Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Tonight's Crockpot Dinner= Yummy!

This morning as I was running around the house yelling at my kids to eat, get their shoes on, put their snack in their backpack, to stop playing the DSi, brush their teeth, etc., I was trying to throw dinner into the crockpot.  I decided to fix the Mediterranean Chicken Breast with Wild Rice recipe. I had planned on a Sherry Pork Loin, but forgot to pull the loin out of the freezer last night before bed, so I decided on the chicken recipe.  I am attempting to make new foods and thought I would try my hand at a Mediterranean dish and to my surprise, it turned out GREAT!  My husband even went back for seconds.

Here is the recipe which I got out of the Quick Crockpot Dinners Cookbook:

Mediterranean Chicken Breast and Wild Rice



1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 cup wild rice blend
10 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 cup Sun dried tomatoes in oil
1/2 cup capers, drained
2 cups water
1/4 cup EVOO
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

I changed the recipe a bit and did about 1.5 lbs. of split chicken breast with the skin still on.  I removed the skin after cooking, but I wanted the oil and richness of the skin to flavor the food!  I also used 4 cloves of garlic because that was all I had and then I used Uncle Ben's Wild Rice Box (without the seasoning).  I didn't measure the rice; I just dumped the whole box in!  Some people like my husband have to follow the directions to the T, but I'm not that way.  I hardly ever measure, I just guess and it usually ends up working out fine!

Directions:  Place chicken in the bottom of the crockpot and season with salt and pepper.  Then add uncooked rice, smashed garlic cloves, tomatoes, and drained capers; stir well.  Then mix water, lemon juice (I used it out of a bottle- I didn't have time to juice a lemon this morning!), and oil in a small mixing bowl.  Pour the mixture over the rice and chicken.  Stir once to coat chicken.  Cover with lid and cook for about 8 hours.  I have to be honest with you, since I forgot to pull out the pork loin out of the freezer last night, I used frozen, split chicken breast in my recipe.  The chicken cooked well and I couldn’t' tell that it had been frozen.  It didn't delay the cooking time either.  I put the chicken in at 8:00am and dumped all the ingrediants on top and we ate at 5:15pm.

The kids did not like the rice mixture, but they ate a little bit of it.  They did eat all their chicken though.  We have never cooked with capers and sun dried tomatoes, so I think this was a change for their taste buds.  Have you ever tried capers?  I had heard of them before and many recipes call for them, but I had absolutely no idea what they were.  Do you know what they are?  They are young flower buds from the caper plant, found in the Middle East.  They are usually found in jars filled with vinegar.  The capers have a distinct taste and are very salty, so it is a good idea to rinse them off before you use them.  I hope you consider trying this recipe!  I would recommend it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

sounds great reba will def. have to give it a try