Chicken stew

[ksmith]

Chopped up an onion and five cloves of garlic. Browned them in EVOO and into the crock pot. Added chopped celery and carrots, a cup or so of homemade chicken stock, giblets, chopped parsley, fresh thyme.

Cut up some boneless skinless thighs and breasts into serving-size pieces. Dredged them in seasoned flour--salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning--and browned them in EVOO. Added them to the pot. Deglazed the pan with about a half-cup or so of white wine. Cooked that down, and added it to the crockpot. Cooked on High 2--this pot has 5 settings, High 1 and 2, Low 1 and 2, and Warm--for about three hours. Served it with broccoli (cooked by setting it atop the chicken) and mashed sweet potatoes.





The thing I can't get over with crockpot cooking is the quality and flavor of the resulting gravy. The browning of the chicken and onion gave it the lovely brown color, as brown as pork gravy. The flavor of the meat itself was a little lacking. Next time, I will use a whole chicken, or chicken with skin and bone. It makes clean-up more of a pain, but the meat tastes better.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Crockpots are great, aren't they? I had enough time to stick some mutton chops, barley, carrots, onion and parsnip in the crockpot this morning and when we got back from work we had this fantastic lamb stew. It just fell off the bone. I must try the chicken recipe - it looks great. I think meat on the bone generally does retain more flavour, though, also meat with fat (the only trouble with THAT is...!)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I got the idea from a cooking show during which they made bistro-style roast chicken in a Dutch oven. They browned a whole chicken in the oven atop the stove--iirc, they just rubbed it with salt, pepper, and olive oil. I don't believe they added any vegetables. Anyway, they put a piece of foil over the Dutch oven, held it in place with the lid, then put the whole thing in a regular oven at 300F, essentially turning the Dutch oven into a crock pot. The chicken looked wonderful, and the small amount of resulting juice was as brown as mine, if not more so.

Earlier in the week, I threw leftover pork ribs into the pot along with the leftover gravy and Jack Daniels barbecue sauce. Cooked it all until the meat fell off the bone, then fork-shredded the meat and served it on rolls. That was good, too.

I'm wondering how I did without the thing for so long...

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Until the cat booted it off the top of the oven onto a stone flagged floor, we had a chicken brick, which is a terracotta two part pot (base and lid). You put the chicken in, without any liquid, and stick it in the oven - it cooks in the 'brick', in its own juices. If you want to brown the skin, you take the lid off for half an hour before it comes out of the oven. They're great things - the only issue is that you can't leave them like a crockpot. They're quite cheap and I need to get another one.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

What do parsnips taste like? What do they add to a stew?

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

They're sweet and earthy. I really like them roasted, too, but it's one of those 'love it or hate it' tastes.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree, I love parsnips but not everyone does. Almost carroty but not quite. I prefer them roasted, too, but my mom said her mom used to mash them.

Jody in PA

[phantomminuet.livejournal.com]

I love my crockpots. They're especially good for cooking beans, which can then be used in myriad other recipes.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I have so many bags of dried beans in the pantry...

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I still use the cold-soak method, but have seen on cooking shows a boil-then-simmer method for dry beans. My favorite for dried beans is the multi-bean soup--I keep a huge old pickle jar full of a mix of beans (red, white, brown, pinto, black, etc. If we've grown red runner beans, their purple & white is beautiful) and use those. Four cups of dried beans, soaked (or...) a ham hock, salt pork, or other source of salt and fat and smoky flavor, and let simmer until beans are tender. The black ones take the longest but they're so *good*. Last Thanksgiving, I had a spiral ham as well as a turkey, and made soup with the ham=bone.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Can the soup be frozen?

I have beans, and bacon, and celery and carrots etc and I really love bean and bacon soup.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I freeze mine...it does change the texture a little, but not enough to bother us. I've never put carrots or celery in my bean soup, though I use them in the other soups. I put in onions and garlic.

Thanks to my friend Karen, who was here for part of the weekend and cooked a sumptuous Friday night dinner, I now know a) what shallots are and b) how to make a beurre blanc sauce with them. O.M.G. We discovered after she left that if you refrigerate such a sauce, and spread it on a flour tortilla with something else in it (or even without) it's really...really...good.

[thebluerose.livejournal.com]

I rarely use breast these days, thigh is cheaper and better flavour, and as it has connective tissue, stands up to longer cooking without drying out.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Breast meat does dry out.

I know whole chickens are most economical overall, but they're a wrestle.

[(Anonymous)]

I thought it was just me. With a few exceptions, whenever I do chicken in the crockpot I wind up with this dry, almost sandy textured meal that we can barely eat.

Jody in PA

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

To be honest, while the sauces/gravies have been wonderful, the chicken and pork that I made in the crockpot came out somewhat dry. I blame the fact that I haven't figured out the temps on this crockpot--it's hotter than I think, so stuff is finished a couple of hours before I expect it to be, and I overcook it.

Maybe it's because the chicken and ribs were not fully immersed in liquid. Or maybe it was lousy pork/poultry.