Chicken and Dirty Rice

I'm sipping on an apple cocktail.  It's deleeeshous! And strong.  It took some stocking up of my non-existent liquor cabinet in order to make, but once as I bought the basics and made the thyme simple syrup, it was bottoms up. Okay not exactly bottoms up, since, and this is worth repeating, the drink is strong stuff.  It's not the most quick-and-easy of cocktails, but the making of a cocktail is a nice little ritual, isn't it? Plus, I feel ever so sophisticated. I fool everybody. And by "everybody" I mean my husband and the two pugs, the only living beings who are around while I engage in all this fine measuring and ice-and-liquor shaking and whatnot.

FYI--I've discovered that you don't need a real cocktail shaker to make cocktails. I used an old jam jar.  

Is there anything like the sound of ice gently clinking against glass?  It's such a happy, light tinkling sound.  Although when I hear the word "tinkle", I think of #1, and that's not what I mean in this instance.

By the way, this is not a sweet cocktail. While it has apple cider and the thyme simple syrup, don't be expecting Martinelli's (which I happen to love) with some alcohol thrown in. 

Onward to the point of this post...

As I mentioned, I've been starting to use my slow cooker and recipes from Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen.  You're like, oh my god stop mentioning ATK I can't take it anymore. And I'm like I can't. I just can't stop.

One of my favorite recipes so far is this Southern Style Chicken and Dirty Rice. Prep for slow cooker recipes can be super easy or pretty involved.  This recipe is an in-betweener.  But very worth it.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 8 ounces of kielbasa sausage, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 celery ribs, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed 
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups instant rice
• 2 scallions, sliced thin (I completely forgot these when I made the recipe, which renders them "optional")

Serves 6 to 8.

Heat oil in skillet on medium to medium high heat.  Cook kielbasa until well-browned, about 5 minutes.

While kielbasa is browning, prep your aromatics.

Add the onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper, chili powder, thyme and cayenne to the kielbasa until veggies are softened and onion is lightly browned, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Add flour. The two-word simplistic beauty of a command sentence.Which I just ruined with my rambling.

Stir for about 2 minutes to incorporate and cook flour.  Then whisk in broth, making sure to scrape up tasty bits on the bottom of the pan. Transfer mixture to slow cooker.

See? Those are the bits that you want to scrape up.  I am so helpful.

At this point you're wondering how the slow cooker makes life any easier, because this sure doesn't sound any easier than a regular recipe, and I wondered the same thing. I think this recipe is a great example of how the biggest benefit of the slow cooker comes after the prep, when you're letting it sit there doing its thing.  Be patient!

Anyway, season your chicken thighs with salt and pepper on both sides.

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and move it around a bit so that it's covered in the sauce.  Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours (I did 5 hours).

After you've gone to get a massage (or 3) and return to your slow cooker deliciousness, break apart the chicken with any utensil, or just look at it really, really intensely--the meat falls apart quite easily. Stir in rice and 1 tsp salt and cook on high for 30 minutes.

I know, you're like, why would I use instant rice?  Well, that's what the book said and we all know that ATK cooks things every which way, and they mentioned that using regular rice could lead to uneven cooking.  I don't know about you, but the last thing I wanted was for this thing to be cooking for 5 hours only to find that the dish would be ruined by misbehaving rice.  So Minute Rice it was.

This dish is really quite good, and I highly recommend it.

Ta-da!

Texas Chili and Strange Bedfellows

To slow cook or not to slow cook? That is the question.


Do you ever come across a recipe that sounds delicious, but then you realize that you are missing an important piece of equipment to make it? You know, like an immersion blender, food mill, mandoline, etc? That's how it was with me and slow cookers.  I had long heard people extolling the ease of use of slow cookers, and I felt like I was missing out on "something big".


So I did what any good bride-to-be does, and registered for a slow cooker months before my wedding.  Someone generously gifted us said slow cooker. Then same said slow cooker sat at my parents' house due to space restrictions.  Finally, after a year, same said sitting slow cooker came with me to our new, slightly more spacious digs.


And then, but only then, did I start to think about and ponder mighty hard about the virtue of a slow cooker. Did I really need one? What could a slow cooker do that a french oven/casserole couldn't? This pondering was somewhat moot at the time because the return date had long passed.


So, by default, I kept same said slow cooker that had sat until space had sprung. Do I love it? Well, I like it a lot  but wouldn't say love.  Can you do with a good ol' casserole pot what you do with a slow cooker? Well, yes, with adjustment in cooking method and time. 


Well GD-it then what's the point? 


The point is that, to blatantly rip off a certain infomercial that we all know, you can set it and forget it. You prep the ingredients (the prep can either be very simple such as throwing frozen food and broth in there, to doing something more complicated like browning meat beforehand), put them in the slow cooker, turn it on, and just leave it. You don't have to worry about an open flame, you don't have to constantly stir...you just let it be. 


I haven't quite worked up the courage to leave the slow cooker on while I'm at work because I don't want the apartment to burn down (I go apoplectic just thinking about the pugs by themselves), but that probably would be a great advantage of the slow cooker.  For now, I turn it on during the weekends and go about my business (where I'm in and out of the apartment) or leave it on overnight.  


Because, you know, it's one thing for my apartment to burn down while I'm not there, but I'm *totally* okay with it burning down while I'm still in the apartment.  My sense of logic could use some help.


But! That is for another day.


My slow cooker did, however, give me the happy excuse to buy Slow Cooker Revolution from Cook's Illustrated, a book that I am enjoying very much.


I recently made Texas Chili, apparently because Texas is known to have big hunks of beef in its chili.  This recipe uses soy sauce to help enhance flavor and tapioca to help enhance texture.  Who woulda thunk?


Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

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Oh crap--one more thing (sorry for the long intro). The original recipe is for 8 to 10 servings. I made approximately a 2/3 recipe.  I'll give the original ingredient amounts, because some of them are not easily 2/3-able and I kinda estimated.

• 3 onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1/4 cup tomato pasate
• 3 TBS vegetable oil
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 TBS ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 15oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 28-oz can tomato puree (or tomato sauce)
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tapioca or tapioca flour
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 2 TBS minced canned chipotle in adobo sauce
• 2 TBS brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 5-lb boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (as God is my witness I will buy the beef pre-cubed from now on because I can't exactly call the 30+ minutes I spent struggling to trim the chuck roast as enjoyable) 
• 3 scallions, sliced thinly

In a large bowl, combine the onion, chili powder, tomato paste, garlic, cumin and oregano.

Microwave (this helps soften the onion and blend the flavors) the mixture for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Transfer mixture to slow cooker.

Here's my big tip of the day regarding the next step, which involves the chipotle peppers in adobe sauce.  Most of them are vacuum-packed. Please be careful when you open it. I don't want to go into detail about the time that I started to open one and the very SPICY and BURNING contents SPRAYED up in to my FACE including MY EYES and ALL OVER the WALLS and even the CEILING.

So, I open the can facing away from me, very slowly, and I wear latex gloves. I know. Paranoid. 

You bitch.

Stir the chipotle, beans, tomato puree, broth, tapioca, soy sauce, sugar and bay leaves into the slow cooker along with the onion mixture. 

I know, whoever thought you'd be using the following ingredients in the same recipe.

It happens.

Season beef with salt and pepper, and add it to the slow cooker. Everybody in the pool!

Cover and cook for 9 to 11 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Let chili settle for 5 minutes and skim off any fat with a large spoon.  Discard bay leaves.  Season with salt and pepper if necessary, sprinkle with scallions, and serve.

Ta-da!


What's your opinion of/experience with slow cookers?