Kosher Crockpot Herbed Chicken

I whipped this up for a Chicago themed Murder Mystery Party where one of my guests didn't like garlic. Tragic, I know, but it happens. I wanted a crockpot main dish with a nice sauce to put on pasta and a vaguely Italian-American flair without that most stereotypical of Italian spices.

• 6 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 medium onion
• 2 bell peppers (your choice of red, green, or yellow)
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 3 tbsp oregano
• 3 tbsp thyme
• 2 tbsp basil
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• 1/2 tbsp marjoram
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Mix all of the spices, salt, and pepper together in a bowl.

Dice the onions into small pieces and pile them at the bottom of your crockpot. Trust me on this. If you put the meat straight on the bottom, the part touching the crockpot will end up tough and overcooked.

Sprinkle about 1/4 of the spice over the onions. Top them with a single layer of chicken. Now sprinkle half the remaining spice mix on top of the chicken. Add another layer, then add more spices - it's kind of like making an all meat lasagna at this point. If it looks like you'll need more than 2 layers of chicken, just make sure each layer gets a roughly equal amount of spicing.

Once your crockpot is full of onions and chicken, add the bell peppers. For this, I like them cut into large square pieces - perhaps 2 inches on a side. You're welcome to cut the peppers into strips if you prefer. Either way, spread them on top of the chicken. Now open the can of diced tomatoes and dump it on top of the whole mess.

Put the lid on your crockpot and turn it to "low" for 4 - 5 hours. Resist the urge to peek. When you take the chicken out, the breasts will probably fall into 2 - 3 pieces. You may have to be extra careful with the bottom ones. Oh, the juicyness.

If you're serving this with pasta, polenta, or rice, scoop the chicken out carefully, give the rest a good stir, and use it as a topping. Otherwise, I recommend a hearty bread to help soak everything up.

If you'd like a chunkier sauce, add another can of diced tomatoes after you remove the chicken. (I'd recommend a can of the basil, garlic, and oregeno spiced ones.) Stir well and use the sauce as a topping.

VARIATIONS

If you're making this for a seder meal, I recommend switching to bone-in chicken breasts with skin. They keep their form better when left overnight at a low heat. Rub a generous amount of the spice mix under the skin and coat the outside of the skin with the rest. Pile in as many breasts as you can squeeze into your crockpot. Shove the onions, tomatoes, and peppers in around the breasts. Set the crockpot at "keep warm" just before sundown and you should be in good shape for a hot meal at lunch the next day. I haven't tried this personally, so if you do, please let me know how it works out.

Unsurprisingly, I happen to believe this recipe would benefit greatly from 4 - 6 cloves of minced garlic.

A can of diced chile peppers added when you add the tomatoes could spice this up nicely as well.

Kosher Vegan Pan Fried Basil and Herb Carrots

These were a happy accident. I wanted to make some lightly pan fried fingerling potatoes as part of a Hanukkah dinner. Oh, yes. While the rest of the country is dressing their dogs up to have photos taken with Santa, I'm indulging in the sinful delights of fried foods. The festival of lights is my excuse to enjoy donuts for breakfast, latkes and applesauce for dinner, and delicious experiments with oil.

On a whim, I decided to peel some carrots and throw them in alongside some herbed heirloom potatoes. At the end of the meal, the incidental carrots had been eagerly consumed while the allegedly main course potatoes sat lonely and accusing on the plate, wondering why they weren't loved.

• 1 pound carrots
• 3 - 4 tbsp basil oil
• 1 tbsp Herbs de Provence
• 1 tsp salt

Peel the carrots and cut them into 1.5 - 2 inch chunks. If you cut them on a diagonal, you'll have more surface area. This means more of the carrots natural sugars will be caramelized by the heat. Caramelization means tasty goodness.

Bring 3 tbsp basil oil to a medium heat in a large, sturdy skillet. Add the salt and mix well. Now add the carrots and stir until they're well coated in oil. If they look a little dry, add another tbsp.

Now comes the easy yet boring part. Stir fry the carrots until they're cooked through. This should take about 15 minutes. You don't need to hover over them nonstop. Go ahead and give them a good stir 3 - 4 times while cooking, just enough to make sure none of the chunks end up with one side burned and the other side raw.

After fifteen minutes, you should start to see some browning, maybe even a couple of crispy edges. I've tried this recipe twice this week and found that letting them darken until they flirt with that line between highly caramalized and lightly burned, they come out downright cracktastic. Take a risk. Worst case scenario, you've wasted 20 minutes of your life and $1 in carrots. So, once your carrots are well cooked, add the Herbs de Provence. You can get this French spice mix in an adorable overpriced rustic pot at Williams Sonoma, or for less than $4 in an ordinary plastic jar from Amazon.com.

Sprinkle the spices over the carrots and mix thoroughly. Cook the carrots for another minute or so, then serve. In case you're wondering, adding herbs at the beginning of a high heat or frying process will result in burned herbs. If you think about it, herbs are just little leaves, and a tiny piece of leaf cooks pretty quickly. Don't burn your leaves. Adding them near the end lets you bring out the flavor via cooking before they end up unpleasantly charred.

If you don't happen to have any Herbs de Provence around, you can make a little homebrew using the following ingredients. If you like the mix, scale it up, put it in an old spice jar, and use it to season fish, chicken, or potatoes.

• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp sage
• 1/4 tsp lavender (optional)