This Slow Cooker Ground Chicken Ragu is thick, rich, savory, hearty, creamy, and absolutely delicious! Chicken never has this much flavor!!! The key is to brown the meat first to infuse big flavor. Then I add artichoke hearts, red pepper, tomatoes, garlic, green onion. To bring thick, creamy texture and a deep flavor? Hummus! The flavors are complex, but the recipe is super easy because after you sear the ground chicken, you toss everything in the slow cooker!
1-2 days prior or right before cooking, you can chop/dice the veggies. Dice the entire red pepper. Slice the scallions. Mince the garlic. Drain, rinse and rough chop the artichoke hearts.
Preheat a medium size skillet to HIGH and then add 1 tbls Coconut Oil and the ground chicken with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper. Break up the chicken and spread it around to create a flat layer to fill the skillet. Let it sit there until it gets a brown sear, about 5 minutes. Since white meat chicken will not have as much flavor as dark meat, you really want to bring out the flavor through browning!
Add 1 teaspoon Dried OreganoStir up the meat to brown on all sides. Let it sit for another 3-5 minutes until browned and there are brown bits on the bottom of skillet.
Add the 1 cup of brown and stir to get all of the yummy brown bits off the bottom of the skillet
To the slow cooker, add the cooked ground chicken and broth, plus the artichoke hearts, scallions (save some of the greens for garnish), the red pepper (save some for garnish), the hummus, the diced tomatoes, the garlic, the remaining 1 teaspoon of Oregano, and another dask of freshly ground pepper.
Place the slow cooker on the 4, 6 or 8 hour setting, depending on your schedule, as they all work great.
Now comes the fun! Serve over Rice or pasta or polenta, then garnish with the remaining scallions and ENJOY!