Slow Cooker Chicken or Turkey Thighs

[ChrisSmolinski]

Fairly low carb, just the onions add significant carbs.

You can use boneless thighs if you want. I serve with broccoli since it is a fairly low carb vegetable. Turkey is more flavorful than chicken, but not by much, and is usually two or three times the price. Browning the meat really does help add flavor, but you could let the slow cooker do all the cooking if you really want to keep it simple.

Dice one or two medium onions, and add to your slow cooker / crock pot:


Brown the chicken or turkey thighs. You are not trying to completely cook them, just brown the skin, for extra flavor, and remember not to crowd the pan:


Golden brown and delicious. Well, delicious in a few more hours, remove the turkey from the pan and add to the slow cooker, then brown the rest:


There's a lot of fat left in the pan, but we want to make use of those tasty brown bits:


So pour off most of the fat:


Then quickly saute some garlic, not for too long, burnt garlic is not tasty. Then deglaze the pan with some white wine:


Pour the garlic and pan sauce into the slow cooker:


Now make some stock. I like the Better Than Bouillon Brand, add it to the slow cooker:


Now wait eight or so hours. Don't remove the lid to peek on the food, that lets out too much heat. Just let it cook on low heat and you will be rewarded:


I like to steam some broccoli and serve over that, you should also use some of the sauce from the slow cooker:


Because the bouillon can be salty, I don't like to add any additional salt to the slow cooker while it is cooking, but some black pepper is a good idea, along with whatever other spices you like. An Italian Seasoning style spice mix can work well.

[MDK2]

The best thing in the world is homemade stock. Once you make your own, you'll never use anything else. And it's very simple.

Take all the bones from at least two whole chickens (or equivalent amount - save them in your freezer, along with any bits you don't eat, such as the neck, back, tail, and whatever is left on the bones), break or cut each bone (kitchen shears are good for that), and put in a large stock pot or dutch oven. Add two each of whole onions, celery ribs, and carrots, all coarsely chopped, and add enough water to just submerge it. You want it to be as crowded as possible. You can also add things like a small handful of whole peppercorns, a couple of bay leafs, and maybe some other choice herbs, but you don't want to add any salt.

Bring to the gentlest simmer possible. (This is the only tricky part - you want it boiling hot but it must only put out a few tiny bubbles at a time, so getting that temperature just right is hard.) Cover, and let it go for a minimum of three hours, but can go as long as five. Strain the stock. It might be a good idea to get a conical stock strainer from a nearby restaurant supply shop for that, and make sure you have something large enough to hold it and all the stock as well. I usually cook the stock in a dutch oven and pour it into a stock pot. This should give you 2-3 quarts of excellent stock. Keep one jar in the fridge and freeze the rest, unless you know you're going to be using it all up soon.

BTW, if you manage to get any giblets, use those too, except for the liver. Briefly fry up the rest first, then add with the bones and veggies. Fry the liver by itself at another time and eat it by itself. It would give a bitter off-taste to the stock if you put it in with the rest.

[Pigmeat]

Thanks for putting this one up, Chris. A friends wife gave me a similar recipe years ago but I lost it before I got to try it. It's not exactly the same, her's involved rice, but it's close enough to give me something to play around with.

Having a vegetarian wife of many years, I do a lot of my own cooking but I rarely write anything down, it's all by memory and taste, as spices and ingredients vary in taste from purchase to purchase. It comes naturally, I learned to cook by watching my Grandma, who like most women of her generation never wrote anything down. It was a little of this and a little of that, and what they don't know won't kill them.

MDK, I didn't know what bouillon was until Grandma died and Mom took over. I started wandering over to my Great-Aunt's house for dinner not long after she passed. It was strange how Grandpa would often show up, too?

[redhat]

I'm going to have to give this a whirl.  Life is busy and anything involving a crock pot is welcome around here...keep 'em coming!

P.S. My Grandma had the foresight to make a cookbook for all the kids with her recipes.  I still cook many of them, healthy or not   My mom recently found a crock pot lasagna recipe that was pretty good,
maybe I'll put it up here sometime.

+-RH

[skeezix]

Lasagna in a crock pot? Do post!

[redhat]

Some small modifications, or at least how I tried it;

1 Pkg containing 9 or so chicken thighs
1 8 oz pack of sliced mushrooms
4 medium sized garlic cloves
1 medium sized yellow onion
2 Tbsp butter (1 is probably enough)
2 14 oz cans of chicken broth (needed cause I have a big crock pot)
1/2 bottle (6 oz or so) of your favorite local bock/lager/etc.

In an electric skillet (my stove skillet is too small and my calrods have dead spots) melt the butter and raise the temp to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  When all the butter has melted, place the chicken in and brown both sides, about 5-10 minutes depending on how brown you want it.  I did 4 or 5 pieces at a time.  Meanwhile, chop the onion and garlic and place in a bowl with the mushrooms and mix.

When the chicken has browned, remove with a large spoon or tongs and place in the bottom of a large crock pot (mine is 8 quart I think) then add the beer and broth.

Drain the majority of the grease from the skillet, and reduce the heat to around 250.  Add the bowl mixture, and some white wine to get things going.  Stir the contents and allow the mushrooms to soften, 3-5 minutes.  Dump this mixture on top of the chicken, and put the lid on the crock.  Set the crock to high for 45 minutes or so, then allow to cook on low for 8-12 hours.

I'll let you know how this turn out.

+-RH