Chicken Crock Pot Tricks for An Easy Dinner

When looking for dinner ideas I always seem to think of chicken. It’s easy, there’s a million different ways to make it. You can add so many different flavors to create meals from many cultures. It’s also a relatively cheap cut of meat, which makes it perfect for family meals. Here are some tips to help you cook chicken my favorite way, in the crock pot.

It seems chicken is a staple in many American households, whether you live in the south or the north, whether you bake it or fry it, you find it being served for family dinners at least once a week in many households.

You can cook all parts of the chicken in a crock pot. Just like when frying or baking you have to be careful about temperature settings, and how different parts of the chicken will cook. If you cook a whole chicken in the crock pot you will find the thighs, legs and wings will cook faster than the breast which are thicker.

Another difference in chicken pieces is the bone. Pieces of chicken with the bone in cook better in the slow cooker because they are less likely to dry out. On the other hand, boneless chicken breasts can dry out if they are cooked too long.

You can avoid dry chicken in your crock pot by starting with frozen chicken. You can use either frozen or thawed meat in your crock pot, but when you start with frozen the crock pot not only takes time to cook the meat, but it has to use heat to defrost it first. This gives you a little longer time frame before your chicken will start to dry out. This is perfect if you are putting dinner on before you go to work.

Make sure you rinse your chicken before you put it in the crock pot. Once you have rinsed your chicken you can go ahead and season it before you put it in the crock pot.

You must add some liquid to your crock. Crock pots cook with moist heat, you have to add the moisture for this to work. You can use water, but sometimes even better is to add chicken stock. This will give your chicken a great flavor. If you have time you can also flour and saute your chicken before putting it in your crock pot. Make sure to scrape the bits from the bottom of your saute pan, this will add a lovely flavor to your dish. You won’t need to add much liquid to frozen chicken, as it will create its own as it defrosts.

Vegetables can be added with the meat if you choose. Tougher veggies like carrots and potatoes can be added at the beginning because they take longer to cook. A dish that calls for a tomato base such as a cacciatore will have the tomatoes added near the end of cooking. Tomatoes are one vegetable that doesnt stand up well to long periods of cooking. Instead of whole tomatoes, you will have mush after six hours.

Crock pots can varied widely in cooking temperature. This is why you see such wide cooking time frames in recipes. You have to test your crock pot a few times so you will know which end of the cooking time your particular machine is on. When cooking chicken you will have to cook chicken parts at least 3 hours. Frozen chicken needs to be cooked the maximum amount of time. If you are in a hurry you can switch to the high setting. For every one on high it equals 2 hours on the low setting.

You can wait until later in the cooking process to add the spices in your dish, however, I usually just throw mine in at the beginning. It’s too easy to forget to add them 5 or 6 hours later. However, if you are using fresh herbs you might want to add them an hour before the finished cooking time. They will infuse the dish quite quickly. Whenever you put your spices in, make sure you stir them in well to combine them with all the other ingredients.