Brown Sugar Chicken in the Crock Pot

The title alone of this recipe should clue you in that it's good. Sugar + Crock Pot = Good.

But just in case that didn't get the point across, I'll tell you, this recipe is good.

This chicken is not winning any awards for prettiest meal. In fact, as I was dishing it up, I was a little nervous about how good this was going to taste because it wasn't super pretty. But after I took my first bite I paused and told Kyle, "Oh this is good."

There you have it - it's good.

AND EASY!

I had pinned this recipe on Pinterest a long time ago but it got lost in Pinland for a while, so I'm glad I noticed it on my board again.

The only troublespot I had with this recipe is that the "sauce" was super duper liquidy - I'm not sure if maybe cooking this on high instead of low would solve that problem? Or I guess reducing the amount of liquid would help, but I'm not sure how that would affect the flavor of the chicken. Here are some options:

* Try cooking it on high for a shorter amount of time vs. on low.

* For the last hour of cooking, take the lid off of the crock pot to allow some of the liquid to reduce and evaporate (just keep an eye on it). 

* Reduce the sauce on the stove (this is what I did). To do this, spoon out a good amount of the sauce into a sauce pan, and simmer it on the stove until the liquid has thickened into more of a glaze (I think this took mine probably around 10-15 minutes). Stir or whisk frequently during this time. You can tell the difference in the picture above - the liquid on the plate is the liquid that came out of the crock pot with the chicken, but then notice on top of the chicken the thick glaze - that was the reduced sauce. In my opinion, this was TOTALLY WORTH the effort it took for the flavor it added to the chicken. But it would still taste good without it!

This is sort of barbecue-y? A lot of the same components, minus the ketchup and onion and adding soy sauce and Sprite. It was kinda sweet, kinda tangy...it was just delicious!

When I made this I halved the recipe with just three chicken breasts. The original recipe says you can also use thighs or drumsticks...I'm just a white meat only type of person.

Brown Sugar Chicken

Original Recipe

6 chicken breasts (frozen or thawed)

1 cup of brown sugar

4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

2/3 cup of apple cider vinegar (or white, if that's what you have)

1/4 cup Sprite or other lemon lime soda (just not diet)

2 TBS soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

Spray your crock pot with cooking spray. Put the chicken in the bottom. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the chicken, followed by the garlic, salt and pepper. Add the vinegar and soy sauce. Then pour in the Sprite. Cook on low for 6-9 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

I served mine with zucchini and potatoes, which was a hit with my husband, but you could serve it with any type of vegetable side dish. We are normally big rice fans with chicken, but I don't personally think this would go perfectly with rice - the chicken was great as a stand alone!

Parmesan Spaghetti Bake

This recipe is pretty much spaghetti taken to the next level. But a level down from Million Dollar Spaghetti.

I will specify that this recipe requires grated parmesan cheese (like, the kind in the can/plastic container), which I bring from America, because it's really expensive to buy here. And you'll also notice in the above picture that we had the added bonus of some deli style sliced pepperoni that my mom brought over for us from America. But prior to that very welcome addition to our pantry, I'd made this recipe several times with just cheese on top and no pepperoni, and it was still great! 

I normally use spaghetti noodles in this recipe, but when I went to make it last week I was out of spaghetti and only had linguine. However, I think I liked the linguine even better! But you can use any pasta you wish - spaghetti, linguine, fettucini, even shaped pasta like penne or rotini. Whatever you have on hand!

VEGETABLE BONUS - I add a big handful of chopped spinach right into the sauce, and you'd never even notice taste wise! You could also add some grated zucchini into this as you're browning the chicken, but most recently I served this with THIS ZUCCHINI on the side and it was delightful.

To make your spaghetti sauce, you can obviously spend the big bucks to get a jar of Ragu, or use an Indian version of spaghetti sauce, or you can make your own using tomato puree and some basic spices - Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Oregano, Basil, Parsley, Salt & a little Sugar.

I have another one of those "I don't measure my ingredients" confessions here. Ahem, I don't measure the amount of each spice I put in. I said it, and I'm sorry. I did take a picture to give you an idea:

Ok, you can't really see the sugar (I add about a tsp or two, just to take the bite off of the tomato), and about a half tsp of salt. You also can't see the onion powder or garlic powder. But in the picture, the top spice is the oregano, the one to the right is the basil, and the bottom is the parsley. Proportionally, I use the most of garlic powder (because I love garlic), and oregano (because it adds that super Italian-y flavor). Just add spices until it smells like spaghetti sauce, yeah? Give it a taste and adjust as needed.

Ok, here are the full directions!

Parmesan Spaghetti Bake

250 grams of pasta

1 lb chicken keema (ground chicken)

1-2 boxes of tomato puree

Spices for sauce (see above)

2-3 TBS of butter

1/3 - 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Shredded "pizza cheese" (mozzarella) for topping

Boil your pasta according to the package directions.

Brown your chicken keema in a pot until it is cooked through. Add the tomato puree and spices to the chicken (or canned spaghetti sauce). Warm until heated through. 

When your pasta is done cooking, drain it, and then transfer back into the pot. Add the butter and grated parmesan cheese and stir well. Grease a small casserole dish, then pour the pasta into the dish. Next pour the spaghetti sauce over the pasta and smooth out evenly. Sprinkle the top with grated pizza cheese (and pepperoni as a bonus!). 

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 20-30 minutes, until the cheese on top is melted and the whole thing is heated through.
Double the recipe for a 9x13 size casserole, although you could still only use 1 lb. of chicken and have it be more sauce heavy vs. meat heavy. 

How To: Black Beans

I love black beans. I loooooooooove them.

Before living in India, I had never cooked black beans from the dry bean; I had only ever used canned black beans. It took me a few a LOT of tried to actually get them soft and cooked right. So here is how I like to do it!

I buy a bag of the black beans, called "Jammu Rajma" at my grocery store. 

Here's what they look like!

Dump them into a big bowl, and cover them with an inch of (filtered) water. Let them soak overnight.

The next day, you have one of two cooking options:

1) Pressure cooker (faster)

2) Slow cooker (uh, slower, but requires less attention)

Drain the water you soaked the beans in and rinse them off. If you're using a pressure cooker, dump the beans into the pressure cooker and cover them with about a half inch of water. Let them cook in the pressure cooker for about 8-10 "whistles", then check to see if they're soft enough for you. (Confession...my house helper always pressure cooks my black beans, so I'm kind of guessing on the amount of time it takes to cook them). 

** Note on using your pressure cooker - be sure ALL the pressure is out before trying to open it! You can just let it sit awhile until the pressure naturally disperses, or you can use tongs or another long handled utensil to hold open the pressure valve and allow more steam to escape. Or you can put your pressure cooker in the sink and pour cold (filtered) water over the outside of it, which also helps decrease the temperature and pressure. 

If you are using your slow cooker, dump your rinsed beans into the slow cooker, and then fill it with water about an inch above the beans. Cook them on high for several hours (I think mine cooked for at least 6-7 hours before they were soft). This is a great option if you don't need them in a hurry and don't want to pay attention to the pressure cooker.

After your beans are cooked, you can portion them out into smaller containers to refrigerate or freeze.

I like to put about 2 cups of beans per container, which is roughly the amount in a can of beans. Cover the beans with some of the liquid they cooked in to keep them from getting dry in the freezer. Allow the beans to cool COMPLETELY before putting in the freezer! Now you have cooked beans on hand whenever you need them! Just pull them out of the freezer and let them thaw before cooking dinner, or you can thaw them in the microwave if you forgot to pull them out early enough. 

I also really like to cook some of the black beans with some seasoning to use on taco bowls, salads, or to quickly make some Black Bean Quesadillas. Here's what to do:

Finely chop one small onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic.

Add your black beans, enough water to cover them, and the onions & garlic to a pot. Add about 3-4 tsps of cumin, and a tsp of chili powder, plus salt to taste. (If you want to add a kick of heat, add a few shakes of crushed red pepper). Bring this all to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 20ish minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft and it smells delicious. The beans are obviously already cooked; you're just letting the onions and garlic cook and all the flavor to simmer together.

Tastiness simmering away

Either serve immediately, or you can refrigerate or freeze just like the unseasoned beans! I could seriously eat these beans with just a big bowl of rice - yum. 

Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

Let's continue right along with the soup theme, shall we?

This creamy chicken and rice soup is a great cousin to Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup. In fact, one day I was making both soups side by side for a big group dinner, and had to keep reminding myself which one would ultimately be which.

I'm going to direct you to the original recipe I used, because I really only had to make a minor change.

Because I can't find wild rice here, I just used basmati rice. But the one time I tried cooking the rice in with the soup as the recipe suggests, it turned into just a big pile of rice mush as opposed to soup (which still tasted good, but, texture wise left a lot to be desired). So instead, just cook the rice separately and stir it in at the end. Because your rice isn't cooking in the soup, you can decrease the amount of liquid - so only add the 6 cups of chicken broth (6 cups of water + 6 chicken cubes thrown in the crock pot), and omit the extra 2 cups of water.

Before serving, cook 1 cup of basmati rice according to the package directions. Take the chicken out and shred it. Make the milk/flour mixture (let it get really thick), and then stir the milk mixture, shredded chicken, and cooked basmati rice all in at the same time just before serving.

Also, I didn't have official poultry seasoning, but I found a spice at the store called "mixed herbs" that seemed to have a lot of the same spices. If you don't have these, you could add a dash of thyme, rosemary, and parsley (go easy on the rosemary, or your soup will taste like a Christmas tree). 

RECIPE LINK