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Posts Tagged ‘Slow cooker’

Improvisational Crockpot Chicken & Beer Stew

Here’s my favorite thing about cooking, which also happens to be the reason that I hate hate hate baking (which requires precision and adherence to things like “rules”) with a passion: with cooking, once you know the basics, you’re probably OK. And you can adjust whatever it is that you feel like eating to suit things like time constraints and refrigerator contents.

My boys are all on their lonesome for an entire week, and while I’m sure they’ll survive, I’m also sure that Thai food (Kendrick) and scrambled eggs (Indy; what can I say? He’s obsessed) will play a major part in their diet for the next few days. So my plan on Sunday was to make this Easy Crockpot Chicken Stew to leave for them as, you know…a supplement.

Except we got distracted by trips to diners, romps around the backyard and naps, and I forgot that this was my plan until 3PM…which left me with about half the time the recipe requires.

Oh yes, and I couldn’t find chicken stock. Which is kind of important when you’re making chicken stew.

Anyway, no problem: that’s what improvisation is for. What I did: sped up the recipe by half-cooking the chicken in some olive oil before adding it to the crockpot, and then subbing in some beer and ginger ale for the chicken stock. And it totally worked.

IMPROVISATIONAL CHICKEN STEW (serves 3 with plenty of leftovers)

What you need: 

2 packages chicken tenderloins, cut up

3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces

1/2 bag baby carrots

1 onion, sliced

3/4 bottle beer (go for the good stuff; the more flavorful the better)

1/2 can ginger ale

Season salt

Garlic powder

Salt & pepper

What you do: 

1. Season chicken pieces generously with season salt and garlic powder.

2. Heat a pan with olive oil and add chicken; cook, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes (until they just start to cook through).

3. Throw the chicken into the crockpot with the cut-up vegetables, and pour over the beer and ginger ale. Season with salt and pepper, and give it all a stir.

4. Cook on high for about 2 hours, then on low another hour and a half or so.



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April 9th, 2013 | Eat | No Comments »

Slow Cooker Short Ribs

If I haven’t yet sold you on the fact that you need to own a slow cooker…this recipe should do it. Seriously, it’s just so easy. Ten minutes of prep before you head to work in the morning, and you will return home to discover that your kitchen has gone ahead and cooked dinner for you.

Some evidence of how easy it is to cook with a slow cooker: I decided to make short ribs for the very first time just because I spotted them at Costco the other day (sidenote: Costco meat is awesome) and thought they looked fantastic, and figured I’d work the rest out once I got home.

And because slow cookers are totally unscrewupable…I did. I literally just threw in a bunch of things that I thought sounded like they would taste good together…and nine hours of ignoring the whole mess later, dinner was done.

And amazing.

What you need:

Short ribs (I used three to serve the two of us, with a little left over for the next day’s lunch)

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

3 tbsp butter

1/3 cup Coca-Cola (or similar)

1/3 cup dark beer

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp ketchup

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced

What you do:

1. Place the ribs in a bag with flour, salt (and pepper, if desired), and shake to coat.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, and brown the ribs on all sides.

3. Put the ribs in the slow cooker (pouring over the butter left in the saucepan for good measure, because why not). Add all other ingredients, and cook on low for about 8-9 hours.

Serve with sauce over garlic mashed potatoes.

(Here’s my not-feeling-so-well husband enjoying a very fancy dinner in bed.)



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January 31st, 2013 | Eat | 3 Comments »

It’s Officially Fall!

How do I know this?

1. I’m wandering around the house wrapped up in a cashmere shawl, because I’m freezing and have decided that a cashmere shawl is a prettier alternative to my usual I’m-freezing attire, which is Kendrick’s seriously ugly plaid shirt (and you know how hard it is for me to find a plaid shirt that I don’t think is lovely beyond words).

2. The slow-cooker is back out. On the menu tonight: Pot Roast.

1. Rub your roast (I went for just over 2lbs of boneless beef chuck roast) with olive oil, season salt and garlic powder, and brown on all sides in a heavy-bottomed pan (a couple of minutes per side).

2. Peel and quarter 2 onions, and put them into your slow cooker along with a bag of baby carrots.

3. Place the meat on top of the vegetables, turn the slow-cooker to low, and leave it sitting there all day long (8 hours should do it).

Suggested side dishes: Mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.



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September 24th, 2012 | Eat | 4 Comments »

Even Better: Pulled Pork Hash With Avocado & A Poached Egg

Remember that pork dish I wrote about last week, the one with the lemon-asparagus salad and the poached egg?

Well, you know what I like better than roast pork?

Pulled pork.

And so in my humble opinion, this is how to take last week’s already-pretty-good recipe and make it, oh, I don’t know…the best thing ever.

(more…)



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April 24th, 2012 | Eat | 3 Comments »

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Hearty Vegetables

Now that the weather’s turning I’ve pulled my slow-cooker back into action, and I thought I’d kick off the season with one of my favorites: pot roast. Simple, inexpensive, and wonderfully leftover-generating, this is also the perfect busy-person meal: you spend ten minutes putting things together in the morning, turn the slow-cooker on low, and arrive home to an absolutely spectacular-smelling apartment (and a fantastic, filling meal).

This recipe can serve 4-6, but this is the amount I make for just us two so that we’ll have leftovers the next night (and possibly the night afterwards, depending on our appetites). Pot roast is one of those things that tastes exponentially better the next day, so plan ahead.

What you need:

2 lb chuck roast (or ask your butcher for an appropriate cut)

1 cup red wine

1 cup beef stock

3-4 Idaho potatoes

2-3 sweet potatoes

2-3 parsnips

1 cup baby carrots

1 onion, peeled and cut in half

Season salt

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

What you do:

1. Generously season the meat with salt, pepper, and season salt.

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and brown the meat on all sides.

3. Peel the potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips and cut them into large chunks.

4. Place all the vegetables in your slow-cooker and set the browned meat on top. Pour over red wine (and maybe a cup of beef stock if you like lots of gravy). Turn slow-cooker to low and go do your thing for ten hours or so.

5. When you get home, remove the meat and potatoes from the slow cooker and shred the meat using two forks. You may want to set the gravy in a pan over low heat and whisk in a little flour to thicken it; up to you.

More Slow-Cooker Recipes.



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October 4th, 2011 | Eat | 2 Comments »

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Fajitas

It’s almost September…and so the slow-cooker is back in action. Woo!

This dish is a perfect busy-person-with-family-to-feed solution: it takes about five minutes to prepare in the morning, then you just leave the thing all day long, and return home to all sorts of deliciousness. Magic. And then after ten more minutes of dicing up vegetables and such to pile inside the tortillas, dinner is served.

First, the pork. The fun part here is deciding what to use for the liquid – you can throw in anything from beer to water to (diluted) tomato paste, but I like soda. And I like a lot of it, but if you prefer your pork a little less saucy (hee), just reduce the amount of liquid below by about half.

DR. PEPPER PULLED PORK

What you need:

1 bone-in pork shoulder (you can also use pork butt, but this is cheaper, and since you’re cooking it more or less forever it’ll be plenty tender)

Seasonings for pork (I used season salt and garlic powder, but you can be a bit improvisational here – try things like mustard powder, cayenne pepper, BBQ seasoning…whatever you like, really).

3/4 cup BBQ sauce

1 can Dr. Pepper

What you do:

Season the pork generously and place it in the slow-cooker on high for an hour or so, while you shower and get ready to head out for the day. Then add the BBQ sauce and soda, and turn the heat to low. Let it be for about eight hours, or until you return home. The meat should fall right off the bone, if it hasn’t already fallen off on its own. Shred it with two forks, remove any skin/bone/gross bits, and let the remaining meat soak up all the sauce.

Alternatively, if you’re puttering around the house while the slow-cooker clicks away, put the meat on high for about three hours before adding the sauces and turning the heat to low; this will reduce the total cooking time a bit.

Serve the pork alongside little bowls filled with your favorite accoutrements: I like sliced avocado with some lemon squeezed over the top, onions and green peppers sauteed with a little garlic, and tomatoes and green onions tossed with a little olive oil and sea salt.

Pile everything onto warm tortillas along with a sprinkling of shredded cheese…

And go to town.

More Slow-Cooker Recipes:

Turkey Chili; Chicken in Beer; Baked Beans



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August 29th, 2011 | Eat | 1 Comment »

Curried Chicken A La Oscar

Last night, we ended up holding a little impromptu Oscars-watching party for our neighbors. I had a moment of flusteredness because it was so last-minute, and I hadn’t planned to be feeding more than two…but then realized that I had already been planning to make one of those meals that easily bulks up to feed an army. And in this case it was a vast and intimidating army of…four. So really, there wasn’t a whole lot to worry about.

Last month’s Real Simple included a Slow Cooker feature (above), which I obviously clipped out and saved. I was especially excited to try the Curried Chicken with Ginger & Yogurt – curry is on the shortlist of Kendrick’s favorite meals, but isn’t something I’ve ever experimented with making. I ended up not being nuts about the recipe, though – it was a bit bland, and I tweaked it a bit moments before serving to add more flavor. So: the below recipe contains both the original proportions and my suggested fixes.

CURRIED CHICKEN A LA OSCAR (serves 6)

What you need:

1/3 cup tomato paste

4 cloves chopped garlic

2 tbsp curry powder (recommended: 3 tbsp)

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (recommended: 2 tbsp)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 medium onion, chopped

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I bought 3 packages, which contained 18 filets) (Note: as Emma mentioned below, this is a lot. But the filets I chose were itty bitty; if yours are more averaged-sized two thighs per person should do the trick.)

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice (recommended: twice this amount)

1/2 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (recommended: 1 cup reduced-fat)

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Salt & pepper

What you do:

1. In your slow cooker, whisk together the tomato paste, garlic, curry powder, ginger, and cumin. The instructions say to whisk in 3/4 cup water, but I’m going to recommend just 1/4 cup water (to keep the sauce from thinning out too much). Add the onion, and stir to combine.

2. Place the chicken on top, and season generously with salt and pepper.

3. Cover and cook until chicken is tender, on low for 7 1/2 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours.

4. Just before serving, add the yogurt and a bit more salt to the chicken, and stir to combine. Serve over rice, sprinkled with scallions.

(Cucumber-Yogurt Salad recipe coming up shortly!)

If You Like This, Try These:

Best-Ever Baked Beans; Elizabeth’s Angel Chicken; Beef & Beer Stew



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February 28th, 2011 | Eat | 9 Comments »

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