Friday, May 13, 2011

Plump thighs and flavorful fungi

If you read here because you’re my friend on Facebook, then you know Nancy and I started Weight Watchers a little over a week ago. So you may be wondering what this has done to our little crock pot venture.

Let me tell you…we got a great recipe from none other than the Weight Watchers site.

So as not to violate any copyright laws, since you actually have to be a member of their online tools to get to the recipe, I won’t post it here, but I will describe it. If you want the actual recipe, you can email me and we’ll talk.

It was highlighted as a recipe of the week, so I clicked. The title sounded yummy: Chicken, mushroom and brown rice.

The base of the recipe was chicken thighs (which, I have found over the weeks, fare far better than breast meat for all day cooking), leeks, carrots, celery, cremini mushrooms, and brown Arborio rice.

BROWN Arborio rice??? Yes, folks, it exists. I’ve never had it, but I’ve seen it in stores. Sadly, I did not get it for this recipe. We used our rice cooker, cooked the rice in that and added the cooked rice to the crock pot about 30 minutes before we ate. But next time I will be prepared with the requested ingredient because I’m curious about this strange-sounding product.

The seasonings…well, they didn’t get to join the party until late. I was so excited that I’d done all my veggie chopping prep the night before (with my beautiful new knife) that I forgot I needed to measure out the Worcestershire, mustard, sage and salt. So the seasonings only went in about 45 minutes before dinner was ready. Whoops.

Still and all, it was a very tasty dish. The rice cooked in chicken broth, so it was nicely flavored all on its own. And the chicken had a modified mirepoix to help flavor it. The only thing in the recipe that I deliberately didn’t do is brown the chicken before it went into the pot. It’s not necessary for the cooking of the dish, only to help add some flavor. Maybe next time.

The flavors were subtle, but well rounded. I could taste all of the flavors I’d put in to create the end product. It was eight servings, so it lasted the whole week and we didn’t get tired of it. And since it was only 5 points per serving, we got to have a bite of chocolate for dessert every night. :o)

I might add a little extra mustard and Worcestershire next time, just to experiment. It certainly wasn’t bland, but I thought it could use a little more oomph. Perhaps next time I’ll add what the recipe calls for at the beginning of the cooking process and then taste and add a little more if I think it needs it.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. We will be making it again. Soon.

On a related note, I experienced something today that I’ve never experienced before.

Crock pot envy.

One of the gals in my office had made chicken the night before for a pot luck and brought it in her crock pot just to warm it up.

This thing had a timer on it and four temperature settings. You could set the timer for it to cook at one temp, then tell it to switch temps to low or keep warm or whatever for another amount of time.

I mean, I knew they existed, but I’d never actually seen one before with my own eyes.

And when I set eyes on it, I was envious.

That isn’t to say I’m going to go out and buy one tomorrow. We have two perfectly good crock pots here. We’re not going to need one for a long time.

But when we do? We’re getting one with a timer.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week and I’ll see you again next Friday!

1 comment:

Maia Strong said...

I am really intrigued by this one, but where did you find brown arborio rice? Email me the recipe, too, please-and-thank-you? ::bats eyelashes::