My FAVORITE time of year is here again! Actually, the first day of fall was Wednesday and in the past week, I have made different variations of chilli three times. As soon as I get a hint of cooler weather, I bust out my crock pot and go soup and chilli crazy. Until recently, I have always used boneless, skinless chicken breasts in my soups and so many times I would come home from work so excited for my dinner and end up with dried out chicken. Thanks to a Mom of one of my Kindergarten students and our love of food, I learned that using chicken thighs in my soups and chilli is key to having juicy, tender chicken. This is because thighs are naturally more rich than breasts and contain more fat and collagen which allows it to cook at higher temperatures with out drying out. DUH! Why didn't I try this before?!
You can buy your chicken thighs with skin on or off, but remove before adding to your soup. When it comes to boneless or bone-in, I normally try to think about what flavor I'm going for. If I making a brothy soup, I would buy bone-in thighs because it adds to the flavor of the broth (chicken noodle soup, for example). If I'm not making a brothy soup or making chilli, I will normally buy boneless.
Cheers to never worrying about your chicken drying out in the crock pot again!
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