Slow Cooker Lemon-Lime Chicken

Dinner tonight was Lemon-Lime Chicken - a new-to-me recipe from Slow Cooker Magic, by Linda Rehberg and Lois Conway.  I made steamed carrots and butter and herb rice (I'd planned on wild rice, but automatically started prepping the white rice, so...)

This is the recipe as written - but do read on after the end of it before preparing it:

Lemon-Lime Chicken
Serves 4

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 3-lb whole chicken or chicken pieces

Combine ll ingredients but chicken in a slow cooker, stirring to blend.  Add chicken and coat well with sauce.  Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.  Adjust seasonings if needed before serving.

- - - -

Ok.  So, first of all the sauce came out great, and I'll definitely be doing it again - I've never used turmeric except for Indian food and it made a nice indescribable warm taste along with the citrus.  But... I didn't exactly follow this, because it turned out I was a bit short on both lemon and lime juice - so I filled in with a splash of orange juice and a couple splashes of white wine, so that the total liquid was 1/2 cup.  That combination tasted and smelled really good, so I'll probably do it that way again next time, expect then it will be on purpose.

The second thing I've got to say is that the 8 hours I let this cook was way, way too long, and the chicken came out unpleasantly dry - so disappointing!  It's been a long time since I last cooked chicken in a slow cooker and I forgot how dry it can turn out.  So, next time I'll either test it for doneness about about 4-5 hours... or just do this sauce up and let it simmer in a pan on top of the stove, where I can better control how it's progressing.

If it hadn't gotten overcooked, I think this would have been wonderful, though, so don't let my mistake deter you!  It took all of five minutes to put together, no muss, no fuss.

Do you ever have issues with foods being too dry in the slow cooker? How do you correct that?

(shared with Made By You Monday, Market Yourself Monday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Get Your Craft On Tuesday, Lucky Linky Tuesday, What's Cooking Wednesday)