Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lemony Chicken (Slow Cooker) w/Roasted Potatoes


Lemon Chicken is a dish that scares me a bit. I've made it twice before, one unimpressive and one awful. The first was just some Lemon Pepper seasoning, so kind of boring. The second was a recipe from my Biggest Loser cookbook that turned out WAY too lemony and just not good. So, once again, B was pretty skeptical, but he agreed to let me try it.

Lemony Chicken ("The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook; Margaret Kaeter, 2002)
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 1/2 tsp. table salt
  • 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp. butter
  • 1/4 c. sherry
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp. crumbled dry oregano
  • 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
4 to 6 quart slow cooker.

Wash the chicken breast; do no remove the bone or skin. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a medium-sized skillet. Saute the chicken until brown. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, transfer the chicken to the slow cooker. Add the sherry to the skillet and stir to lossed the brown bits on the bottom of the skillet (deglaze). Pour the sherry mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle the chicken with the oregano and garlic. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours. Cut the lemon peel into 1/8-in. squares. Add the lemon juice and bits of lemon peel. Cook covered on low for 1 additional hour.


Roasted Potatoes:  Nothing special here. Just 2lbs. baby red potatoes cut into pieces. Toss with olive oil and whatever you like. This time I used garlic and onion powder and dried, minced onion and garlic. Put in sprayed baking dish. Cover and cook at 400 for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook for another 20 to 25 minutes until slightly crispy.



Sissy's Variation:
I do not ever cook with chicken breast on the bone or with the skin. So, I just used 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I always have on hand.
I did use one extra clove of garlic because I love it so.
I did not have any sherry on hand, so I used a bit of white wine that I had in the fridge.
Because I used BLSL chicken, the browing step was a bit different. I couldn't let it get too brown or it would have cooked all the way through, so I just barely let it get brown. The BLSL chicken also does not give out good "bits" for deglazing, but there were some and I did want to utelize the butter flavor, so I still did that step.
Once I poured the wine mixture over the chicken, I didn't think there was quite enough liquid in there to keep the chicken from drying out--even knowing I would add the lemon later. Two things made me add some additional liquid in the form of chicken broth:  I have a larger (8 qt.) slow cooker than the recipe called for and chicken not on the bone tends to be a bit drier, especially in the slow cooker.
We were unable to eat the chicken the night I made it, so I stuck it and the juice in the fridge for the next night. Even reheated, it was so good. B ate it on sandwiches. I ate it with the juice drizzled over and for dipping. Yum!

1 comment:

ladycarol77 said...

OoooooOOOOOoooooH! That sounds scrummy!