Slow Cooker Chicken Stew with Plums, Carrots, and Apples, the AIP Way

A slow cooker is exactly what a week like this calls for. Layer the chicken, carrots, onions, and apples into the pot, scatter in a handful of dried plums, pour in the coconut milk, and leave it alone for 8 hours. Some days, asking almost nothing of you is the whole point of a recipe.

Beta-carotene from the carrots does the same conversion work here, becoming vitamin A once it is inside you, a piece of what keeps your gut's lining resilient and your immune system responsive. Fiber and vitamin C from the apples do their own quiet work alongside it, and the chicken is there for protein, plain and steady, the kind a body doing repair work can use. The long, slow cook is sometimes described as easier on digestion, worth checking rather than taking as settled.

Let the stew go soft and a little sweet, ladle it into a bowl that feels worth using, and eat it slowly enough to actually taste the plums.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 5 large carrots (about 1 lb)
• 1.5 large onions (about 1 lb)
• 2.5 apples, skin on (about 3/4 lb)
• 5 pitted dried plums (fresh plums also work)
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk (13.5 oz)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• fresh sage, for garnish

Swaps made: none beyond the source's own AIP adaptation. For a coconut allergy, the source notes chicken broth can replace the coconut milk; if you use that swap, set contains_coconut to no for your version.

Method

• Lay the chunked chicken across the bottom of the slow cooker. Layer the carrots, onions, and apples on top.
• Scatter the pitted plums over everything. Keep to about 10; more than that and the stew tips too sweet.
• Pour the coconut milk over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
• Near the end of the cook, add the salt and stir to combine. Garnish with fresh sage and serve hot.

Instant Pot variation

For the hands-off path, use the Instant Pot's Slow Cook setting and follow the same 8 hours on low. For a faster version, layer everything as in steps 1 through 3, seal, and cook on high pressure, then let the pressure release naturally before venting. The source's Instant Pot conversion is reader-contributed and gives no exact pressure time, so this is untested in our kitchen, start conservative and check the chicken for doneness. If you want more depth, use the Saute function first to brown the chicken chunks in a little olive oil before layering, then proceed.

*Adapted from a-squirrel-in-the-kitchen*

*Lower-sugar note: the sugar here is the apples, not added sweetener. For a lighter serving, use a smaller portion, or blend in a splash of water or coconut milk to stretch the batch so each serving carries less.*