Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Slow-Cooker
Chicken Cacciatore
Slow-cooker
to the rescue...again! It's been pretty busy around
the Al & Peg House as of late. Weekends are
doubly-busy, so in order to make good eats, we need
some help. Whilst we're scurrying around the house,
the slow-cooker is doing all the hard work.
Peg found this naturally gluten-free recipe:
http://www.recipe.com/slow-cooker-chicken-cacciatore/?esrc=nwrc071212pinc
The original recipe calls for chicken drumsticks, but
we used thighs instead - more meat on the thighs.
Ingredients:
2 cups sliced fresh
mushrooms
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup chopped carrot
2 medium onions, cut into wedges
1 green, yellow, or red sweet pepper, cut into strips
4 cloves garlic, minced
12 chicken thighs, skinned (about 3-1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 14-1/2-ounce can
diced tomatoes
1/3 cup tomato paste
Directions:
1. Combine
mushrooms, celery, carrot, onions, sweet peppers, and
garlic in a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Place chicken
on vegetables. Combine broth, wine, tapioca, sugar,
oregano, bay leaves, salt, and pepper; pour over
chicken.
2. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 6 to 7 hours
or on high-heat setting for 3 to 3-1/2 hours.
3. Remove chicken; cover to keep warm. Remove and
discard bay leaves. If using low-heat setting, turn
to high-heat setting. Stir in undrained tomatoes and
the tomato paste. Cover and cook for 15 minutes more.
Serve vegetable mixture over chicken and cooked pasta
or rice.
Until the next good
eats...
Al & Peg
Everybody in the Pool (aka Hamburger) Soup
Have you ever run into a situation where you needed
to use up all sorts of miscellaneous things in the
fridge? Yeah, well, this is the result. We had a
little of this - a little of that. Whatever was
laying around got thrown into the pot. Bottom line,
we really weren't following as recipe.
Ingredients:
1lb Hamburger
Onion
Fresh Mushrooms
1/2 cubed Rutabaga
Cabbage
Carrot
Celery
Frozen Green Beans
Frozen corn
Green Bell Pepper
Gluten-Free Beef Stock,
Gluten-Free Chicken Stock
V8
Bay Leaf
Directions:
Saute' green bell pepper & onion in a big soup
pot [7 qt pictured here] for a few minutes.
Add a pinch a salt and pepper. Becareful with the
salt, your stocks have have additional salt.
Add 2 lbs of hamburger to pan and brown.
Add a pinch of salt and pepper
Drain/remove excess grease.
Add chicken or beef broth - probably 2-4 cups total
Add bottle of 46oz bottle of V8
Add Bay Leaf or two
Add veggies that need longer too cook first (like
rutabaga, carrots, celery, etc]- staggering them by a
couple of minutes.
Taste for salt/pepper
Bring up to a boil then reduce heat to simmer
Cover pot and let simmer for 30 - 60 minutes stirring
occasionally.
Check a carrot/celery/rutabag - if it's a texture you
like - dig in!
Until the next good eats...
Al
Tuscan Chicken with Veggies
It's a great mix of basil, oregano, red bell pepper, garlic, thyme, fennel, black pepper and anise.
We only purchased a small .5 oz bottle that day, but we will getting a larger bag of it. Sadly, I used it all tonight.
At the checkout, we found a recipe for Tuscan Veggie & Chicken Pasta Salad. I decided tweak how the ingredients were put together. This is my version...
Tuscan Chicken with Veggies
Ingredients:
1 Package boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in thin strips.
1 package gluten-free pasta (shown here: Jovial GF Brown Rice Penne Rigate)
1 Red bell pepper, thinly julienned
1 Green pepper, thinly julienned
1 Medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (half a lemon)
1 - 2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Teaspoons Penzey's Tuscan Sunset
Salt & Pepper
Dressing:
2 Tablespoons Penzey's Tuscan Sunset
2 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
In a bowl large enough to hold all the pasta, mix Tuscan Sunset and water, let stand 1 minute, then whisk in oil and red wine vinegar.
Prepare GF pasta per directions on package. Leave it slightly al dente because it will be returned to the pan at the end. Place cooked pasta in to bowl with dressing and gently mix until pasta is coated. Let stand.
Using medium heat and large deep pan saute' peppers and onion with small amount of olive oil for several minutes or until peppers have softened. Sprinkle in 1 tsp Tuscan Sunset. Salt and Pepper to taste. Remove from pan.
Return pan to stove, increase heat to medium-high and allow pan to heat up without smoking. Add small amount of olive oil to pan and add chicken strips. Allow chicken to turn golden brown. Reduce heat to simmer. Sprinkle in 1 tsp Tuscan Sunset. Salt & Pepper to taste. Add lemon juice.
Add in saute'ed veggies and dressed pasta. Make sure to get all the pasta dressing into the pan.
Gently stir a few times until all ingredients are fully heated - about 2 - 3 minutes. Be careful not to damage the pasta.
Notes:
The original recipe called for asparagus tips. This is a great addition, unfortunately I did not have any handy this time. Options I want to try in the future: mushrooms and/or artichoke hearts.
If you like more tanginess, add more red wine vinegar or lemon juice.
Until next time...
Al