Can I Use Fish Instead Of Chicken For The Slow-Cooker Moroccan Chicken Stew?

Our answer

Nigella's Slow-Cooker Moroccan Chicken Stew (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) is a one-pot dish that can be cooked in a slow cooker or in the oven. The cooking time of 4 hours lets the chicken thighs cook through until they fall off the bone. It also slightly mellows the flavours of the other ingredients in the dish. It may be possible to use fish in the recipe and you would need about 750g (1¾ pounds) of skinless chunky white fish or salmon, cut into large bite-sized pieces.

The main problem with using fish instead of chicken is that fish needs a much shorter cooking time and if you cooked fish for 4 hours then it would overcook and become unpalatable. So you would need to cook the sauce in the slow cooker (or oven) and then add fish for the last 5-10 minutes (or until just cooked through). However, in this case it doesn't seem that practical to use a slow cooker or oven and you could instead put all of the ingredients except for the fish into a casserole (Dutch oven), put it on a medium heat on the stove, bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the flavours have mellowed and the sauce has reduced slightly. Add the fish and cook for another 3-5 minutes (depending on the fish used and size of the chunks), or until the fish has just cooked through. You may also like to try Nigella's Fear Free Fish Stew, which has fish cooked in an aromatic sauce.