Friday, October 18, 2013

Easy Comfort Food With Crock Pot Chicken Recipes

By Chasity Sheppard


Winter is a time that calls for comfort food. When it's freezing and miserable outside, you need something rich and hearty to give you enough fuel to brave the weather and to lift your spirits. Crock pot chicken recipes will help you prepare fantastic, comforting meals in an incredibly easy, fuss-free way.

A crock pot is a kitchen appliance. While the name officially refers to a specific brand, many people use it to describe any kind of slow cooker. It cooks food at a very low temperature, which means that the cooking time is extended for several hours.

The great thing about a slow cooker is that it saves you a lot of time in the kitchen. You simply have to add the ingredients to the device, set the timer and leave it. Because you don't have to watch it constantly, you can leave your food cooking while you go to work, shopping or take a long nap. It's very difficult to burn anything in a slow cooker, which makes it perfect for people whose culinary skills aren't too great.

A common way to use slow cooking is to make stews. This is perfect if you have tough meat that you want to turn into something tasty, since the extended cooking time makes the meat soft and tender. Adding the right spices will help you to make a fragrant chicken curry too, just like you would in a tandoor, the clay oven used in Indian cooking.

Another type of dish that seems to have been made for the slow cooker is soup. Hours of simmering makes the vegetables so soft that they'll almost dissolve in the stock. If you want a creamier soup, simply ladle a bit into a blender and liquidize it, then add it back into the pot. A chicken soup can be kept thin, more like a broth, to sip on when you're feeling under the weather, or you may want to add noodles to give it some substance.

You may use your crock pot for many things, from whole chickens to spaghetti sauces. You can even make sweet dishes like desserts and candy. If you have an abundance of fresh fruit or berries, prevent them from going to waste by turning them into preserves or jams.

Preparing food in the slow cooker means that you need to use less liquid, since the evaporation rate is much lower. Adding too much liquid will leave you with a soup when you didn't intend to make one. You also need to be careful about overcooking vegetables, since they might lose some of their flavor. One way to preserve flavor is to saute your chicken or other meat and vegetables first before adding the liquid. If you're worried about nutrients being destroyed by extended cooking, simply add something like lime juice or fresh herbs just before serving, since these will add some Vitamin C.

For crock pot chicken recipes and the many other ways that you can use this appliance, simply look online. You may also find ideas in the recipe booklet that often comes with the slow cooker when you buy it. However, one of the most fun ways to use your crock pot is to simply experiment with it.




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