I love my slow cooker. It’s my favorite toy in the kitchen. I throw some meat and sauce into it in the morning and by evening a meal is ready, and the house smells fantastic all day. This works wonderfully for me, because I don’t have to think too hard. This is crucial for a writer who has other things on her mind.
This morning I put chicken breast tenders and my favorite barbecue sauce in the crockpot. That’s it. I’ll cook it on low for six to eight hours, shred it, and add some extra liquid smoke at the end. I’ll steam some brown rice or quinoa to serve with it, because my husband needs something extra with it. Frankly, I eat it by itself and skip the extra calories. I always make enough to freeze and pull out later when I’m crunched for time.
One of my favorite slow cooker recipes is a salsa chicken. I puree my favorite salsa in the blender with additional garlic and put it in the slow cooker with chicken breasts. And serve it the same way as above. It also makes good filling for enchiladas or burritos. Chop up lean pork chops into one inch cubes, brown, and then cook for six hours in green salsa and you have chile verde to serve with burritos or over rice.
Some of the potency of several of the sauces gets lost after the long cooking time, so I usually punch it up by starting with more of whatever is listed on the ingredients label. Canned tomatoes, garlic, tomatillos, or onions. And liquid smoke. My husband will eat anything as long as I add enough smoke. The scent drives him crazy as he works all day, making him dying to eat it by dinnertime. As the kids come in the door from school, their eyes get big. “What smells so good?” Even if it’s something they don’t think they’ll like, they’ll taste it because the scent was awesome.
Hawaiian food fans? Kahlua pig. One four pound pork butt or shoulder with two tablespoons liquid smoke and one tablespoon of sea salt. No liquids. Cook on low for ten hours. Shred. Serve with steamed rice and pretend you’re on a beach. I’ll warn you, this one doesn’t smell good while cooking, but it tastes incredible. And is less labor intensive than the traditional Hawaiian way in the photo.
Who uses a slow cooker? What’s your favorite recipe? Mine have five ingredients or less!
Kendra Elliot is the best-selling author of the romantic suspense novels HIDDEN, CHILLED, and BURIED. ALONE coming January 2014. She lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest, but dreams of living at the beach on Kauai.
Oh yum, love the salsa chicken idea! I’m going to have to try that!
I’m not as adventurous with my slow cooker as I probably should be….I usually just throw in some beef and whatever veggies I have around, a bit of red wine or stock and just make a casserole. I know it can do so much more, but for some reason I can’t think “outside the box” when it comes to cooking!
Tanya, it sounds like you do just fine with the slow cooker! And there are millions of recipes find online. In my opinion, the slow cooker doesn’t need recipes like a cake does to come out right. Usually whatever you throw in works.
I like the idea of the crock pot/slowcooker better than the actual meals done in them. Mostly because other than a few meals, my family doesn’t care for them. The flavors become all one. For instance I have what seems like a great recipe for chicken with potatoes, carrots, and stuffing, but it ends up with one flavor and no one seems to like that. And also no matter how long you cook something it’s mushy. Now it’s great for pulled pork, but we don’t eat that a lot, only a few times a year. I wish the end result was better because it sure would come in handy on days when I don’t want walk in the door and have to immediately get dinner going.
I agree that everything blends together in taste. I find that it works best as a way to cook one part of the meal, usually the meat. Then add pasta or rice or vegies. I like to make big batches of the meat then freeze it. That works for those short meal preparation times.
Beef roast, Lipton Onion soup mix– 6-8 hours later,yumminess! There are so many recipes on the Internet for slow cookers. One day I’m going to make lasagne that way
I’ve seen this one! Do you add anything else? I’ve also made overnight oatmeal with steel cut oats which is an awesome smell to wake up to. I’ve seen recipes for chocolate desserts, but I’ve never tried them.
Nope, just soup mix and beef. Don’t need to use the best cut, but I don’t usually the cheapest. Such a yummy smell to come home too! Hope you try it
Thank you, I will.
LOVE my crockpot! One of my favorite recipe sites is skinnytaste.com — low calorie meals, and I search for “crockpot” — they have a turkey chili that is amazing, and a santa fe chicken dish that I’ve made once a month since I discovered the site.
I remember you posting about skinny taste before. I stole a taco ground beef recipe from there, I believe. I’d never heard of cooking ground beef in the crockpot before.
You guys are inspiring me to cook again. With an empty house and so many easy options, I tend to get lazy in the kitchen. A crockpot sounds perfect! I don’t even have to remember how to turn on the stove…..
It’s truly a lazy way to cook. So I’m all about it.
Hi Kendra, I’ve used the salsa with beef roasts. I also use the dry onion soup mixes with a beef roast and toss in potatoes, carrots, yams, turnips, and parsnips for a one pot meal. I can make gravy from the juice in the crock. I’ll have to try the pork. Great ideas. Thanks!
Hi Paty! Nice to see you here. I always do the gravy when I’m cooking beef or chicken. For today’s chicken, I’d added barbeque sauce to cook in, but by the time it’d finished, I had a nice two cups of thin sauce just waiting to be thickened into gravy.
Crockpot cooking is great. I used it a lot when I was in college. Throw things together before leave and when come home it is done.
There is one I have not done in a while, buffalo chicken.. you can use chicken tenders or legs and wings. Pour in one bottle of Frank’s Hot Sauce and add one packet of Ranch dressing mix. If you use the chicken with bones it will take 6-8 hours and if you use the tenders it is 4-6 hours. It is not as spicy as you would think either.
I have Frank’s in my fridge! My husband had picked it up for a different recipe, and I’d never heard of it before. I like this blend: 3 ingredients. Perfect! Thank you for stopping in!
Kendra, Thank you for the easy recipes! I am always looking for something that doesn’t take a lot of time and ingredients. The aromatic house is a wonderful bonus!
Easy in cooking is what I like. The scents are a bonus. Of course, I’d love my home to smell like chocolate cookies or cinnamon buns all day, but I’d be as wide as I am tall. That’s what scentsy is for.
We do,yu