In the 1970’s in Australia, Apricot Chicken was all the rage. And consequently, a lot of kids who grew up in the 80’s (like me) were raised on it as a family dinner standard.

There does seem to be 2 camps of people – those who love it and those who really dislike it – I have always loved it, and was disappointed when it had to be scrapped from our menu because of the allergens in the dried soup mix that is standard for the meal. But since I’ve been making my own French Onion Soup Dry Mix, it is back on the menu! Yay!

Please see below the recipe for a few additional recipe variations.

• 2kg chicken drumsticks
• 400ml apricot nectar
• 1 cup hot chicken stock (I use Massel)
• 2 x 400g tins chic peas (drained and rinsed)
• 200g dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp plain GF flour
• 2 tbsp Fench Onion Soup Mix
• 3 tbsp coconut aminos

Place half of the chicken into a double layer plastic bag.

Add to the bag half of the flour and half of the soup mix.

Shake the bag well to coat the chicken.

Place in the bottom of the slow cooker, and repeat with the remaining chicken and dry ingredients.

Add in the chic peas and apricots to the top of the chicken.

Pour in the nectar, stock and aminos then return the lid and set on high for 5 hours.

It will initially look like there isn’t enough water, but the chicken produces liquid and after a few hours there will be plenty.

After 3 hours, stir the mix and ensure that the chicken is covered with liquid, them return lid.

Serve with brown rice and steamed greens.

This makes a large quantity – about 8 adult serves. Freezes and thaws well.

A few notes:

You could also use chicken thighs if you don’t like the messiness of the drumsticks, about 1.2-1.4kg.

If you are like my husband and prefer a sweeter meal, swap out some of the chicken stock for equal quantities more of apricot nectar.

Depending on what I have on hand, I sometimes do half chick peas and half brown lentils.

If you want a less sweet meal (or need to avoid the sulphites in the dried fruit), I also swap out the nectar and the dried apricot for about 600g of tinned apricots in natural juice.

Enjoy 🙂