A Taste Better Than Just Chicken?

I always shy away from the chicken dish at a restaurant, because chicken just tastes like chicken – rather bland and not all that interesting. Part of the problem is that restaurants tend to serve chicken breast, which I’ve always found to be dry and seriously lacking in any flavor. Well, this recipe was amazing – a huge burst of flavor. I found it on food.com, and I’ve so far only made it with drumsticks and wings, but I can’t wait to try it with chicken breasts to see if they can spice them up too! It’s a slow-cooker recipe, which means it’s super easy – but it does require a lot of spices (although you can probably make it with just salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, and onion powder). It’s also a very very cheap dish!

Ingredients (makes 5 drumsticks and 5 wings)

• 5 drumsticks and 5 wings (or you can use a whole chicken or 5 chicken breasts)
• 4 teaspoons of salt
• 4 teaspoons of paprika
• 1 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of onion powder
• 2 teaspoons of thyme
• 2 teaspoons of white pepper
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoons of black pepper
• 1 onion

1. Mix all the spices together in a bowl to make a rub for the chicken. If you don’t want your chicken to be spicy, then leave out the cayenne pepper and instead add in more onion powder, but note that the paprika will still make it slightly spicy.
2. Chop up the onion into approximate half inch squares and place at the bottom of the slow-cooker and add a cup of water so that the onions are barely covered.
3. Wash the chicken meat in cold water briefly. Place the washed chicken meat into the bowl with the rub, and rub the spices onto the meat thoroughly – try to get it under the chicken skin if you can. The wings and drumsticks work well here because you can rub the spices under the skin easily.
4. Place each piece of chicken covered with the spices into the slow cooker.
5. Set the slow-cooker on medium (325F if your slowcooker has a temperature controller), and cook for 5 hours or until the chicken meat falls off the bone (slow cooker times can vary dramatically).
6. You can serve the chicken with the bone on or take the bones out since the meat falls off so easily.