Guinea Fowl - Crock Pot Recipe

Today I have been cooking a guinea fowl in the crock pot - mainly to see how it turns out but also in the hope of creating a new dish for us to all try. Although it is years since I have cooked one - it all comes back fairly quickly!

A guinea fowl is not like a chicken in that it is closer to it's wild cousins, has a completely different attitude and outlook on life and it's actually a useful animal. I remember them on the farm years ago, where they would behave like watch dogs alerting us to any foxes or strange goings-on.

Because they are very lean they also make a great addition to your Pagan Diet as well as give some other flavours and tastes in meals where you might have used chicken. Although the meat is mostly darker than domestic birds, it is far tastier.

I decided to cook this guinea fowl in the slow cooker in order to get the best flavour but also to ensure it wasn't tough in any way. I started out my adventure with 1 tablespoon of butter melting on the wood stove, then stirred in 1 tablespoon of spelt flour.

Next I added 1/4 cup of water to the butter mixture and kept stirring until it was all uniform looking. I placed this aside and prepared the bird for the crock pot. To do this I just washed and salted it inside and out and placed it on the bottom of the pot in 1 cup of boiling water.

Then I added the butter mixture and 1/4 cup of olive oil over top of the bird. Next I sprinkled 1 teaspoon each of dried sage and thyme and a few grains of ground black pepper. The slow cooker was on a high heat setting - this was left for the next 2 hours or so and then turned down to low.

Every hour I carefully basted the entire bird inside and out with the liquid in the bottom of the cooker and left it to simmer for another 3 hours. Once the meat was falling off the bones (each bird might be different depending on age and size) I turned it off to let it cool.

Now, there is lovely cooked guinea fowl meat for sandwiches, casserole, soup or stew or for just picking! My taste testers loved it added in to their chilli....

April

Guinea Fowl roasting in the crock pot