Chicken

Garlic Herb Chicken & Potatoes

A whole dinner in one pot. Chicken, potatoes and herbs. Nothing else needed.

Prep 8 min LOW 6–7 hours HIGH 3–4 hours Serves 6

Garlic Herb Chicken & Potatoes, finished and plated — Serving suggestion

Some nights you don't want a sauce. You want roast chicken and potatoes and a plate that looks like real food.

This is that dinner, made without an oven. Potatoes go on the bottom where they cook in the drippings, chicken sits on top, and the herbs do the rest. It comes out looking like something that took planning.

It's also our simplest packet — no dairy at all, just garlic, onion, chicken base and herbs. If you have someone at the table avoiding dairy, start here.

Why you'll love it

No side dish required.

Protein and potatoes together. Put a salad out if you feel like it.

Completely dairy-free.

One of the few. Nothing in the packet contains milk.

It looks like you cooked.

Whole pieces, browned herbs, real potatoes. It photographs like a roast.

Cheap to make.

Chicken and potatoes is the least expensive dinner in this book.

What's already in the packet

GarlicOnionChicken bouillonParsleyThymePaprikaBlack pepper

Straightforward and clean — garlic, onion, chicken base and dried herbs. No dairy, no thickener.

Choose your setting

Recommended

LOW · 6–7 hours

Low and slow gives collagen time to melt and flavors time to build. It is the setting this recipe was written for.

HIGH · 3–4 hours

For when you started late. It gets dinner done, but the texture is better on LOW.

Done at 165°F

Measure in the thigh, not the breast, if you used bone-in pieces.

You'll Need

2 lbs Chicken (pick one below)
1½ cups Water or chicken broth
1 packet Cook SLO Garlic Herb Chicken & Potatoes
2 lbs Baby potatoes, halved

Pick your chicken

2 lbs

Chicken breasts

2 lbs

Chicken thighs

3 lbs

Bone-in chicken pieces

Cook chicken to 165°F

Add vegetables

Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)Green beans (fresh or frozen)Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Whole garlic clovesLemon slicesSliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen)Asparagus (fresh or frozen)

Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen), diced onion (fresh or frozen) and whole garlic cloves at the start, on the bottom; lemon slices at the start; mushrooms at the start to melt into the sauce, or the last two hours to keep their shape; green beans (fresh or frozen) in the last hour; asparagus (fresh or frozen) in the last forty-five minutes.

When to add what

When	Add	Why
At the start, on the bottom	Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Whole garlic cloves	Root vegetables cook slower than meat. They belong closest to the heat, and they hold the meat up out of the liquid. Cut everything an inch and a half or larger — smaller pieces disintegrate.
At the start, to soften into the sauce	Lemon slices	These break down and give their flavour to the pot. Right for a gravy or a fajita, wrong if you want them to hold their shape.
At the start, or the last two hours	Sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen)	Mushrooms are a choice. At the start they melt into the sauce and deepen it. In the last two hours they hold their shape and keep some bite.
Last hour	Green beans (fresh or frozen)	Any longer and green beans go grey, squash turns to water, and pineapple falls apart.
Last 45 minutes	Asparagus (fresh or frozen)	This is the one people get wrong. Broccoli added at the start comes out grey and falls apart. Forty-five minutes keeps it bright and firm.

Two ways to do this

If you're home

Follow the timing table above and add things when they're due.

About an hour is all you need

If you're out all day

Put in at the start as normal: sliced carrots (fresh or frozen), diced onion (fresh or frozen), whole garlic cloves, lemon slices and sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen). These need the full cook anyway.

Add green beans (fresh or frozen) and asparagus (fresh or frozen) when you walk in the door. Forty-five minutes to an hour on LOW is enough for all of it, and it will taste better than if it had cooked all day.

If you would rather not touch it at all, put everything in at the start and use frozen where you can. It will be softer than the timing above intends and the greens will lose their colour, but it will taste good and dinner is ready when you walk in.

Frozen is the better choice for a long day. Already cut, holds its shape better than fresh over eight or nine hours, and goes in straight from the bag with no thawing. Frozen diced onion and pepper strips remove the only real prep this recipe has.

Before anything goes in the pot

1
Coat the meat in a bag, not in the pot
Put the meat and the whole packet into a gallon zip bag, seal it, and shake until every surface is covered. It coats far more evenly than sprinkling from above, it takes ten seconds, and there is nothing to wash afterwards.

These happen outside the crock pot, before it's switched on.

Tonight's Plan

1
Put the potatoes in first, cut side down, in one layer.
They cook slower than chicken and they hold the chicken up out of the liquid.
2
Lay the chicken on top of the potatoes.
Skin side up if it has skin.
3
Pour the water or broth around the sides, not over the top.
Pouring over the top washes the seasoning off before it can do anything.
4
Sprinkle the whole packet over everything and put the lid on.
Get some on the potatoes too, not just the chicken.

Vegetables

Spoon the juices from the bottom over the chicken and potatoes.

That's where all the flavor collected.

Serve straight from the pot.

No shredding, no stirring. Lift it out in pieces.

Stirring

Leave the lid on

Nothing in this one settles or scorches, and there is plenty of liquid moving. Every lift of the lid drops the temperature ten to fifteen degrees and costs about twenty minutes. There is nothing to check.

Swaps and add-ins

Add lemon.

A sliced lemon tucked in at the start makes it a lemon herb chicken. Very good.

Use a whole cut-up chicken.

Three to four pounds, bone-in. The best version of this recipe.

Add carrots and green beans.

Carrots at the start, green beans in the last hour. Full plate.

Broil at the end.

Lift the chicken onto a sheet pan and broil three minutes for crisp skin.

Tips for success

Potatoes on the bottom, always. They cook slower than chicken and they keep the meat out of the liquid so it roasts instead of poaching.
Pour the liquid around, not over. Over the top rinses the seasoning straight off.
Cut the potatoes to a uniform size. Mixed sizes means some are mush and some are raw.
Drop in a liner before anything else. Smooth it against the sides and fold the edges over the rim. When you're done, lift it out and throw it away — the crock never needs scrubbing.

Finish it right

A squeeze of fresh lemon over everything.

This dish has no sauce hiding behind it, so acid does more work here than anywhere else in the book.

Fresh parsley, chopped and scattered.

Ten seconds. Turns a brown plate into a real one.

Flaky salt on the potatoes.

Finishing salt on potatoes is one of the great small pleasures.

Serve it over

Straight from the potWith a green saladWith steamed green beansWith a crusty roll

Tomorrow night

Chicken hash.

Chop everything, fry in a skillet until crisp, top with a fried egg.

Chicken and potato soup.

Add broth, mash a few potatoes to thicken, simmer.

Herb chicken salad.

Shred the meat, mix with mayo, lemon and celery.

Loaded potato skins.

Crisp the potatoes in the oven, top with chicken and cheese.

Keeping it

Fridge

Airtight, up to 4 days

Freezer

Not recommended. Potatoes go grainy after freezing.

Reheating

Oven or skillet, not microwave. Crisping it up is better than steaming it.

Questions people ask

Recipe card