Half A Chicken Crock Pot

Some times it’s so ****** hot you don’t even want to think of adding any more heat to the kitchen but still want something more than a cold meal. If you have a electrical outlet on your deck, patio or anywhere outside your house, then cook a meal outside!!
Utilising a crockpot a set and forget meal is easily prepared.
Here’s one.

Recipe ingredients:
1/2 chicken with gizzards if possible
Italian sausage
Kielbasa
Celery
Green onions
White onion
Sliced mushrooms
Tomato
Bay leaf
Pepper blend
Hot pepper flakes
Cumin seed
Dill seed and weed
Broth or stock
Oil,olive oil,butter
Turnip, sliced thin
Hot sauce

Plug in crockpot and preheat on high

Dice ingredients, less tomato, mushrooms,garlic and
Sauté (optional)with the sausages , just a bit for flavour meld.
Season and adjust.

Broil or grille,(optional)1/2 of a chicken, coat with olive oil, just to brown,close to broiler heat. Both sides.

Have another cup of coffee! (3rd)

My favourite part, layering the crockpot.

Gizzards, provides flavour.
The half chicken
Any juice from the broiler pan
Smashed garlic
The sausage/vegetable mixture

Sliced tomato
Sliced Mushrooms
A shake or two of hot sauce
Broth, not too much just to coat the bottom, I don’t want chicken soup.
Bay leaves

Done ,start timer from 10:oo am
To really avoid heat build up, place the crockpot outside if you have an exterior outlet. Since we have a slight chance of rain I put up and umbrella.

Figure about 2 hours on high and a couple of hours on low.
Since my old crockpot doesn’t have blue tooth or wifi, I’ll have to manually downshift it at about noon or so.
Haven’t decided if the rice will be added later or cooked separate

It came out slightly more watery than expected, but I made a gravy out the juices.

Chicken cutlet sandwich

Chicken cutlet sandwich
A slightly spicy chicken cutlet for a tasty sandwich.

Flatten, pound and or shape chicken breast to desired thickness and dry with paper towels.

Mix and crush up mustard seeds , a small amount of coriander seeds, and mix with yellow mustard in an amount ample enough to cover both sides of the chicken breast. Or use your own spice blend.

Smear one side the chicken breast with the spiced mustard (add hot pepper flakes if desired) and flip onto a bed of bread crumbs (mustard side down).

Now smear the topside with the mustard mixture and add breadcrumbs and pat into the breast.

Carefully place the breaded chicken breast on a baking sheet that’s liberally oiled.
Repeat with other chicken breast(s) as quantity dictates.

Bake or broil. Carefully flipping as necessary , remove from tray ad set aside.
Slice onions thinly and spread out on baking sheet, spray /drizzle with oil and broil till translucent. Set aside.

Slice enough cucumbers to cover chicken breast.

Slice a French type bread (or other type) horizontally.
Broil or toast if desired.

Build the sandwich with the chicken breast topped with onions and cucumbers.

Garlic bread with onion and blue cheese

Garlic bread with onions and blue cheese
From notes :06/29/2011
With leftover French style bread slice horizontally in half
Preheat broiler.
Spread butter on each and add finely chopped white onions, garlic, and fresh oregano.
Crumble blue cheese on top and drizzle with olive oil.
Top with freshly cracked pepper blend.
Place about midway in oven (with top mounted broiler) till cheese melts and the edges of the bread darken.
Cut into finger food size slices.

Bow tie pasta salad

Italian bow tie pasta (no picture at this time)
1-1/2cup uncooked bow tie pasta
1cup pitted ripe olives,drain and halved
1/2cup zesty italian vinegarette dressing
6 oz mozzarella cheese cubed 1/2 inch
4 Roma tomatoes cut into 1/4 inch slices
1. Cook pasta and rinse with cold water and drain.
2. Combine cooked pasta and all the ingredients in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
One of Diane’s favourite recipes!

Ziti with chicken meatballs , turnip greens and tomato

In a small food processor, grind boneless chicken thighs with a small amount of italian sausage.
Remove from processor and chop a small amount of white onion. Add to the ground chicken. Add cubed bread and milk to the processor and blend. Add to the meat mixture. Season with ground tri blend peppercorns. Mix the mixture and add enough bulgar wheat to bulk up the mix, it should be wet, not too dry. Form up the ground mixture into about 1to 1-1/2 inch diameter balls, placed in a skillet with olive oil. Broil and flip as necessary to cook, baste in the olive oil while broiling. Remove from the skillet , add broth/stock to the skillet and boil ,whisk in flour and salt and pepper to desired consistency, add some turnip greens less the stems. Slice and add a tomato. Meanwhile, boil up to aldente, About 8 ounces (dry) ziti. While the sauce simmers, return the meatballs to the skillet and warm through. Add the ziti, mix to coat. Plate it up. Select wine.

Grilled chicken with bulgar wheat and gravy (sauce)

After a thunder storm that brought cooler weather it was a time to start the grille.

Salt and pepper several chicken thighs, mine happen to be boneless and skinless, none the less, coat them in olive oil. Add some vegetable stock to a skillet and boil and simmer to reduce, thicken with a flour and butter mixture  to your liking and season with salt and pepper and fresh cut sage. A splash of hot sauce added is what I like.

Prepare some  bulgar wheat, 1 cup wheat to about 3 cups of stock, sauté the bulgar with olive oil in a sauce pan add the stock, boil, simmer and cover for twenty minutes. You will have some left over bulgar for other meals.

Grill the chicken thighs , till just done, set them in the sauce.  Slice tomato and add to the sauce.

The bulgar wheat and chicken thighs are relatively plain, the flavor of the sauce ties it together.