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]

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.