CIY: Slow-Cooker Lemon Chicken

THE CREDIT

The Pinspiration | The Source

THE SELECTION

As previously mentioned, I am a big fan of lemon. I plan to devote an entire month to lemon things at some point, but those will probably be of the baked good variety.

I am also loving how easy these crock pot recipes are – and how cheap it is. Not only do the ingredients not cost very much, but I am getting multiple meals out of it which also saves me from the excessive eating out that I was doing.

THE RECIPE – SLOW-COOKER LEMON CHICKEN

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken breasts
• 1 package Italian dressing seasoning mix
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1 cube of butter (I am not sure what they meant by “cube” so I just used 1 Tablespoon. Seemed to be enough – I’m not even sure how necessary it was, I may skip it next time just to make it a little bit healthier.)

Instructions

Place cube of butter in crock pot and place chicken breasts on top of that. Sprinkle seasoning packet over chicken and then add the juice of the lemons.

Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.

Original site recommends shredding the chicken and spooning the lemon mixture over the top it, as it will absorb the extra juices and be that much juicier. I did and it was.

THE VERDICT

Theirs:

[via]

Mine:

Soooo good. This chicken was so moist and juicy that two of the pieces actually fell apart when I was taking them out of the pot. I shredded it up after taking this photo (as per the recommendation of the source) and ate it with a bed of rice, and it was quite tasty.

With my leftovers, I tried something else. I reheated the chicken and some of the juice and, again, shredded it up and mixed it in with some lettuce and BAM! Lemon chicken salad. The juice was enough that I didn’t need to add any dressing, though I did sprinkle a little parmesan on top. It was kind of amazing. I liked this particular combination better than with the rice, I think.

Can regular people actually make this? Is it easy? I daresay it’s even easier than the Cilantro Lime Chicken, though it’s kind of a toss-up. The crock pot is my new favorite thing, y’all.

Did it require any weird gadgetry or cookware? I suppose you’ll probably need some means of juicing the lemons, which I neglected to mention in the previous recipe, for the lime. Fresh is best!

How much did the ingredients cost? The chicken came from the large bag and we had already determined those were $1.30 each, plus the lemons came in at $0.69 each ($1.38 total), the little chunk of butter I already had on hand, and the Italian  seasoning was $1.22. Grand total = $6.50, or $2.17 per serving.
*Cost of goods based on prices in the Midwest and may vary by region.

Does it taste as good as it looks? Does it only look good because it was so well photographed? I imagine it’s hard to screw this one up, but mine came out looking exactly like the original photos, so I’m calling it a win. Not only did it taste delicious, but it smelled amazing all day as it was cooking, too.

Healthiness Factor: Aside from the random bit of butter, this is a pretty healthy recipe too. Again, the seasoning and lemon juice aren’t worth any points on the WW system, so you’d just be calculating the value of the chicken, plus anything you might pair it with (eg, rice.)

Final recommendation: If you like lemon, you will love this. If you don’t like lemon, you probably want to stay away from it. In the future, I think I might add some carrots and onions or some other veggies to the pot while it is cooking – it did feel like it needed “more” of something. I might add some garlic, too. You can’t really go wrong with garlic. This recipe is good as-is, but I do feel like there is potential for improvement or modification, though it was really good with the salad. Let me know what you try!

This is definitely a recipe you can make whether or not you have experience from online culinary classes.

Born, raised, and currently living in one of those states in the middle that nobody can locate on a map, Kelly has been writing some nonsense or another since she was old enough to string words together. A recovering perfectionist and an unapologetic daydreamer, she spends her free time browsing the Internet with more tabs open than any one person should be able to navigate, getting irrationally angry about misplaced apostrophes, and using her degree in graphic design to awkwardly Photoshop her face onto various other images. She speaks fluent sarcasm and is working on mastering the art of verbal flailing. She also loves to take pictures – both of the artistic variety and the “that’s going on facebook, isn’t it?” variety. She carries a camera everywhere she goes and is always looking at the world through the eye of a lens. She’s also that one person in the group who always insists on a photo op – you’ll thank her later. She has a ridiculous addiction to ice cream, Diet Mountain Dew, anything pumpkin-flavored, and Target.

Kelly L

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Tagged as: chicken, Cook It Yourself (CIY), crock pot, crockpot, easy dinner, easy recipes, lemon, lemon chicken, slow cooker