I think we can all agree, there is nothing worse than dry, rubbery chicken. Whether you accidentally set the timer on the oven for 10 minutes too long or walk away from the stovetop, dried out chicken is never something you’re proud to put on the table.
Overcooking chicken is something that happens more often than I’d like to admit and even the most delicious sauce can’t save the dish. Thanks to the Hamilton Beach Professional Sous Vide/6 QT Slow Cooker, overcooking my main protein is now a problem of the past.
For our sous vide chicken and asparagus with brown butter, both the chicken and the asparagus are cooked in the temperature-controlled water bath. Not only are your main and side dishes cooked together (leaving everything conveniently ready to be served at the same time), the results will make you rethink the next time you put your chicken in the oven.
The sous vide chicken is moist and tender while the asparagus maintains a bright green color and crisp texture.
Submerge your chicken and asparagus in the water bath, set the temperature and time, and walk away. Put your feet up while you wait or run a few errands. Cooking sous vide gives you maximum flexibility because once the desired internal temperature of the chicken is met, the temperature doesn’t fluctuate. Whether you come back in an hour or three, your meal will be ready and waiting – not over or undercooked.
Give the chicken a quick sear in a hot pan and drizzle the reserved brown butter over top. Finish with some cracked black pepper and fresh herbs and your delicious dinner is served. Trust me, everyone at the table (at least at mine) will enjoy eating perfectly done chicken (for once).
Select sous vide mode and set temperature to 145°F and time for 1 hour.
Prepare the brown butter. In a small saucepan over medium, heat butter and cook until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the herbs and garlic, reduce heat to low and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Strain about 4 tablespoons of the butter into a small bowl and reserve. Strain the remainder into a separate container to reserve for serving.
Prepare the chicken. In a small bowl, combine kosher salt and sugar. Season chicken breasts generously with the salt mixture.
Using the reserved 4 tablespoons of brown butter, brush each chicken breast with about 1 tablespoon of butter. Place each chicken breast in a sous vide-safe bag. Vacuum tightly and seal.
Prepare the asparagus. Place all of the asparagus, olive oil and salt to a sous vide-safe bag. Vacuum tightly and seal.
When water reaches set temperature, add chicken and asparagus to the water bath and press start.
When cooking time has ended, remove bags from water bath and open.
Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels.
In a large skillet over medium-high, heat vegetable oil. When oil begins to shimmer, add chicken to pan skin-side down. Sear chicken until skin is crispy and browned. Turn chicken and sear other side until browned. If desired, slice chicken before plating.
To serve, warm the reserved brown butter. Place asparagus on plates and top with chicken. Drizzle with brown butter.
The big game will be here before you know it. I’ve been busy buying football decorations for the house and scouring Pinterest and my favorite cookbooks for mouth-watering appetizer recipes. You can never have too many dippable, dunkable snacks on the coffee table when you’re watching the game. That’s why these deep fried BBQ Chicken Taquitos will be included in this year’s lineup.
Okay, we can all agree that everything is better deep fried, right? These taquitos are no exception. The cheese, chicken, and barbecue sauce filling gets perfectly melty and oozy while the tortilla fries to a crunchy, golden brown.
These taquitos are handheld and flavourful – two of the must-have requirements to make our gameday roster.
Drizzle a little BBQ sauce over the top of the taquitos and make any extra readily available for dipping purposes – but providing multiple sauces might be fun for your football-frenzied guests. These taquitos would gladly take a dive in chipotle ranch, steaming hot queso, or fresh salsa. Break out the deep fryer, turn on the game, and open wide. Calories don’t count on gameday, right?
In a medium bowl, combine chicken, cheese and barbecue sauce.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of chicken mixture toward one edge of a tortilla. Sprinkle with cilantro and green onions. Roll tortilla to enclose filling. Secure with wooden skewer. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Fry taquitos 3 to 4 at a time, turning once, until golden brown about 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Serve with additional barbecue sauce.
Being from an Italian family means there’s balsamic vinegar on the kitchen counter and the dining room table at all times. Whether I’m using it to dress a simple caprese salad or making a balsamic reduction to top my protein of the day, it probably gets the most use other than salt and pepper in my kitchen.
The thick, tangy vinegar seems to be popping up in recipes and kitchens more and more. I’ve seen balsamic chicken over and over again on Pinterest throughout the year. Whether it’s used as a taco filler, to top salads, or shredded and put on a slider bun, not a day goes by where I don’t see a variation of the dish.
If balsamic vinegar is on the ingredient list it couldn’t be bad, right? Right. The Test Kitchen developed our own recipe for balsamic chicken and talk about winner, winner chicken dinner.
The balsamic vinegar paired with honey, chives, and garlic leaves the chicken wildly flavorful (salty, sweet, and sour at the same time) while cooking it slowly gives the legs and thighs a moist, fall-off-the-bone texture you wouldn’t believe. And the red onions and sweet potatoes cook with the chicken in the slow cooker, enabling you to put a balanced meal on the table when it’s all said and done.
Serve balsamic chicken legs and thighs family-style. There’s plenty to go around and the full platter makes a statement in the middle of the table. And be sure to serve with crispiest, crunchiest baguette you can find – you won’t want any of that balsamic vinegar sauce to go to waste. Whether you are gathering around the table with the family during the week or having some of your closest friends over for a dinner party, slow cooker balsamic chicken is sure to have everyone at your table saying molto bene.
Pho is one of my favourite cold-weather foods. In my mind, the broth has unexplainable healing powers. Some people have their go-to chicken noodle soup for chilly days or when they are feeling under the weather – I have pho.
While I usually order in from one of the various pho restaurants in town (there are too many to count), making slow cooker chicken pho means I can stay in my pajamas, save a little cash, and avoid the blustery cold weather. Score.
It’s easy to make the base of this pho in the slow cooker. Just combine chicken broth, brown sugar, and a variety of spices including star anise, cloves, ginger, lemongrass, and cinnamon. Add chicken thighs and breasts to the crock and cook on HIGH for 2 ½ hours or on LOW for 4 to 5 hours until the chicken is cooked and tender.
Remove the chicken from the crock and strain the broth using a cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve and a colander. Pour the broth back into the crock, add rice noodles, and continue to cook until the noodles are soft and plump.
Slice or shred the chicken breasts and add to the pho broth and noodles. If you want to enjoy your pho just like you would at your favourite restaurant, serve with plenty of toppings. We topped ours with chili peppers, chili sauce, Thai basil, bean sprouts, and hoisin sauce but you could add extra chilis and sriracha for added spice or even extra steamed vegetables like mushrooms, carrots, or broccoli.
Not only is this soup easy to make in your slow cooker, you can wow your family or friends with the presentation. Whether you are eating a restorative bowl in your coziest pajamas or having this Vietnamese noodle soup for a weeknight dinner, you’ll soon pho-rget you ever had it any other way.
In a slow cooker crock, combine chicken broth and brown sugar. Add garlic, star anise, cloves, ginger, lemongrass, cinnamon, cilantro and peppercorns. Arrange chicken and onion in an even layer in crock.
Cover slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or LOW for 4 to 5 hours or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken from crock. Line a colander with cheesecloth and strain broth. Pour broth back into crock. Set on HIGH. Add rice noodles and cook until noodles are soft, about 25 minutes.
Slice chicken breasts for soup, discarding bones. Reserve dark meat for another use.
To serve, pour noodles and broth into bowls. Add sliced chicken and desired accompaniments.
When I’m feeling lazy and craving takeout, Thai food is usually my go-to. While ordering takeout is a habit I know many people can’t shake, with just a little prep and help from your slow cooker, you can have a delicious homemade Thai curry ready for you when you get home, without paying a delivery fee.
In the slow cooker vessel, stir coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce, sugar, salt, and crushed red pepper. Add chicken, garlic, carrots, onion and ginger to the coconut milk mixture and stir until the chicken and vegetables are coated. Cook on HIGH for 2 ½ hours or LOW for 4 hours.
Add sliced bell pepper and bok choy to the crock and finish cooking on HIGH for an additional 30 minutes or on LOW for another hour. Stir in basil, cilantro and lime juice and shred the chicken before serving.
Serve this Coconut Thai Curry Chicken over cooked rice (jasmine or basmati would be delicious) with a little extra basil (or Thai basil, if it’s available in your local market) and maybe even some sriracha if you like your Thai food hot and prepare to rethink your addiction to the neighborhood Thai restaurant. And the best part? Not only are you able to control the ingredients and the salt in the dish, you’re saving a little cash.
Thai Coconut Chicken Curry in the Slow Cooker
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 can (14 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk
3 tablespoon red curry paste
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diagonally sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, cut into eighths
1 piece (1-inch) ginger, peeled and minced
1 medium red pepper, cut into strips
1 cup sliced bok choy
1/2 cup sliced basil leaves
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
Cooked rice
Instructions
In a slow cooker crock, stir coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce, sugar, salt and dried crushed red pepper.
Add chicken, garlic, carrots, onion and ginger to coconut milk mixture. Stir until chicken and vegetables are coated.
Cover slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 2 1/2 hours or LOW for 4 hours.
Add red pepper and bok choy to crock. Cover and cook on HIGH an additional 30 minutes or LOW for 1 hour.
Stir in basil, cilantro and lime juice before serving.
Shred chicken before serving. Serve over cooked rice.
