5. 20 minutes before the end cook your rice.
6. When the slow cooker is done, use two forks to pull apart the chicken breasts and squash some of the butternut squash into the sauce. Leave plenty of chunks of veg but by reducing some of it into the sauce you'll thicken the whole thing up.
7. Serve with chopped coriander and a teaspoon of fat free yogurt.

Notes

Syn free on Slimming World.

7.8.1.2

113

https://basementbakehouse.com/2016/11/syn-free-slow-cooked-chicken-butternut-squash-curry/

Nutrition

Calories: 126 cal

Carbohydrates: 19 g

Fat: 1 g

Sodium: 148 g

Cholesterol: 15 g

Protein: 9 g

Fiber: 1 g