// Finally Lose Weight

Looking for an easy and delicious dinner idea ~ why not chicken? There are a million things you can do with chicken and it is a very affordable and nutritious meat. One of my favorite ways to cook chicken is in the crock pot. Here are some tips to creating delicious chicken dishes in the crock pot.

Chicken is a favorite staple of the American diet. People raise chickens and other poultry on farms. They are plentiful and can be prepared more readily than a cow or a pig. If you visit any relatives in the Deep South, you are sure to have a chicken dinner at least once or twice a week.

You can cook all parts of the chicken in a crock pot. Just like when frying or baking you have to be careful about temperature settings, and how different parts of the chicken will cook. If you cook a whole chicken in the crock pot you will find the thighs, legs and wings will cook faster than the breast which are thicker.

If you are cooking chicken pieces with bones in, you are in luck. These pieces are less likely to dry out in a slow cooker. However, you have to be a little more careful with boneless breast pieces. Without enough liquid, and cooking them too long you may find they dry out.

One way to avoid drying out is to cook chicken from frozen. The great thing about a slow cooker is that it works well whether the meat is frozen or thawed. Thawed meat will of course need less cooking time because the heat works directly to cook the meat. If the chicken is frozen, the heat defrosts the chicken before actually cooking it.

Make sure you rinse your chicken before you put it in the crock pot. Once you have rinsed your chicken you can go ahead and season it before you put it in the crock pot.

A liquid is needed at the start of cooking. Instead of water, add some seasoned chicken broth to infuse the meat with flavor. Another hint is to lightly flour and saut the chicken for a couple of minutes before slow cooking. The bits from the pan will flavor the broth in the slow cooker even more. Frozen chicken needs very little liquid as liquid will be created as the chicken defrosts.

You can also add vegetables in with your meat. You can use just about any vegetable in the crock pot, but some will hold up better than others. Green beans are a veggie you want to add in for the last 30 minutes of cooking or so. The crock pot can also change the flavor of vegetables. Peppers are one example of this. Peppers will turn bitter if cooked too long in the crock pot, so add these in the last 30 minutes as well.

Crock pots can varied widely in cooking temperature. This is why you see such wide cooking time frames in recipes. You have to test your crock pot a few times so you will know which end of the cooking time your particular machine is on. When cooking chicken you will have to cook chicken parts at least 3 hours. Frozen chicken needs to be cooked the maximum amount of time. If you are in a hurry you can switch to the high setting. For every one on high it equals 2 hours on the low setting.

Any spices you add to chicken dishes can be left for last. Fresh herbs will infuse quickly throughout the meal so an hour in the cooker is good. Dried spices can take a bit longer to flavor so add about two hours before the meal is done. Stir up the dish so the herbs and spices are evenly distributed.