Crockpot Butter Chicken

I’ve been planning to try this for a while, and today was The Day. I picked a slow cooker butter chicken recipe and here we go.

The recipe I’m trying today is this one:
http://www.chefdehome.com/Recipes/597/restaurant-style-butter-chicken-in-slow-cooker

This is chefdehome’s image — not mine.

It looks yummy, and — if the smell from my kitchen is anything to go by – will be delicious. I hate to say this, but I basically followed the recipe, so you might as well go over to chefdehome and check her recipe out. It’s already gluten free, because it has no hing (asafoetida), which is almost always cut with wheat.

Happy cooking! I’ll let you know how this is when it comes out of the cooker… can’t wait.

In The Crockpot: Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

–The second time I’ve tried this recipe. The first time, it came out tasting like a superior baked-beans recipe, so I redid with some changes. As follows!!

Original recipe is here: http://www.getcrocked.com/2014/01/20/24569/

INGREDIENTS
4-6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs (I used two breasts instead)
1 Onion, chopped
1 T. Flour (I used a bit more than that, and it was rice flour)
1 tsp. Ground Ginger
Salt and Pepper
3/4 c. Honey
1/2 c. gluten-free soy sauce
1/4 c. Ketchup (This is what made it baked-beany)
2 T. Sesame oil
1 tsp. Minced Garlic
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
4 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1) Cut chicken (or pork) into cubes – the smaller the cubes, the less time to cook.
2) Mix flour, ginger, salt, pepper, and pepper flakes if desired, then toss chicken cubes to coat.
3) Fry the chicken cubes until slightly browned in oil (I used coconut).
4) Put the chicken into the crock pot, and if desired fry the onions a bit in the same pan. Deglaze with water or soy sauce, then pour that into the crock-pot. Put the onions and garlic in with the chicken cubes.
5) Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl (I added the last of the flour dredge) and mix well. Pour over chicken and onions mixture.
6) Turn on the crock-pot, then cook on high or low until done (I did high for about 1 hour, since I’d already browned the chicken. The recipe calls for 1.5 hours on high, with raw 2-inch cubes of raw chicken.)
7) Put it on some rice and put it in your mouth… after it’s cooled down a bit.

It was yummy this time! I used a full cup of honey as per the original instructions, but I’m going to cut that a bit next time (have changed recipe above to reflect this). Oh! I don’t know if it made any difference, but some insanity prompted me to add a bit of Worcestershire sauce Just before I turned on the crock. Just about 1 teaspoon. Yum.

As always, please pardon my not-glamorous photos. I have a very yellowish kitchen, and I am too impatient to take good photos. lol

In the cooker after slightly flouring and browning the chicken.





With the non-baked-beany sauce on top, before cooking.

Finished and delicious. Will have to get a photo with rice tomorrow, as I forgot to do that and ate tonight’s right away. Oops. :}

Future Recipes: Honey-Sesame Crock Pot Chicken

Here:

http://www.getcrocked.com/2014/01/20/24569/

What’s In The Crockpot Tomorrow: Garlic Parmesan Chicken

It’s in the refrigerator right now, marinating. I couldn’t help but think of the line from “The Night Before Christmas” about the children being nestled all snug in their beds as I tucked the chicken away under its Saran Wrap duvet for the night.

Delicious dreams, little chicken breasts.

The recipe is here

Slow-Cooker Chicken

Hello, again! Sorry about the haitus. I haven’t felt much like cooking anything new, so it’s been lots of beef shanks in the slow-cooker here, and rotisserie chickens galore, and paneer pakoras a few times. 😐 This weekend, Target had a sale on whole chickens for $3.99, so I nabbed one, it was about a dollar a pound, and I’ve been having cravings for chicken soup… so here we are!

I pretty much made the first recipe I found for slow-cooker chicken, which was here:

Crockpot Whole Chicken

But instead of cooking it for 6-8 hours on low, I cooked it 4-6 hours on high (I think I rounded to 5), and I inserted some butter under the skin – I saw that on a cooking show once and have been fairly drooling to try it for years and years. I think it was probably more appropriate for roasting a chicken, but hey. Butter is butter and there’s nothing bad about that.

Other than that, I followed the recipe fairly closely, with the exception of not having celery or cooking twine. So sue me. lol I figured the chicken would be a big, floppy mess (it was) and I would have to skip the browning step (which was a pity, and yes – I did). I’ll try to remember to pick some up for next time, because I do looooove brown skin on a bird.

Other than that, this turned out bland, but tasty. I mean, it tastes lemony in bits, and chickeny in the rest. And since chicken is what I wanted, it tastes good. Next time, I’ll use more spices, and probably a blend slightly more to my taste – not sure what that will be yet – and some salt. Not a lot, but a touch. And oh my gosh, a good bit more garlic. It’s nonexistent in this chicken.

There’s a nice bit of stock, and it’s quite concentrated, so I think I’ll be able to thin it down a bit and have a good amount of soup, especially once I add potatoes (a staple in my soups) and a good bit of the chicken meat back in. So that’s a win! I’ll also be using more lemon juice, since I couldn’t fit the whole lemon in my bird, and consequently have lots of lemon left over.

Hardly any photos, sorry – this was a very quick process and most of the time was spent washing the bird and then washing up and decontaminating surfaces after that, chicken makes my OCD twitch – but here’s the one I did get, of the cooker right after I popped the bird in.

OK – I think it’s time to start making some soup!! Mwah!!