Chicken Fricassee

Classic chicken fricassee gets the slow cooker treatment here, and the results are fall-off-the-bone tender. A whole cut-up chicken braises low and slow on a bed of onions, celery, and carrots until the meat practically shreds itself.

The paprika does more than add color. It builds a warm, slightly sweet backbone that rounds out the savory broth as everything simmers together for hours. Near the end, you pull the chicken out, bone it, and stir a simple flour-water paste into the pot liquor to create a thick, silky gravy.

Served over hot noodles with a scatter of fresh parsley, this is the kind of old-fashioned supper that fills the house with the smell of something good all afternoon.

Pro Tips

• A stewing hen produces richer, more flavorful broth than a young fryer, though fryer meat will be more tender. Pick based on your priority.
• Remove the bay leaf before thickening the sauce. Nobody wants to bite into that.
• Mix the flour paste in a separate bowl until completely smooth before adding it to the pot. Lumps in the gravy are hard to fix once they form.
• Let the thickened sauce cook on High for at least 15 minutes after stirring in the flour paste so it loses that raw flour taste.

Variations

• Add mushrooms to the vegetable bed for an earthy, deeper gravy.
• Stir in a splash of white wine or dry sherry with the broth for a more refined French-style fricassee.
• Use egg noodles instead of regular noodles for a richer, more traditional pairing.