It’s Michigan, it’s winter and it gets cold! Making this my favorite time of year to use my crockpot. There is no shortage of cookbooks and online recipes to search through. I thought I would share one of my favorites with you and save you the trouble. This recipe will feed 5-6 people, depending on the people you are feeding. Sometimes I even have leftovers when my teenage kid isn’t around!

Crock Pot Sweet Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4-6 chicken breasts
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup 7-Up or Sprite
• 2-3 Tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch
• 2 Tablespoons water
• Red pepper flakes (optional)

1- Place washed and trimmed chicken breasts in a crockpot. Mix together brown sugar, vinegar, soda, garlic, soy sauce, and pepper together and pour over chicken. {You can spray the crockpot with Pam first to make it easier to clean later. I’ve never tried using one of those crockpot liners.}

2- Cook on low for for 5-6 hours or high for 4 hours.  You can tell it’s done when it starts to fall apart.  Gently remove chicken and pour the remaining juices into a saucepan. 

3- Mix the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl and add to the saucepan with the juices.  Whisk over high heat until well blended. Let the sauce come to a boil for 2-3 minutes until it starts to thicken and looks like a glaze. {It will thicken up a little as it cools.}

4- Top the chicken with the glaze and optional red pepper flakes. {I like to pull the chicken apart a little, but not as much as when you do shredded chicken/pulled pork. My favorite way to serve it is over white rice but you can do mashed potatoes or serve it on a hoagie style roll if you prefer.}

5- ENJOY !!

We started hearing about a big, scary winter storm promising lots of snow heading our way about 5 days before it hit. As a Northern Michigan girl who loves snow, I was pretty excited. Images of snowball fights, building snowmen and sipping cocoa while walking along a snow covered trail danced in my head. THAT is winter to me. Not this gray/brown post holiday dreary landscape we’ve become all too familiar with.

On Friday the forecast called for freezing rain and then 6-11 inches of snow, beginning overnight on Friday. Our little town was buzzing about it and stocking up for a Snowpocalpyse. If the lines at Walmart were any indication, people were taking this warning seriously! It was very warm and humid that afternoon and almost 50°. I had doubts then about the amount of snow we were expected to get.

An updated forecast pushed back the storm from Friday night through Saturday night to Saturday afternoon though Saturday night. We woke up Saturday morning with a little ice on the deck and some gusty winds. At that point they had changed the snow total prediction to 3-7 inches. As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, I am used to disappointment but I couldn’t help but be bummed. Where was the snow I had been promised?!?!

My poor friends downstate were dealing with heavy rains and flooding. There were pictures of people kayaking in their neighborhood streets! And I was a few hours away, still hopefully watching the skies, waiting for the storm to start. The wind picked up through the afternoon. There were big, powerful waves on Lake Huron that undoubtedly caused damage to an already suffering shoreline. We didn’t get all of the freezing rain that had been predicted, which WAS a good thing. But we also didn’t get much snow.

Saturday evening I watched the scene unfold from my cozy little perch in town. The heavy winds blowing the powdery snow around made it look worse than it was. Some local businesses had decided to close up early for the safety of their employees and customers, which I can appreciate. We however, decided to venture out for dinner. The roads were snowy but we didn’t have any problems. The attitude among the other diners seemed to be “bring it on”. By that point no one seemed too concerned. A band was going on soon and it was just another Saturday night in town. We stuck around for a couple hours and then headed back to our retreat where I was still hoping for the snow to really start falling and take us by surprise {a Lions fan, remember}.

I woke up Sunday morning to a calm, gray sky. No heavy winds, just the sound of plows and snowblowers. It’s tough to say how much total snow we received, I haven’t heard anything official. The high winds caused a lot of drifting. I would guess 4-5 inches. Enough to at least cover the brown. It certainly wasn’t the foot of snow I was hoping for. There will be no snowman or snowball fights from this one. Maybe next time.