Crockpot Chicken ala King - II

I already had a previous post on Chicken ala King, but lately I've been making it a bit different, so figured I'd post an update here. Plus, Frankie was asking for the recipe and the original one was different enough that I figured I'd post this.

• 2 or 3 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 stalks of celery, sliced about 1 inch, cut slice in 1/2 if too wide
• 1/2 an onion, diced in 1 inch sections
• about 8 mushrooms, probably quartered
• small package of frozen green peas - save these till the end
• A large and a small can of Cream of Chicken soup
• optional: one carrot, 1/2 inch slices
• savory salt (Lawry's Season Salt)
• pepper

 There are two approaches:

• fast - but maybe not as much flavor
• about 30 minutes of prep, more flavor

If you are going for fast, skip the next section on prepping stuff and just go to the "put it into the crock pot" section.

I like to saute all the vegetables. Basically put some butter or olive oil in a saute pan and then saute the mushrooms first. Yeah, the cook the fastest, but better to give them some room and cook some moisture out of them, letting them caramelize a bit. Once that happens, you can take them out (if you don't have much room in the pan) or leave them in. Add the onions and saute them until they start to become a bit translucent, then add the celery and cook it till it picks up some color as well. You can add the carrots too, but they won't soften much (you don't want to cook it that long).

Add everything (except the peas) to the crock pot. Put a layer of vegetables on the bottom. I used to put the chicken on the bottom, but then the chicken would tend to stick some. Then put the chicken, season it with some savory salt and pepper, then the rest of the vegetables. Then cover this with the soup. Pour the soup on top and spread it out with a spatula or spoon. The idea is to kind of seal in everything else. The liquid that comes out of the vegetables will sink to the bottom and the soup will either make a seal or might start to drip down there and mix in. Either works.

Cool this on low for the day. When you are close to getting ready to eat, make noodles, rice, maybe some mashed potatoes.... whatever you want to put this on or serve it with. At that time microwave the peas for a few minutes so they aren't frozen, then pour them on top of stuff in the crock pot and stir it all up. Cover it and let it sit for 5 minutes or so till the peas are hot. This mixes everything up, and also makes sure the peas are fresh tasting. (I'm not a fan of all day cooked can/grey peas!)

That's basically it. As always, experiment according to your taste. You could add canned potatoes, green beans, maybe even some corn at the end. Adjust based on what kind of veggies you like!