Who knew those Belgians can cook chicken, too?

I have been trapped in a cooking funk as of late. A big part of the reason is that my children are on some sort of demented hunger strike, refusing to eat almost anything that isn't chocolate or pasta.While on some levels this is a perfectly rational response to an uncertain world (why roll the dice on something new when you KNOW you love chocolate), it was driving me freaking berserk  With the the amount of advance planning and hands on time required in cooking a decent meal, it just becomes depressing when your diners refuse to eat it. And so maybe, just maybe, I was feeding the kids pasta every night and skipping dinner myself for the most part. Maybe.

However, the online grocery service I use actually has a recipes section, and they do this really cool thing where they link a recipe to the groceries needed. So if you want to try a recipe all you have to do is click on the ingredients you need and it is automatically added to your grocery list! Awesome. One day when I was shopping for say, pasta and chocolate online, I started browsing the recipes. My funk was broken. Inspiration struck in the form of a recipe for braised chicken and tomatoes, from a book called "Everybody Eats Well in Belgium" by Ruth Van Waerebeek . Of course, I had to adapt it. I used my slow cooker instead of an enameled dutch own, and used only fresh ingredients so it doesn't have that tinny, processed taste that many slow cooker recipes have. And unbelievably, my kids loved it.  I had to share.

Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 whole roasting chicken (3 to 4 pounds), cut into 8 serving pieces, rinsed and patted dry, all visible fat removed
1 teaspoon paprika
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, and halved or left whole if very small
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
1 1/4 cups dry white wine
2 ripe large fresh beefsteak tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, and chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook the chicken parts until golden brown all over, about 10 minutes. It's important not to crowd the chicken, because then the meat gets steamed instead of seared. Do this in 2 batches if necessary. Remove the browned chicken to a platter and season with salt, pepper, and paprika. This means sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper to taste and the 1 tsp of paprika. Set aside.
2. Pour out all but 1 1/2 tablespoons fat. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, over high heat until softened. This takes 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. De-glaze by adding the wine and scraping up all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken pieces and add the tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, and bay leaf.
3. Cook on the slow setting of your slow cooker for 6 hours.