For the Crockpot chicken:
- 1 whole raw chicken (cleaned and gutted, of course)
- Whatever herbs you want mixed wtih some Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- Salt and Pepper (with the herbs)
- A couple cloves of garlic (number of cloves depends on how much you like garlic)
- White Wine
- Can of "Cream of Mushroom" soup (can be any cream of soup if you don't want to do mushroom)
Directions:
First - take the cream of mushroom soup and mix 1- 1 1/2 cups of white wine (about a half bottle or so -- not a big deal, just eye ball it) together. Dump that in the crockpot.
Take the herbs that you want (I did rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper) and mix them together in a small bowl. Add some EVOO. Take the mixture and rub ALLLLL over the chicken -- both on the outside, inside the cavity, and then take some and rub it inbetween the skin and meat. Basically -give the chicken a good massage with the mixture. If you have fresh herbs, then stick a bunch in the cavity. Take the garlic and either stick it in the cavity or just drop it on the bottom of the crockpot.
Put the herb-massaged chicken in the crockpot. Turn on low for 6 -8 hours depending on the size of the chicken. Check it after 6 hours.
For the sauce (make about 20-30 minutes before you're ready to serve) :
- 1-2 whole onions (doesn't matter what kind - sweeter onions, like Walla Walla or Vidalia carmelize quicker than others, but you can use whatever you have)
- Some of the crockpot juice (just have a ladle ready so you can add as much or as little as you want) and some of the leftover white wine
- 1/2 - 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
- 2-3 good handfuls of fresh spinach
- Raw or roasted Pine nuts -- just for a little texture and garnish. You can have as much as or as little as you want.
Directions:
Carmelize the onions:
- Cut onions in half, then cut into half rings.
- Add EVOO and some butter to the pan on high heat. Heat until the oil ripples, but not burning the butter - turn heat to medium-low
- Add in onions, some salt, pepper and sugar (optional) and stir - watch and continue to stir until all the onions get a limp and browned all over - about 15-20 minutes.
Here's a couple good links on how to carmelize onions -- an article and a you tube demo:
- http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Caramelizing-Onions/Detail.aspx
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDdC-kCHSGg&feature=related
*If your pine nuts are raw - stick them on a baking sheet, add some EVOO, salt and pepper. Pop them into an oven on 300 or 350. Just watch them so they don't burn. About 5-10 minutes. Just keep checking on them and pull them whenever they're roasted. You can do this anytime too - so if you want to roast the pine nuts in advance - feel free to do so.
Once the onions are carmelized, add the mushrooms and a couple of ladles of the crockpot juice to deglaze the pan -- this will start a good sauce as well as pick up all that good stuff stuck to the bottom. Add as much as you'd like as you go along as well as adding some of the leftover white wine to thin it out if it's too rich. This is all to taste - so you just kind of gotta see what you like as it cooks. Cook for about 5 minutes or so.
Turn heat off, dump in the spinach and pine nuts. Stir until the spinach is wilted - about a minute.
Serve the chicken, sauce and whatever else you'd like! Angel hair pasta toseed in butter tastes great with this dish. Or you can do potatoes or veggies and garlic bread. Or whatever you want!
Enjoy!
****Next time, I want to try adding a can of cream of mushroom soup to the carmelized onions and crockpot juice so it makes more of a gravy. Let me know if you try it and how it works for you!
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