Slow Cooker Spanish Sardines

Slow Cooker Spanish Sardines

This is the easiest way to prepare your favorite Spanish sardines. And the best part is, you get to choose only the freshest fish, of any variety that you like.

Pin Recipe

Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours hours

Total Time: 16 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Spanish

Servings: 8 people

Ingredients

• 1 Kilo Pilchard Fish heads, tails, and gut removed
• 1 Piece Carrot peeled, cut into thin discs
• 1 Bulb garlic peeled, cut into 2 inch cubes
• 1 Tablespoon Black Peppercorns whole
• 1 Piece Dill Pickle cut into small discs
• 1 Pieces Pickled Jalapeno cut into small discs
• 3 Pieces Bay Leaves
• 5 Pieces Bird's Eye Chilis whole
• 1 Cup olive oil
• 1 Cup Stock fish, or vegetable
• Salt

Instructions

• Soak the fish in a brine for 30 minutes. Wash and drain.
• Layer carrots, garlic, pickles, jalapeno, chilis, bay leaves, garlic, and black peppercorns at the bottom of slow cooker.
• Arrange fish on top.
• Add in olive oil and stock.
• Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on top of the fish.
• Cook on low for 8 hours.

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I've done Spanish sardines at home a lot of times already. I've tried it in the oven, in a stockpot over the stove, even in a clay pot. To be honest, doing it in a slow cooker may be the easiest and the best way to go. This is my first attempt with this method, and unlike in the past where I had to monitor the level of cooking liquid regularly, with the slow cooker, I literally had to leave the pot do the cooking by itself.

There really is no secret recipe to making the best Spanish sardines aside from using fresh fish and cooking it low and slow. Well the first one is pretty obvious. Choosing fish that is less than fresh would end up tasting, and smelling too fishy. As for the latter, this dish just can't be rushed. It has to cook until all the fish's bones are soft enough short of melting, while fully maintaining their form.

Start off with fresh fish, and I can't stress this enough. What you see in the picture is the typical Sardine fish, also known in the market as Pilchard. You can use any firm-fleshed fish here. As a rule-of-thumb, go with any fish that you could work with on the grill. Tuna, mackerel, swordfish are some examples. My personal favorite is milkfish due to its high fat content, which just makes this dish a lot richer. Stay away from fish that flakes too easily as they won't be good at holding their structure in this long poaching process.

You may keep the heads and tails on if you wish. But be sure to remove the gut and the gills which may make the dish ending up bitter.

Next, soak them in a basic brine for about an hour. No need to measure your salt for this. Just add enough until the solution tastes like sea water. This will slightly flavor the fish, but more importantly, it shall sanitize your fish off of its impurities.

While the fish is brining, prepare your ingredients. Don't bother cutting them too perfect. We're using them to add flavor to the dish without intentions of being served later. These are the ingredients in a typical preparation of Spanish sardines : carrots, pickles, jalapenos, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, and chilis. Don't be limited by these though. Add in olives, capers, juniper berries, chorizo, lemon – pretty much any flavor that interests you. You just might end up with the ultimate Spanish sardine recipe, who knows?

Next, layer all those flavoring vegetables and aromatics at the bottom of the slow cooker. These will act as a bed for the fish to ensure that they don't stick to the pot.  Also, submerging them all in your cooking liquid is the best way to extract the most flavor out of them.

For this recipe I used one of my simpler slow cookers. I'm a big fan of Hamilton Beach, so I used the Hamilton Beach 7-quart programmable. It's got a very simple system of just a few buttons you press to get things rolling. Slow cookers in general are quite easy to use, but I like this one because it doesn't have any fancy clips for transporting, any special probes, or other features I don't really need. However, it does have a digital timer and automatic warming. It's also quite similar to the Crock-Pot Smart Pot. That's the six-quart version if you are looking for a smaller appliance for your kitchen. Between 5 and 7 quarts is the most common size most people use.

Layer the fish on top, as neatly as you possibly can. This will make handling them later a lot easier. Add in the olive oil, and the stock last. You'll want to add just enough stock to barely cover the fish.

After about 8 hours on low, the sardines should be ready. Sample a fish and try chewing on its bones. You'll just know if it's ready and I really don't have to tell you how. It should be pleasant tasting with just this little work and minor preparation.

This goes well with pretty much any side. Try the oil left of the cooking liquid with some pasta. Or maybe mash some of the sardines with some of that oil and spread it on top of bruschettas.

Actually, I made spicy sardine potato croquettes with what's left of mine. I flaked the fish, folded it into mashed potatoes, formed bite-sized croquettes out of this mixture, coated it with flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, and deep-fried them 'til golden brown.

Slow Cooker Spanish Sardines

This is the easiest way to prepare your favorite Spanish sardines. And the best part is, you get to choose only the freshest fish, of any variety that you like.

Pin Recipe

Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours hours

Total Time: 16 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Spanish

Servings: 8 people

Ingredients

• 1 Kilo Pilchard Fish heads, tails, and gut removed
• 1 Piece Carrot peeled, cut into thin discs
• 1 Bulb garlic peeled, cut into 2 inch cubes
• 1 Tablespoon Black Peppercorns whole
• 1 Piece Dill Pickle cut into small discs
• 1 Pieces Pickled Jalapeno cut into small discs
• 3 Pieces Bay Leaves
• 5 Pieces Bird's Eye Chilis whole
• 1 Cup olive oil
• 1 Cup Stock fish, or vegetable
• Salt

Instructions

• Soak the fish in a brine for 30 minutes. Wash and drain.
• Layer carrots, garlic, pickles, jalapeno, chilis, bay leaves, garlic, and black peppercorns at the bottom of slow cooker.
• Arrange fish on top.
• Add in olive oil and stock.
• Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on top of the fish.
• Cook on low for 8 hours.

Like this recipe?Follow @FoodForNet on Pinterest!