Sorry for the absence all!  This is what happens when the Grub Guru, with her Payroll Fairy hat on, gets completely swamped with work!  This recipe came to me one afternoon when co-worker was wandering around after our farm box deliveries saying, "what the heck is this thing with all the hair on it??"  I poked my head into the hall and saw she had a beautiful bulb of fennel complete with all the fronds!  I gave her some cooking suggestions and she then offered me half the bulb.  Hooray!  I knew I had a couple heirloom tomatoes at home that needed to be used and by the end of the day I had my recipe.  I did mine overnight in the crock-pot but I think it would also work in a good sized heavy bottom soup or stock pot.  You'd just have to keep a good eye on the temperature and the rice!

1 (or more if you have several mouths to feed!) whole bone-in skin on chicken breast (I put the whole thing, still wrapped, in the freezer for about 20 min.  Makes ripping the skin off before cooking much easier!  Do this...bone in skin on is much less expensive!)

1/2 - 1 bulb fennel (depending on the size) chopped, including the fronds

1-2 ( or more depending on the size) heirloom tomatoes chopped

Chicken broth or stock (I use my homemade stock but low sodium boxed or canned is good too) to cover almost to the top of the chicken breast when it is sitting bone down in the crock pot)  (If you don't have enough stock make up the difference with water or your white wine of choice!)

5 or more black peppercorns or ground black pepper (adjust according to your taste)

1 bay leaf (fresh or dried)

thyme (fresh or dried)

ground fennel to taste (can be left out if you prefer - I love the taste of fennel so I added)

a few cloves of garlic (adjust according to your preference) sliced

Rice of choice - I used a blend of brown & wild - see below for quantities

Optional: frozen peas

Load everything into the crock pot.  Add the rice last, sprinkling over the top.  I don't have a reason for that except that that is how I did it.  Some still sank to the bottom, and didn't stick, but I want to be accurate!  As far as rice quantity, I have a 5 or 6.5 qt crock-pot.  With all of the ingredients and liquids I added 1.5 cups of rice and, when cooked, there was still a nice thick broth.  In fact, it had a bit of a creamy risotto quality to it!  To serve, I put the rice in a bowl, added some warmed frozen peas, plopped about 4.5 oz of the chicken breast on top, and had some mixed vegetables on the side.   If you're okay with leftovers or have several mouths to feed these quantities will work.  Fortunately I really like the rice because I still have a couple containers in the freezer...and it does freeze/thaw beautifully!  I just bought a couple more chicken breasts and poached them on their own overnight in the crock pot with water, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and, ground fennel.

 

Again, as I always say, have fun with this.  If you come up with some other flavor combos, let me know!  I'm always looking for new ideas!