Help Me Use My Slow Cooker - Chicken Idea

Cafe Society
#1

OK, I have a slow cooker. I have chicken (now thawed, but safely in the refrigerator). I have canned chickpeas (chicken+chickpeas is a household favorite). We’re starting with those two, and I have chicken bullion if it seems a good idea to boost the “chicken” aspect of this idea.

Now, vegetables and stuff - I have:

  • “restaurant mix” mushrooms - baby bella, oyster, and shiitake
  • just plain old baby bellas
  • carrots (fresh and canned)
  • celery (will probably use leafy parts for this)
  • potato (a baking potato, instant mashed potatoes, and canned potatoes)
  • onions and/or garlic (but the spouse says go easy on the onions due to overwhelming odor incidents in the past. Maybe use the green onions?)
  • green beans (frozen and canned)
  • red, orange, and yellow bell peppers (mostly for color, I think)

For the sauce/broth part of this I have a selection of possibilities:

  • condensed cream of celery soup
  • condensed cream of mushroom soup
  • turkey gravy

Now, I know there are people here with more slow cooker experience than myself - what combinations would folks suggest I use? And yes, I do know that anything frozen needs to be thoroughly defrosted before slow cooking.

(No, I’m not adding hot sauce or a lot of seasonings - I tend to make large food batches pretty bland, then add something just before serving. It also keeps things interesting if I can vary the flavor over the 3-4 days we’re likely to be eating this.)

#2

When you say sauce/broth are you more looking for a “roast” with gravy, or stew?

#3

Do you have chicken pieces or a whole chicken? I’ve never cooked pieces in a slow cooker unless I was making pot pie filling, in which case they were covered in water anyway, but the times I’ve cooked a whole chicken in there, extra liquid has been totally unnecessary.

For a whole chicken, I would put half an onion, a carrot or so, and maybe a third of a stalk of celery (I don’t care for the stuff, and it flavors things up pretty powerfully) in the cavity, pop a touch of butter and some salt and pepper on the skin, and get it mostly cooked before adding other veggies. Your taters and carrots would probably hold together if you put them in at the start, but they’d be really soft. Your mushrooms, green beans, and peppers would probably just dissolve. Which actually might make for an interesting sauce, come to think of it.

#4

From what you have. I’d use fresh carrots, diced potatoes, celery, some onions, cream of mushroom soup.

I would add 1 can of chicken broth, pepper, little salt and basil.

I usually rest the chicken on a bed of potatoes in the crock pot so that theres some flow.

#5

Seconded, but I would add a couple large pieces of dill on top if you have it.

#6

It’s chicken pieces. I have a small slow cooker, I couldn’t possibly fit a whole chicken inside of it. At least, not unless I cut it up first, it’s not “chicken shaped”

So… cook the chicken and add the veggies the last hour or two?

And yes, I’m aiming for a stew/thick soup sort of effect, to be served over noodles.

#7

I’d add everything in at the start. From my experience your going to need more than two hours to cook raw carrots and potatoes in a crock pot. If your using canned veggies yeah you could probably add them during the last two hours.

If the cream of mushroom soup doesn’t get your desired thick stew effect, It should. You can add about 1/8 of a cup of flour during the last hour. It will thicken it up.