Adventures in cooking: Lemon-tarragon crock pot chicken

[eveglass]

When I asked a few days ago for crock pot recipes using bone-in chicken breasts, the inestimable bytchearse suggested the following:

"Thick slices of onions on bottom of pot, chicken on the onions meat/skin side down. Very thin slices of lemon on top of the chicken. Chopped garlic on top of the lemon. Sprinkle with salt,pepper. Pour no more than 1/4 cup white wine down the edges of the pot. If you have fresh tarragon, place 1 or 2 small sprigs atop the whole thing (if dried, 1 teaspoon scattered over). Close the lid, then on low fo 4-5 hours or high for 2-3."


For my crock pot, this was about 2 onions, 3 chicken breasts (the fourth didn't fit in one layer and I'll use it for stir-fry or something tomorrow), and one and a half lemons. I had a bulb of garlic with all the outer cloves off, so I used most of what was left. It probably worked out to the equivalent of 3 regular-sized cloves. The white wine was "Chateau Depanneur" (i.e. corner-store table wine). I used dried tarragon, because that's what I could find. The whole thing went in at 12:30 on low and came out at about 6:00. Served with white rice and salad.

Interesting discovery of the day: You can buy wine in 1/2 litre bottles. How cool! (Or, as Marc said, "If it's really bad, at least there's not as much of it to drink.")


The result was a bit surprising. By the end, there was a lot more liquid in the crock pot than I was expecting; it pretty much covered the chicken. The chicken itself was tender (obviously) and you could definitely taste the citrus, but I couldn't taste much of the other stuff. (In fairness to bytchearse, I have a very poor sense of smell, which means I don't taste subtle flavourings.) It was a lighter flavour than I was expecting.

Final verdict: Good, but not necessarily something I'd cook again. If I do cook it again, I'm going to try marinading the chicken first and adding more salt to the crock pot.

Comments

Thanks for the compliments!

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

And glad you were pleased in general. The onions give a bit of liquid, hence the caution about adding too much liquid at the onset. I tend not to work in precise amounts all the time so your notes are very helpful!

I think I'll try it using your measurements, both with and without the lemon, and see what differences I can note. Once this cold clears up and *I* have a better sense of smell, that is :-\

Let me know what kind of marinade you use too!

Oh, and...

[bytchearse.livejournal.com]

The chicken itself would emit juices as it cooked. Duh. Can you tell I'm tired?

Re: Thanks for the compliments!

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

Nifty. Let me know how yours come out, if it's any different from mine!