Adventures in Crock Pottery - Curry Chicken

There's nothing better than coming home and having dinner ready and waiting for you on the counter. There's also nothing better than winning the lottery, but that's not really in the cards for me (at least not today).

Allow me to preface this entry by saying that I've not had good luck with crock pots. My boyfriend has even worse luck than I do (sorry Aric, but you know it's true). I don't know how we do it, but stuff in the crock pot just doesn't have that warm, tasty, delicious, comforting quality that other peoples' crock pots spit out.

I made lentil soup in the crock pot a few weeks ago (because I was still trying to figure out what to do with the damn lentils), and it was not pretty. Everything was kind of floating on its own, the soup didn't really come together in a soup-y way, and, to top it all off, the lentils were still hard and dry. They hadn't absorbed any water, and they'd been cooking on high for EIGHT HOURS.

So yeah. Crock pots? Not really my thing.

But I am stubborn, if nothing else, and rarely learn from past mistakes. So when I found a recipe for crock pot chicken curry, I had to try it.

Guess what, you guys?

IT'S FREAKING AMAZING!

I work 10am - 6pm, and my boyfriend works 2pm - 9pm, so he threw it together before he went to work, so it could cook for the allotted "3-5 hours." He actually texted me to tell me how it went. His description?

"It smells good but looks like vomit. Perfect crock pot meal!"

See? We both have a similar way with words. Farts and vomit, folks, that's all you're getting out of us!

Anyway, I came home and the house smelled sweet and spicy and wonderful. I lifted the lid, gave the stuff a stir, and had a sample spoonful. I had a lot of trouble not eating it all while I waited for my rice to cook. (I refuse to use minute rice - it's just creepy. I mean, what do they put in it that it can cook that quickly???)

And now, what you've all been waiting for...the main event!

CROCKPOT CHICKEN CURRY
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup onion
1 cup tomato
1/4 cup EVOO
2 tbsp. ginger powder
2 tbsp. rosemary
3 tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. turmeric
1/3 cup lime juice
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground red chili pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
1) Dice chicken, onion, and tomato.
2) Mix all of the ingredients together in the crock pot.
3) Cook on low for 3-5 hours.
4) Serve over rice.

WHAT ARIC DID DIFFERENTLY
1) We don't have tomatoes yet (the garden isn't quite ready), so he used half a can of diced tomatoes.
2) We don't have rosemary, either, so we substituted 1/2 tsp. thyme and 1/2 tsp. tarragon. Did you know that there are whole websites devoted to herb and spice substitutions??? Perfect for someone like me, who rarely reads the instructions fully to make sure she has everything before she gets halfway through and goes "oops, I don't have that."
3) Bottled lime juice is just as good as squeezing limes, in my opinion. I can't taste the difference. So how do I know he used bottled juice? I saw the squeezey lime in the kitchen trash.

THE BOTTOM LINE
This dish is mighty tasty and mighty easy to prepare. The cooking time is a little weird - you could probably leave it going for 8 hours, since that's a normal workday, but I don't know.

And it really is the perfect crock pot dish - smells and tastes yummy, but looks like something your stomach rejected upon arrival.

This recipe is a keeper!