Slow Cooker: Mediterranean Chicken and Rice

I was recently struck with inspiration, which means I'm finally returning to making new foods. I've even decided to make a dinner menu for the week on Sundays with at least one new recipe each week. I've also decided that using the slow cooker is going to be my new favorite thing. Nearly a year ago I got a few cookbooks from my old neighbors, only of them focusing only on slow cooker recipes. We have 3 slow cookers, so it only makes sense to use one of them once a week. It'll be an adventure in cooking. And it'll be delicious. (I hope.)

This week's new recipe was for Mediterranean Chicken and Rice made in a slow cooker. I will rate the prep-time for this recipe as medium (prep-time meaning the amount of time it takes to prepare and throw everything into the pot). There isn't much you can do with this the night before, so everything will need to be assembled in the morning. It turned out good, tasted very Italian, and was a bit too oily. I will have to skim the oil off the top next time before stirring it.

Mediterranean Chicken and Rice

1 to 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 cup wild rice blend
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup capers, drained
10 cloves garlic, smashed
2 cups water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

First, wipe down the inside of the slow cooker pot to get any dust off of it. Then spray it with olive oil cooking spray. (This isn't 100% necessary, but is a good idea in general to make the cleaning process easier!)

Lightly pound the chicken so that all pieces have an even thickness. Apply salt and pepper to the chicken, to taste. (Don't literally taste it at this point. That's just unhealthy.)
Once seasoned, place the chicken into the slow cooker.

Add the rice, sun-dried tomatoes, and capers. (I used a wild and brown rice blend. As seems typical with the wild rice, some of it didn't cook at all.)
Smash the garlic. (Smashing garlic means to dice it and then smush it with the side of a knife. I did not know this during my prep. Tossing in crushed whole garlic cloves also works fine, but most likely results in a weaker garlic flavor.)
Mix the ingredients up a bit.

In a bowl, stir together the water, lemon juice, and oil.

Pour the liquid over the chicken and rice mixture. Stir slightly to cover ensure the chicken is covered.

Cover with the lid and cook on low for 8 hours. Do not remove the lid. If you are curious about what's happening inside of the pot, use the flashlight on your cell phone to peek in.
After 8 hours, it should look something like this. (Feel free to check it with a meat thermometer at this point.)

Stir the ingredients together and then put some on a plate. (Recommendation: Skim off some of the oil before stirring things up.)

Enjoy!

Recipe modified from the Crock Pot Chicken Cookbook. In case anyone was wondering, you cannot copyright a list of ingredients, only the directions.

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

As you may know, chicken fajitas are one of my favorite foods. They are also the food which made me realize that any food made with chicken, peppers, and onions is probably delicious (as long as it's kept simple). Now that have a slow cooker (and the added benefit of someone being at home to tend to the slow cooker when needed), I've decided to find new recipes so I can use the thing. One of the first recipes I found to try was for a "mexican style chicken" which I modified to be more like fajitas!

I found this recipe during a random Google search. While not exactly fajitas, they are amazingly delicious (and they also seem healthy!). I'll include instructions for cilantro lime rice at the end since I can't have fajitas without rice. I like to use fresh veggies when cooking, but you can skip the first few steps if you buy them frozen. I do all the prep work for this the night before and place everything in the freezer or fridge. All of the ingredients in this recipe can be adjusted to taste.

As a final note, this reheats extremely well.

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas (cook time: 7-8 hours on low)
1 lb of chicken, frozen
1 to 2 C bell peppers, sliced and frozen
1/2 of a white onion, sliced and frozen
4.5 oz can of chopped green chilies
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 C chicken broth
1 to 2 T taco seasoning

Clean and slice up the bell peppers. I suggest getting a mix of colors.

Clean and slice up the white onion.

Place the peppers and onions in a freezer bag and place in the freezer.

(One day I might use fresh tomatoes and chilies, but for now I buy them in a can.)

Spray the inside of the slow cooker insert with cooking spray. Pour in the chicken broth, tomatoes, chilies, and taco seasoning.

Stir up the contents, put the lid on the insert, and place it in the refrigerator overnight.

8-ish hours before you plan to eat, assemble the slow cooker. Add the frozen chicken, peppers, and onions. Stir the contents and turn the slow cooker on low.

After 6 or 7 hours (whenever the chicken is fully cooked), pull apart the chicken with a fork. You want the chicken to be shredded, not in chunks. (No pictures of this since I'm not the one who does it!)

Stir up the contents and let it cook for another hour.

Warm up some tortillas and scoop the chicken onto the tortillas. Enjoy!
(Note: The final product is a bit soupy, so you may want to strain the chicken before placing it on your tortillas. Or just eat it with a fork, like I do.)


I like to have this chicken with cilantro lime rice, so here is a recipe for that:

Cilantro lime rice
1 C water
1/2 C rice
1/4 lime
1 t cilantro (or to taste)
salt (to taste)

(Optional) Sauté the uncooked rice in oil over medium heat until lightly brown.
Add the water, heat until boiling.
Reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes (until tender and water is evaporated).
Remove from heat, fluff the rice with a fork.
Add the juice of the lime, the cilantro, and salt. Stir.

Chicken Stuffed Dumplings

I found a version of this recipe several years ago. I've since modified it so that it suits my tastes better. This is one of my favorite recipes when I want something that is warm and very filling. I always double the recipe because it reheats very well. It makes a good dinner and lunch for the following day!

The preparation for this recipe is somewhat time consuming and I recommend using a mini chopper for the celery and chicken. I think the effort is worth it, but if you are in a hurry, this most likely will not be the recipe for you. I use canned chicken broth that has no msg and is low in sodium. I don't have many choices for the cream of chicken and mushroom, unfortunately. The soups make this recipe somewhat salty, so I advise against adding any salt.

Chicken Stuffed Dumplings (Printable PDF Version)
1 can chicken broth (12 or 14.5 oz. It doesn't matter)
1 can cream of chicken and mushroom soup
1 medium sized chicken breast
Onion (to taste)
1 T oil (olive or vegetable)
1 T celery, chopped
1/2 t parsley
1 C flour
1 T baking powder
1 t sugar
1 T shortening
6-8 T water

Pour the contents of the cans of soup into a pot and start to heat it up on a low heat. This will need to simmer later, but I've had best results slowly warming it from the start since cream of chicken and mushroom is very thick compared to the broth. Remember to stir it occasionally.

Chop up your onion. I like white onions and I used maybe 1/5 of an onion for this. (Note: I add half of the onions to the soup mixture and half to the chicken. How you distribute it is up to you!)

Cut the chicken into small pieces while the pan heats up. Pour the oil in, add the onions and chicken. Cook until the chicken is done. Once the chicken is cooked, let it cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile...

Chop up the celery. A tablespoon of celery (post chopping) is approximately half a stalk of celery. Having a bit more isn't going to hurt the recipe.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. Cut the shortening in with a fork. This amount of shortening isn't enough to make the flour crumbly, cutting it in just distributes it better than mixing it in with the water.

Slowly mix in the water until you have a soft dough that isn't too sticky. Sometimes I have to use more water, sometimes I have to use less. I fill a glass with water and add tablespoons of water at a time to the flour mixture. Set this aside for the moment.

When your chicken has cooled to a nice warm temperature, place it into the chopper and chop it into chicken crumbles.

In another bowl, mix together to chicken crumbles, celery, and parsley. At this point, turn up the temperature of the soups and bring it to a simmer.

Take a small chunk of the dough and flatten it with your hands. Place a scoop of chicken crumbles onto the center of the flattened piece of dough.

Close the dough into a bundle by wrapping and pinching the sides together. You can take the dough, roll it out, and cut it into pieces if you want.

The amount of chicken filled dumplings you will have depends on how big you make them. Mine always vary in size, which is fine. If you have any extra chicken crumbles, add them to the soup mixture.

Place all of the dumplings into the simmering soup mixture. Simmer the dumplings for 15-20 minutes. Stir this occasionally and carefully. I usually end up with at least one dumpling that opens up.

I suggest making mashed potatoes while the dumplings cook. The soup gravy goes very well with garlic and cheese mashed potatoes, if that interests you.

The dumplings will plump up while cooking. When they are finished cooking, let everything cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup isn't something that I was taught how to make. I just started making it and adjusting it over time. And eventually I started using real ingredients instead of powdered ingredients. Every time I make chicken noodle soup, the recipe probably varies. Everything I put in is pretty much "to taste", so the recipe that I include below isn't really a recipe. Use it as a guideline.

You can use any chicken for this; I generally use boneless chicken breast. Using chicken still on the bone will provide more flavor. I also tend to add way too many noodles. The noodles absorb liquid after the package recommended boiling time, so keep that in mind. You can also use chicken broth instead of bouillon. And you can easily adjust the recipe to make a smaller amount!

Chicken Noodle Soup
10 C water + bouillon to make it into chicken broth
Salt & pepper "to taste"
1/2 to 1 pound chicken breast
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 C carrots, sliced
1 C celery, sliced
1 1/2 C noodles (I used stars!)

Boil the chicken in the water/broth. Add the salt and pepper.

While the chicken is boiling, chop up the onion and garlic. Add it to the boiling water.

Slice up the carrots and celery. Add these to the boiling broth.

When the chicken is cooked all the way, pull it out of the broth.. Shred the chicken and then return it to the pot. I usually shred the chicken using two forks.

Add the noodles. Let boil for the recommended amount of time. Reduce the soup to a simmer. Let simmer for a while.

Enjoy!

Chicken & Rice Soup

Now that I've survived grading nearly 100 exams plus homeworks during the first exam week of the semester, I can get back to cooking and baking. I'm lucky that my phone has a super awesome camera or there would be no pictures. Technology isn't always my friend, but everything is working out fine so far.

Today was the first day of fall, so I wanted what I made to reflect that in some way. It was a rainy, cloudy, and cool day: a perfect day for soup. I've recently discovered that I enjoy chicken and wild rice soup, so I attempted to make some. I looked for a recipe online, but ended up combining bits and pieces of different recipes into my own version. It is essentially just chicken noodle soup with rice instead of  noodles. This makes a lot of soup, so feel free to cut the recipe in half!

The only problem I had with making this soup had to do with the rice. First, I had no idea they only sold itty-bitty boxes of wild rice and that each box was $5. I discovered this lovely fact at the grocery store. I decided to buy brown rice instead. And... then I burned the brown rice because I forgot to turn down the heat. I finally gave up and used minute rice.

Chicken & Rice Soup
6 C chicken broth
2 chicken breasts (more or less depending on how much meat you want)
1 C carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 T butter
1 C long grain rice, uncooked
Salt & pepper to taste

When you cook the rice depends on what type of rice you are using. Cook the rice according to package directions and add to the chicken broth after everything else.

Boil the chicken breasts in the chicken broth until fully cooked. The length of time will vary depending on if the chicken has bone in or not.

Meanwhile, cut up the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic.

Melt the butter in a pan and saute the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic until the onion is tender. This will take about 10 minutes.

When the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the chicken broth and cut or pull it to pieces. Return the pieces of chicken to the broth.

When the onion is tender from being sauteed, and the chicken is fully cooked and pulled apart, add the veggies to the chicken broth as well.

Add the fully cooked rice. Bring the soup to a low simmer to continue cooking the carrots. As you can see, I added way too much rice to my soup (1.5 cups instead of 1). It is more of a casserole now, but still delicious!

Eat while warm and enjoy!