Merry Christmas Everyone! Today is an exciting day. I'm going to be celebrating the holiday with my fiance's family at his mother's home not far from here. It's only my second Christmas with Richie and his family and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Then again, why wouldn't it be fun?! There's lots of presents...and who doesn't like presents. Not this girl. Thought I'd start today off with a recipe for Beer Chicken in the Crock Pot. I'm not a huge fan of beer, personally I'd prefer hard apple cider, but I decided to give this a go. Surprisingly, the chicken did taste like beer, though the house smelled amazing and NOT particularly like beer. Now that I think of it, next time I'll try using hard apple cider instead of beer. Don't get me wrong, beer chicken is delicious and when you cook it in the slow cooker, it's super tender and moist. If it were cooked on the bone it would fall right off, that's how tender it was.

The best thing about a Crock Pot is how simple it is to make a large yummy meal. Set it and forget it! Remember that infomercial? Ugh, I'm getting old (more on that later). So here it is, Crock Pot Beer Chicken using whatever kind of beer you'd like. I used Red Hook's Nut Brown beer which is part of their seasonal series to which I no longer see on their website - it's all we had in the house. It's a great beer nonetheless if you are the beer drinking type. But by all means, try whichever type of beer you have, or better yet, use something else entirely other than beer. Anywho, here's the recipe:

Crockpot Beer Chicken

makes 4-6 servings - prep time: 5 minutes - cook time: 6.5 hrs

Ingredients:

• 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 bottle (or can) of beer
• 1 teaspoon powdered garlic
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher sea salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients in Crock Pot
2. Add chicken in one layer, nestle in to liquid
3. Set on low and cook for 6-8 hours or until tender