Chicken Al Lago in a Slow-Cooker
Description
This is a wonderful Chicken dish with great flavor -- a real family favorite of ours.
At a Glance
Equipment
This recipe requires a slow cooker / crock pot as well as a food processor.
Ingredients
For the Chicken Preparation:
6 Chicken Breasts, boneless and skinless
1 White Onion
½ cup Bread Crumbs (consider using herb crackers that you have in your pantry to add flavor and grind them down in your food processor)
¼ cup Pine Nuts, roasted
¼ teaspoon + ½ tablespoon McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning
½ teaspoon of fresh Lemon Zest
2 cloves Garlic, minced
2 Sweet or Hot Italian Sausage links (approximately ¾ pound)
1 ½ -- teaspoons of Italian Seasoning
2 tablespoons of White Wine
For the Gravy:
3 tablespoons of Brown Gravy Mix (plus excess liquid)
Directions
Place one chicken piece at a time in a 1-gallon plastic bag. Without closing the end of the bag, pound chicken until it is flattened. Coarsely chop the one white onion. In a food processor, pulse crackers until fine and to yield ½ cup breadcrumbs, or if you prefer place ½ cup bread crumbs in a food processor.
To roast the pine nuts, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a pan with “Pam Cooking Spray - Original”, add the pine nuts and spray them with “Pam with Olive Oil”. Then, sprinkle the pine nuts with ¼ teaspoon of McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning. Bake them in the oven 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Be careful not to burn them or they will taste bitter.
To make the stuffing, place the breadcrumbs in a food processor, and add ½ tablespoon of McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning, ½ teaspoon of lemon zest, 2 cloves of garlic that’s minced, the Italian sausage links (removed from casing), and the pine nuts once cooled. Blend until completely integrated.
Separate your stuffing into six equal portions, then wrap the pounded chicken breasts around the stuffing securing both ends with toothpicks and then layer them in your slow cooker. Any extra stuffing should be added on top. Sprinkle with McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning and Italian Seasoning, and add 2 tablespoons of white wine. Set the slow cooker / crock pot to low and cook for 5 to 6 hours.
Once the chicken is done, take the chicken out of the slow cooker / crock pot, and pour the remaining liquid and any excess stuffing into a sauce pan. (If there are big chunks at this point, run them through a blender to get a smoother consistency.) In a separate bowl, mix the gravy mix with a couple tablespoons of water until completely blended. Add to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until the liquid boils. Once the liquid starts to thicken, reduce the heat and stir occasionally. Take off the heat and then serve over the top of the chicken.
Wine Pairings
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