Healthy, warming and sweetly comforting. This hotpot is great for busy days and hungry families.

Simply toss everything into the slow cooker and ignore until dinner time. It took me around 15 mins to prepare from scratch. If you’re pushed for time, I’ve listed some timesaving cheats at the bottom of the recipe. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can cook this in the oven for around 1hour 30mins. If it turns out too spicy for certain family members, top with some creme fraiche, coconut milk or cheese.

Ingredients:
500g chicken (breast or thigh)
Splash of olive oil for frying
6 apricots (fresh or dried)
2 carrots
2 peppers (red, orange or yellow)
4 potatoes (medium)
1 onion
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tsp mild curry (optional - add according to taste)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp honey
500ml of chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

Fry the chicken in a little oil to seal. Then fry the onion until soft. Pop both into the slow cooker.
Meanwhile, roughly chop the carrots, peppers, potatoes and apricots. Then pop all of this, plus the garlic, into the slow cooker.
Make up 500ml of stock. Mix in the spices and honey. Then poor it all into the slow cooker and give it a good stir.
Cover and cook on low for around 6 hours.

Timesaving cheats:

Don’t bother browning the chicken or frying the onions (just throw them into the pot).
Scrub the carrots and potatoes rather than peeling them.
Use garlic paste or pre-chopped garlic rather than fresh cloves.