Maple-Whiskey Chicken and Chocolate Cookies for Dessert

This crock pot recipe was super easy but I was in a hurry to get out of the house to get to work, so no photos of the boneless chicken thighs resting atop the maple-whiskey mixture. This went very well over rice, the sauce over the chicken slivers on rice…Mmmmmmm….mmmmmmmm


Simple Ingredients.....


Lots of chopped onion and garlic



Grab these ingredients.........

* chicken thighs, about 3 lbs
* 1 cup tomato sauce
* 1/4 cup cider vinegar
* 1/2 cup maple syrup
* 1/4 cup Irish whiskey (you could probably use bourbon if desired)
* 1 Tbsp tomato paste
* 1 Tbsp paprika
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
* 1 1/2 tsp hickory liquid smoke
* 1 medium onion - chopped
* 3 cloves garlic – chopped
* Salt and black pepper

Take all the ingredients except the chicken and mix it up. Place in the crock pot. Place the chicken on top of the whiskey-tomato-maple mixture and cover.



Place on the LOW setting and let it cook about 6 hours.

Once it’s cooked, shred the meat up with a fork and swish around in the deliciously sticky sauce.



It's a sloppy mess on your plate but oh my...what a taste! Better to use bowls next time...and we will make this one again.




On to dessert........

Nigella’s Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies (without the mint)



Ingredients you'll need.....

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup (1 stick) softened butter

1 large egg

I teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips



Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream sugar and butter. Then beat in egg and vanilla.

From Cookies

Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder in bowl, then gradually beat into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips after all is blended.

Spoon out heaping tablespoon sized scoops of cookie dough. I will say that my dough was more like thick chocolate frosting. Not complaining at all…it was delicious!



Bake for 12 minutes on non-stick cookie sheet, let sit on cookie sheet after removing fro oven for about 2 minutes. Then let cookies cool on wire rack.



The mint part (which I did not do) comes from a glaze you are meant to put over the cookies. You use a half cup of confectioner’s sugar and a bit of cocoa and mint flavoring. Well, this would certainly have made them sweeter and I guess I could have done that without adding the mint. Doug doesn’t like mint. Not in cookies. Not in ice cream. Just Mojitos :-)



The result of not adding the icing is the cookies are not super sweet. I like them very much as they are chocolately, like fudge, and taste like dark chocolate. My friend and co worker Branch mentioned some of my dessert posts and I was all set to bring her some cookies…but they are just not sweet enough. Sorry Branch – you would have been disappointed! Next sweetie dessert I make – I promise.

By the way, Branch's photography site may be found HERE. She also takes photos of food...my favorite :-)


This one if from Nigella Express, Workday Winners Section, page 54.


I’m sending the Whiskey-Maple Chicken over to Deb at Crock Pot Wednesdays and sending the chocolate cookies to I Heart Cooking Club for Nigella’s Potluck theme.

Speaking of Nigella, while I will continue to cook through her book Nigella Express, we will only have one more week with her at I Heart Cooking Club. It has been six months already and they are about to select another chef. It’s between Bobby Flay, Mark Bittman and Jamie Oliver. I can’t wait to see who wins the vote – it’s a tight race last time I looked and voting ends today.