Chicken with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms

Today was one of those days I was so glad that I did a crockpot meal. Granted I don't think I'd do this one during a weekday again because it took 45 minutes of prep before I even drank my coffee. Not pretty, but do able. I was not too late to work, but now that I know it takes me almost an hour in the morning? Yeah, totally would make this for company on the weekend, but not during a weekday.

So this morning I rolled out of bed, took a shower and then cut up and fried a 1/2lb of bacon (Win!). That was the good news, the bad news is I smelled like bacon all day... Ok, that could be a good thing too, but I digress. As I mentioned this took 45 minutes this morning which when you think about it isn't that long and it had such great taste that it was well worth it. This evening after a full day at work, I decided I needed to detail my car so we actually didn't eat until nearly 9pm and I was HUNGRY. This means I skipped the final step of making gravy and just ate everything as is. It worked, but gravy would have been better. Real-simple, where I got the recipe, shows it being served over mashed potatoes, and I have to agree that would have made this a near perfect meal, so keep that in mind when you make this (because trust me, you'll want to!).  You could probably substitute Turkey Bacon in this meal if you have an issue with regular bacon, but you'd have to add some olive oil to the pan to brown the chicken...  Goodness I keep getting ahead of myself so that means I should just move onto the recipe.

Here is the original link: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/slow-cooker-recipe-chicken-bacon-10000000614073/index.html

Crockpot Chicken with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms

Ingredients 

1/2  pound sliced bacon (diced) 

6 chicken thighs (or breasts) 

1/2  cup  dry white wine(I used 2 buck chuck Pinot grigio) 

1/2  pound small white mushrooms 

1  cup  frozen small white onions (aka pearl onions) 

6 cloves of garlic, crushed 

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary (or 1 TBS of dried rosemary) 

1/4  cup  water 

2  tablespoons  cornstarch 

Salt and pepper.

Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium-low heat until crisp.

With a slotted spoon, transfer it to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker.

Pour off all but a light coating of fat from the skillet.

Add the chicken and brown over medium-high heat; transfer to the cooker.

Totally needed the splatter guard! Almost burnt the daylights out of myself!

Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape up any browned bits;

Add the skillet contents to the cooker, along with the mushrooms, onions, garlic, rosemary, and salt & pepper.

Soooo, my Rosemary was a bit worse for the wear as you can see. It was deader than a 1" squirrel on the road So I had to go with dried. It still worked and tasted good!

All the "other stuff" I used crushed garlic cubes again instead of cutting up my own garlic because its fast and I like it.

Look at that! Doesn't that look lovely? I think it is pretty delicious looking!

Cover and cook on low heat for 6 hours, or on high for 3 hours.

 

All cooked! YUM!

 Remove the chicken, veggies and bacon from the crockpot and set aside (keeping warm)
Pour the sauce into the gravy separator and then pour bottom liquid into a small saucepan.

THIS IS WHAT I FORGOT TO DO BUT WOULD HAVE BEEN TASTY. Combine the water and cornstarch; stir it into the sauce. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

Pour over the chicken & serve!

Almost like a lighter coq au vin! So yummy!

 So bottom line, TRY THIS AT HOME! Just be prepared to spend about 45 minutes to cook the bacon and brown the chicken.
Happy Eating ya'll!