CrockPot Chicken with Gingered Peaches Recipe


Day 252.

We're nearing the end of summer, which makes me want to gobble up as much fruit as humanly possible. I have been reading in a lot of food blogs lately that a great way to use up fresh fruit is to stew or braise it with meat--you get both a sweet and savory flavor.

Adam and the kids went to Costco on Saturday (mostly for the $1 hot dogs) and came home with a huge box of white peaches. When I told them that I was going to use a few in the crockpot, I think they thought I was going to make some sort of dessert.

The peaches in the box weren't quite ripe--they were still hard to the touch and didn't have much flavor. I figured roasting them at a low temperature would release the sugar and they'd be perfect.

The Ingredients.

--4 skinless chicken breast halves
--1/4 tsp ginger
--1/4 tsp cloves
--1/4 tsp pepper
--1/2 cup brown sugar
--juice from one lemon
--1/2 cup water
--2 ripe peaches, cut in wedges

The Directions.

Put the chicken in the bottom of your crockpot (mine was frozen). I used a 6 quart crock, but a 4 or 5 quart would work just fine.

Top with the cut peaches. Toss the peaches with the dried spices the best you can. Add the brown sugar, lemon juice, and water.

Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 4-6. I cooked our meat on low for almost 7 hours. The chicken was very tender, juicy, and fully cooked.

The Verdict.

This was weird. Everything worked well----the chicken cooked nicely, and the peaches tasted good on their own.

The kids ate the chicken and weren't interested in tasting the peaches.

Adam and I ate it and then later (out of earshot of the kids) decided it was just too weird to eat hot peaches with chicken. Hot peaches are to be eaten with ice cream.

We threw the kids in the car, got milkshakes from In n' Out and watched the sunset at the beach. It was a very enjoyable evening, but I don't think it had anything to do with my dinner.

I'm not going to make this again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kim, of Today's Creative Blog, is hosting a Silent Auction to benefit the Nielsen Family, who were badly injured in a small plane crash. Stephanie is an active blogger and crafter through her site, NieNie Dialogues.
Kim has many amazing things lined up for the auction---this is a great way to help and get started on your holiday shopping. Please help in any way possible.

xox
steph

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Posted by: Stephanie O'Dea | A Year of Slow Cooking at September 08, 2008

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What they say about this article

  1. Anonymous9/08/2008

    Oh yeah, I've done the same thing except it was chicken and plums. The recipe looked terrific and tasted so weird. Stone fruit + chicken = yucky! Oh well, nice try though. Keep it up, I love the daily posts, I don't know what I'll do when you're done! I've gotten so many great and gluten-free crockpot ideas from you, I don't want it to end, thank you!

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  2. Anonymous9/08/2008

    Steph, I know what you mean about the chicken and peaches. I made ginger mango tofu once, and it was just plain odd. Another thing that was gross was the mango peels. I had no clue it was necessary to peel a mango. haha I think milkshakes make everything better!

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  3. I did this same thing a while ago with pork chops and it melded really well and was good. I think pork does really well with fruit, but i guess you don't eat that. Oh well

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  4. anon, that's good to know--I have a meat with plum dinner bookmarked!

    Joanna, lol. Mango skin is pretty tough! I love it that you tried it with tofu.
    very cool.

    Tara, I see lots of pork with fruit recipes. I wish I could eat pork, but it bothers my stomach. It sure smells delicious!

    xoxo
    steph

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  5. I did this last night (on the stove) with pork chops!

    http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/09/pork-with-peaches.html

    It was delicious! I have been reading your blog for a while now and love it! Thanks for all your hard work!

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  6. My grandma always made Chicken, Peaches, and biscuits, which both my Mom and now I make and it is SOOOO YUMMMY! It was always a favorite growing up with my brother and I and now it is my kids favorite. We always use the oven to cook the chicken, and then last few minutes you put the peaches (we use peaches w/heavy syrup, because you make gravy from that) and the biscuits and then cut all up and pour gravy over all! YUMMY! I bet it would work in a crockpot though, too!

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  7. I like making preserves and chutneys and serving them with plain meat, like you serve cranberry sauce with turkey. I agree the taste of the chicken in the fruit is not always yummy.

    If you sliced the peaches and cooked them seperately until quite thick, then they could be served alongside the chicken, or over ice cream.

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  8. looks quite different then the peachy chicken we make here. I think sweet and savory can be hit or miss with lots of people. Peachy chicken has become a legend in my house....DH wants it all the time. I love it too, but if i'm going to go sweet and savory, I want some real deal chicken and waffles lol. Sorry it didn't work out for you!

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  9. Do you have a Widget? I didn't see one. I love your blog and want to post a link!

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  10. $5 mom, lol! great minds think alike.

    Tina, that DOES sound good, yummy.

    Nil Zed, that's a really good idea. I should eat the rest of the peaches with ice cream.

    Amiyrah, I've never had chicken with waffles! I'd love to try it---we just saw a Bobby Flay throwdown featuring them.

    Julie, no. I don't. I'm not the best with HTML stuff.

    xoxo
    steph

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  11. I just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU for mentioning The Nielson's on your blog! I actually went to High School with Christian and was very saddened by the accident. I have been amazed by the outporing of love from the blogging community. I love your blog and read it everyday. Keep up the GREAT work!

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  12. I love white peaches.........but I'm with you. I don't want them with meat.
    I have a taco concoction in the crockpot now. Gotta love those soccer nights.

    Thanks so much for the shout out. So many great things up for auction.

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  13. I second the peaches and pork thing. I used to make pork chops with peaches all the time. It was yummy. There were peaches for sale in Walmart today but none of them were worth buying, either under or over ripe.
    I think meat and fruit must be a Latin thing. Look at picadillo, ground meat with raisins!
    regards,
    Theresa

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  14. Anonymous9/08/2008

    This has nothing to do with fruit and chicken. I was just wondering, have you ever made stuffed cabbage in the crock pot? It works very very well. I can send you a recipe if you are interested, but you've probably already made them at some point:)

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  15. Hi Berni, I made cabbage rolls, is that pretty much the same thing? I was really pleased with the results, I didn't imagine they'd taste as wonderful as they did (I associate cabbage with the Cabbage Soup Diet... :-) )

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  16. Anonymous9/09/2008

    White peaches may not have been the best choice for this dish. They are lower acid and sweeter than the yellow peaches. I do not enjoy them as much as other varieties, they just don't have the "peachy" taste.

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  17. Anonymous9/10/2008

    I've done a raspberry chicken dish that was ok. I haven't made it in years, hmmm I might need to make it soon.

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  18. I think you were on the right track, but there were some problems with the recipe.

    We eat peaches and chicken ALL the time--but it's curried! In a nutshell, brown the chicken, add one diced onion and curry to the oil, add peeled, sliced peaches (I used to do canned peaches but I bet we can modify it for fresh) a little chicken stock, more curry. Thicken with whatever slurry you prefer (I usually use cornstarch.) Salt, and sometimes a pinch more curry or sugar to balance.

    I bet you anything you can modify what is usually a skillet recipe to a crockpot. Maybe toss the fresh peach slices in a couple teaspoons of sugar before adding. I use a yellow madras curry that I mail order from World Spice in Seattle.

    So, I think ginger chicken and peaches is on the right track, but it didn't go far enough--make the flavoring stronger. My kids love this dish, and so does my curry-averse husband.

    I'm really excited I found this blog, I made a resolution a few weeks ago to start using my crockpot more because I'm going to be working later. I also know Stephanie of NieNieDialogues, so more thanks for the extra mentions on their behalf.

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  19. There is a peach and red onion baked dish from Cooking Light that we really like. But the peaches in the oven almost dissolve. I've searched, but can't find the recipe on their site. But it is a whole cut up chicken, 1 whole red onion in chunks, 2 peaches sliced, 2 T. molasses, 2 T. balsamic vinegar, glug of olive oil, dash of cayenne, tsp of thyme, salt and pepper. Toss all together and roast in oven for an hour at 425.

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  20. For "meat in fruit" I've found that using fruit juice, rather than the actual fruit, is often a good bet. (Sadly, this makes it relatively useless for using up fresh fruit since you have to waste too much of the flesh. But canned fruit is great - throw the fruit into a dessert or just eat it straight, reserve the syrup and use it on the meat dish.)

    Even so, my husband prefers the savory to the fruity dishes, so I don't do it often. But at least I don't wind up with savory fruit when I do...that even sounds weird. :)

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  21. There is a great peaches and pork chops recipe in the Fix It and Forget It cookbook (the original one I'm pretty sure.) It is peaches, tomato sauce, some spices and pork chops. Really sounds odd, but is yummy!

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  22. I have a recipe for chicken with pineapple and peaches. All my friends adore it... maybe it's a Hawai'i thing since that's where we're all from.

    Though come to think of it, a few of my mainland friends love it too.

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  23. Even with a "bad" review I'm still gonna try this. We've had meat and fruit a bunch of times and with a 15 month old I have to start making things he'll eagerly eat too and I think peaches and chicken are one of them! I will probably do canned (gasp!) peaches instead though because of the ease and availability and price. Thanks!

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  24. WOW! you're a brave soul! :-)

    I'd love to hear your family verdict.

    xoxo steph

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  25. Carol Ann R9/10/2012

    OMG. My MIL started cooking "chicken with peaches" a few years ago and now makes it for almost EVERY SINGLE DINNER she has us (and the rest of the family) over for.

    It was not good the first time and has not gotten any better.

    One year she made it for Thanksgiving. I told h that if she started to make it for Christmas too, I was going to have to divorce him. :)

    Last time she added green onions to it. OMG I am not sure what she was thinking. It was even worse.

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