Slow cooked Boneless Chicken thighs with Saffron rice and Glazed dill Carrots

Let me just start by saying, I love my crock pot. It's a fantastic way to cook a meal that makes your family think you slaved away in the kitchen all day. The first time I ever cooked raw chicken in it, I just knew we would all have salmonella. Thankfully, that didn't happen. What did happen? We had BBQ chicken drumsticks with the meat falling off the bone. It was so delicious. I've been experimenting with different ways to cook the chicken, flavors, seasoning, and things like that. Sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a big ole miss, but at least it's a try.


I don't understand how people are willing to sit on the side lines and watch, instead of try, because they are afraid of failure. That, to me, is the ultimate failure, not even trying. I love to ski. I use to work at a ski resort as a ski instructor. Sometimes, when I didn’t have a class to teach, I’d go on a “clinic” with a more advanced skier, to better my skiing ability. Before we started went down the run, we were discussing the last big fall we had. I proudly said I hadn’t fallen all season. To which the Clinic leader promptly answered, “Then you haven’t been trying hard enough.” I was shocked, I thought the idea was not to fall. He went on to say that the only way to improve is to give it 100%. No one learns on the first try, but you can’t get better if you don’t push past your fears and limits. That means don’t be afraid to fall, it’s not a badge of shame,  it’s merely gravity reminding us what happens to objects that go up. Speaking of objects that go up, another good piece of advice I learned: Be careful who you step on going up the ladder of success, you might just have to pass them again on your way back down. So I learned it's ok to fall, it's just not ok to stay down.

My husband and I love to eat at a little place in Falls Church, VA. Panjshir, they serve authentic Afghan food, which is delicious. Great atmosphere, wonderful service and the food is always wonderful. We always get Sambosay Goshti, which is a deep fried pastry filled with ground beef, chickpeas and parsley for an appetizer. For my main course I get the Kebab-E-Murgh, which is chicken kebab served on a bed of saffron rice. The food leaves me full, not stuffed, with warmth all over from the wonderful mix of flavors.

For some reason, cooking with saffron has always been very intimidating to me. It’s very expensive, so I don’t want to experiment with it, not knowing how it will turn out. So it sits in the cabinet where it will end up being thrown out when I clean my spice racks out. That makes no sense, instead of trying (for fear of wasting it), I let it sit in the cabinet where it, gets wasted. Time to get up and try. I got on www.FoodNetwork.com and typed in Saffron Rice, one of the first recipes that came up was from Paula Deen. I didn’t need to look any further. Recipe from Paula Deen, *win*. Saffron Rice with a few ingredients, *win*. Level listed as easy, *win win*.



Saffron Rice
By Paula Deen, 2007
http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=saffron+rice&fnSearchType=site




 
Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

¾ cup diced onion

1 cup long-grain, white rice

3 cups Chicken stock

Pinch Saffron threads

Salt and freshly ground black pepper



Directions:

In a large saucepan or pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions while stirring in the rice to coat with the butter. Pour in the chicken stock, saffron, salt and pepper. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff with a fork before serving.








Slow cooked Boneless Chicken Thighs:



Large package of boneless, chicken thighs

1 package onion soup mix

1 carton organic chicken stock mix

1 low sodium chicken bouillon cube

1 cup water

2 cloves garlic minced

2 Stalks celery, rough chopped

1 tbsp sage

1 tbsp thyme



-Best to start this in the morning, so it will be ready for dinner and the house will smell delicious-



Pour chicken broth and water in slow cooker

Add the bouillon cube, onion soup mix, garlic, celery, sage and thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the lid on and turn to low leave it alone until it’s almost time to eat



Carrots:



2 cups chopped carrots

1 tbsp dill

2 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

Salt to taste



Gently boil the carrots until they are soft, drain water

Melt butter in sauce pan coating the carrots; add the brown sugar and dill

Cover to keep warm and set aside.


Dinner was superb, if I say so myself.  The Carrots are my Moms recipe.  They are so delicious!!
Have a super dinner!!!