“I rewrite the recipe book”

I love this saying! Eric asks me all the time why I have such a large hording problem assortment of cookbooks and why I spend so many hours reading food blogs and recipe websites. I always look at him like “Are you kidding me? I obviously love to cook (and eat), and have to feed you, so I spend countless hours reading and studying food. I just enjoy it!” He then looks at me hurt and says “well I just don’t know why you need all that anyways, you NEVER follow a recipe!” Hahaha! He is completely right. I NEVER follow a recipe. I always change one thing or another. Whither changing the ingredients to suit my tastes or what I have on hand or changing a cooking technique to make things simpler I never follow a recipe to a T (I just look to it as inspiration).

This recipe is a perfect example of this! Have you ever heard or seen beer can chicken? Typically you take a whole roaster chicken, rub it with seasoning and the stick a can of beer inside of it and slow roast it or grill it. When I saw this recipe I was quite intrigued because instead of beer it uses Root BEER! I wanted to try this recipe but didn’t have a whole roaster chicken on hand. So I used what I had, chicken breasts, and decided to ‘slow-cook’ the chicken in the Root Beer. It worked just fine and Eric couldn’t stop saying enough great things about it! (How’s THAT for not following a recipe, Babe! Me: Batting my lovely eye lashes).

Two Years Ago: Polish Smash and Cookbook Review: Cooking ‘Round the Clock

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 cup chicken broth
3 cups root beer, divided
2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine first 9 ingredients in a small bowl. Reserve 1 teaspoon of this spice rub and set aside.

Use remaing spice mixture and rub all over chicken breasts.

Place chicken in a large slow cooker. Pour 1 cup of root beer and 1 cup of chicken broth over chicken. Cover and let cook for 4-5 hours on high or 6-8 hour on low

When chicken is almost done cooking, bring  remaing 2 cups of root beer to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/3 cup (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat. Add reserved spice mixture, butter, and vinegar, stirring until smooth.

Serve chicken with reduced root beer sauce.

adapted from Cooking Light June 2010