Vessel crossing river brings chicken (5)
I believe the answer is:
capon
'chicken' is the definition.
(capon is a kind of chicken)
'vessel crossing river' is the wordplay.
'vessel' becomes 'can' (I've seen this before).
'crossing' is an insertion indicator.
'river' becomes 'po' (Italian river).
'can' placed around 'po' is 'CAPON'.
'brings' is the link.
(Other definitions for capon that I've seen before include "one fattened specially" , "A tasty bird" , "Castrated rooster fattened for eating" , "for lunch, perhaps" , "Male fowl fattened for eating" .)