The best recipes are the unplanned ones.
This is the #1 most crucial lesson I have learned while exploring my passion for cooking and baking. Those “spur of the moment” “use whatevers in the fridge” “Jeez I’m starving and will eat anything” moments will go one of two ways.
Your dish will be absolutely repulsive. Or it will be brilliant. You have a 50/50 chance. And then it all boils down to those final minutes the meal is about to be ready. Timer goes off. Fork in hand. Hopes are set high. Boom.
You’re either biting into a food version of Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel or your puppy’s chicken liver dog food. I enjoy the risks and extremeties in life. Let’s just say I have experienced both ends. On way too many levels.
I have experienced utter recipe failures to a whole new extreme. I have cried over my kitchen sink, thrown away precious pieces of meats, thrown muffins into the trash can with dramatic force. I have even doubted myself as a baker.
But something great you will learn through your creative journey of cooking is these experiences are vital. Nothing is ever perfect or goes according to plan. Those wasteful days in the kitchen slaving away for recipe disasters are really not so wasteful. They are your memories! They are what make us imperfectly perfect chefs. They help define our next creative approach. They mock us for our efforts but also give us determination and experience.
Okay I’ll cut the sentimental life advice. You’d think I was talking about the olympics or something. Regardless, don’t let those recipe failures destroy you or make you stop from your sporatic ideas. Because somewhere along the lines of the repuslive disasters, comes a keeper. Cooking is sort of like dating in that way. But I won’t bore you with that analogy!
This chicken was stuffed with feta, olives, garlic and simmered in a white wine sauce for 7 hours with roma tomatoes, mushrooms, oregeno and some lovely spices. All thrown together on a whimsical morning when I just needed to have a piece of meat to come home to after chemistry lab. The result? A brilliant, unplanned, Michael Angelo worthy meal. It was a pleasant and delicious moment diving into this meal. Probably the tastiest and most tender chicken that has yet to come through TNK!
Slow Cooker Meditteranean Chicken Breasts
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts (or 4 medium)
- Feta cheese
- Kalamata olives, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp Old bay seasoning (or chicken seasoning of choice)
- Sea salt + Pepper to taste
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup dry white wine (or white wine vinear)
- 1 Tbsp honey
- Roma tomatoes + Mushrooms, sliced
- Lemon
Instructions
- Set your slow cooker to low and allow to heat up while you prepare your chicken. Slit through your chicken on one side with a knife to make a pocket. Stuff each pocket with feta cheese, olives, and your chopped garlic. The amount of feta and olives you would like to use is up to you!
- Place your chicken into the crockpot and season with oregano, spices, salt and pepper. Pour in your broth and white wine. The chicken should be almost fully covered.
- Place sliced tomatoes and mushrooms in the crockpot around the chicken. Throw in a few lemon slices as well!
- Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours until chicken is fully cooked and tender. Mine was perfect around the 7 hour mark, but many crockpots vary!