Today I made chicken in a crock pot. I used both white and dark meat, onions, carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower. I also added cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soups.
The stew was good but bland. My husband and son added garlic salt and seemed happy with that. We have a bout half of it left, and I'd like to know what I might be able to add to it to make it more interesting and tasty.
I am in awe of some of you ladies and how you know so much about cooking and spices and what goes together. Can you help this poor gal out? I'm really very much of a recipe follower and am very nervous to venture out on my own.
Thank you so much! I will try all of the suggestions at some point, but I added a little lemon juice yesterday and it made a huge difference!
Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning!!! Sadly, I'm notorious for making an occasional "bland" soup and it always comes to the rescue.
My suggestion would be adding some freshly chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon. This will highlight the flavors and add some acid/lightness to the soup. Parsley goes well with broccoli and cauliflower (they don't really share many other herbs) and a pinch of red pepper flakes would add a bit of zip.
In looking over your ingredients, it appears that you used several root vegetables, a couple that can tend to be on the bitter side (broccoli and cauliflower) and then added two highly processed and salted canned salty soups. The soups aren't particularly flavorful; they're so weighed down with that long list of ingredients that not much fresh flavor comes through. It sounds like the canned soups and all the vegetables kind of "muddied" up your stew.
What you're missing is something bright, and something acidic. Acids include lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, wine, etc., and it's amazing what a touch of an acidic ingredient does to a bland dish. And really, even a delicious dish can benefit from a balance of acid, sweet, fat, salty and earthy flavors. You're just missing the acid. The carrots provided the sweetness, the other vegetables provided the earthy, you added the salt. The chicken provided the fat. You did well!
I would add a spice, like cumin, or rosemary and thyme (about a teaspoon at first). I'd also add chopped fresh cilantro or Italian flat-leaf parsley (not the curly kind). And I'd add about a teaspoon of lemon juice. Taste it, and if the lemon juice starts to brighten it up, add a touch more. You could even thinly slice a fresh lemon and float the slices directly into the soup.
Wine would be ok, too, although I'd recommend against using a cooking wine, as those are heavily salted, and you've already got plenty of that from the canned soups.
More pepper. Much more. Black, red (flakes) or one of those combination products in the self-grinding jar.
Garlic would be good - as the garlic salt seems to have been a hit. If you're not in the mood to chop, buy the already-peeled-and-diced garlic in the produce or canned vegetable section. It keeps forever.
No more salt - the soups have so much in them. Instead of water, you could add chicken broth to the liquid part. If you want more garlic, go for garlic powder.
White wine. (The alcohol cooks off but you get the flavor.) You can use an inexpensive cooking wine from the supermarket, or get a better wine from the liquor store - it doesn't have to be a $15 bottle to add to the stew!
A lot of cookbooks have guides about what spices go with what. Nutmeg goes great with spinach; rosemary goes with chicken, thyme goes with chicken, Italian seasoning goes with pretty much everything. Go to the websites of the major spice/herb companies and see what they suggest.
If you google the ingredients you have, you'll get recipe suggestions! So, if you type in "chicken onion carrots celery broccoli cauliflower" (no commas, no added stuff like "cream of mushroom soup" because it will actually limit you), you'll get a range of ideas! Go for major websites like allrecipes and food.com rather than individual blogs, just to start. And try Rachael Ray - she's big on 30 minute meals and 5-ingredients-or-less recipes.
Try some Cajun spices.
When using a slow cooker, add spices near the end of the cooking process. Prolonged exposure to heat breaks down the volatile oils responsible for the flavor imparted by spices.
If you use garlic, mash whole cloves and put them in. Don't chop them fine, because they will lose flavor with slow cooking as well.
I love sage and rosemary in chicken dishes.
Ditch the cream soups. They're nasty and do nothing but dilute your stew without adding any flavor.
