Chicken in the Crock Pot

For a quick dinner, what can be more perfect than chicken? It is economical and there are tons of recipes for every part and piece of it.

Here are some ideas for cooking chicken in a crock pot.

Chicken is a favorite staple of the American diet. People raise chickens and other poultry on farms. They are plentiful and can be prepared more readily than a cow or a pig. If you visit any relatives in the Deep South, you are sure to have a chicken dinner at least once or twice a week.

In a slow cooker, all parts of the chicken work well, but you must be careful with your temperature settings.  White and dark meat portions of the chicken will cook at different rates. You notice this when you fry chicken as well. Thighs and legs finish cooking sooner mostly due to the high fat content of these portions. Wings are usually next followed by the thicker chicken breasts.

Another difference in chicken pieces is the bone. Pieces of chicken with the bone in cook better in the slow cooker because they are less likely to dry out. On the other hand, boneless chicken breasts can dry out if they are cooked too long.

One way to avoid drying out is to cook chicken from frozen. The great thing about a slow cooker is that it works well whether the meat is frozen or thawed. Thawed meat will of course need less cooking time because the heat works directly to cook the meat. If the chicken is frozen, the heat defrosts the chicken before actually cooking it.

Prepare your chicken pieces as you would if you were cooking them in the oven. Clean the chicken thoroughly and season it. This will help to remove Salmonella bacteria commonly found in raw chicken, not to mention you don’t want a lot of bloody juice in the bottom of their crock pot.  

A liquid is needed at the start of cooking. Instead of water, add some seasoned chicken broth to infuse the meat with flavor. Another hint is to lightly flour and sauté the chicken for a couple of minutes before slow cooking. The bits from the pan will flavor the broth in the slow cooker even more. Frozen chicken needs very little liquid as liquid will be created as the chicken defrosts.

Vegetables can be added with the meat if you choose. Tougher veggies like carrots and potatoes can be added at the beginning because they take longer to cook. A dish that calls for a tomato base such as a cacciatore will have the tomatoes added near the end of cooking. Tomatoes are one vegetable that doesn’t stand up well to long periods of cooking. Instead of whole tomatoes, you will have mush after six hours.

Chicken pieces need to cook for three hours of more in a crock pot. With a slow cooker, two hours on a low setting would be equal to about one hour on the highest setting. Frozen chicken will need the maximum time to cook.

Any spices you add to chicken dishes can be left for last. Fresh herbs will infuse quickly throughout the meal so an hour in the cooker is good. Dried spices can take a bit longer to flavor so add about two hours before the meal is done. Stir up the dish so the herbs and spices are evenly distributed.

Slow Cooked Soups and Stews

It seems like the slow cooker was practically made for soups and stews. On a cold fall or winter day, you can combine the ingredients for your favorite soup in the pot and fill the house with a delicious aroma while it cooks. Everyone needs to make at least one soup or stew in their slow cooker. It’s an unwritten rule of the kitchen.

Why do we like soups? They are fun and easy to make. Many cultures rely on soup as their main dish for lunch or dinner. A soup can be thin like chicken noodle or some Thai soups. A soup can also be thick like vichyssoise or borscht which represents ethnic soup dishes. Thicker soups keep you full longer between meals. Add a bit of bread and you have a complete meal.

Soups require more liquid than a regular meal in a slow cooker. Don’t be afraid to add two or three cups of broth or water to your cooker when creating soup dishes. If you have a larger slow cooker, you may need to add a bit more liquid depending on how many other ingredients you also add.

If your main ingredient is meat, add it first. For soups it is a good idea to cut raw chicken into small cubes. For beef, buy already cubed beef for stew to avoid having to cube it yourself. Meat should be thawed for soups and stews before adding to the crock pot. Sear meats in a pan before adding them to the cooker. A bit of water will remove those pieces of essence from the bottom of the skillet so they can be added to the soup for flavor.

Go ahead and add your vegetables to the soup once the meat has been put in. Chop potatoes, carrots, squash, zucchini, and onions into soup-sized pieces. Frozen veggies can also be added to the soup. Let your soup concoction cook for six to eight hours. Celery is a common veggie in soups. For a firmer celery texture, wait to add the celery until a couple of hours before the end of cooking.

Creamier soups are also a good choice for slow cooker meals. Heavy cream can stand up to the longer cooking time without scorching. If milk is called for in your dish, use evaporated milk in its place. Evaporated milk has had the water component removed and provides a creamier texture without the curdling effect that can be common when using straight milk.

Now you are ready to add the finishing touches. When making soups like potato soup or chowders that call for cheese, wait until close to done before adding the cheese. Herbs like rosemary, dill, basil, oregano, and parsley can be added now too. Chives, leeks, shallots, and garlic also add flavor to soups and stews. Chives, parsley, and leeks can be used as a garnish.

Can you taste that soup now? The best thing about soup is that it can be frozen in bowls and thawed whenever you feel like some warm-in-your-tummy goodness. A slow cooker makes a batch large enough to feed an army or a large family of hungry eaters.

470 Crock Pot Recipes

Lots of people have Crock Pots but they hardly use them.

If you have at least one of these efficient and time saving appliances hidden away somewhere in your kitchen collecting dust, 470 Crock Pot Recipes may be just what you need. You probably thought that the crock pot was just for making soups or stews.

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In 470 Crock Pot Recipes you will find tasty main dishes, side dishes and even deserts that can be prepared in your crock pot.

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Potluck Creations in the Slow Cooker

Make Full Use Of Your Crock Pot: 470 Crock Pot Recipes

A slow cooker is a great addition to your arsenal of cooking equipment. It is definitely a help when you have no idea what to cook for dinner. Throw in a bit of this and toss in a little of that and you’ve got a meal of your own creation for a hungry family.

If you have an adventurous cooking spirit and a cabinet or pantry full of goodies, it’s easy to create a slow cooker meal from scratch. I know you are shaking your head, but it is doable and your family will love it. In fact, why not let everyone get in on the meal to make it more interesting?

When putting together a potluck slow cooker meal, you need a base or main ingredient. Meat or beans make the perfect base. Although grains also make a good base for meals, they cook too quickly to be of any use to you in a slow cooker. Rice quickly becomes mushy when it is overcooked and pastas work best when boiled. Therefore, slow cooking these types of foods would potentially ruin them.

Your base is something that can stand up to the length of time required for crock pot cooking and the temperature. Chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and lamb are all good choices for a meat base. Most beans can stand up to the heating process of a slow cooker. Once you have made a choice for your meal base, wash it thoroughly and put it in the cooker. Don’t forget to add a bit of liquid to the bottom before of the crock pot first.

The next step is to decide what will go well with the base chosen. Most meat types share the fact that they are compatible with many of the same vegetables. First, check the fridge. A bag of baby carrots, an onion, and some celery are staring you in the face. These we can use. Go ahead and toss the carrots right in on top of your meat or bean base.

Go ahead and start the cooker while you search for more ingredients. See that bag of red-skinned potatoes in the corner? The best thing about them is that they don’t have to be peeled. Simply, wash the outer skin thoroughly and pop them into the cooker as well. No need to slice or dice them beforehand.

Remember that celery and onion from your refrigerator? Throw them in a skillet with salt, pepper, and cooking wine if you have it. Let the wine reduce and cook the veggies.

Now it’s time to think about spices and seasonings. What will go well with your base? For kick, add some turmeric, cumin, and cilantro. Curry goes well with chicken or pork for a more Indian flavor. On the Italian side, choose rosemary, basil, oregano, bay leaf, and coriander. Remember, fresh herbs have a more distinctive taste than powdered spices, so if you have some on hand, use those instead.

About an hour before time zero, add your sautéed veggies and spices. Stir and smell the wonderful flavor. If there is still too much liquid left for your liking, turn the cooker up on high and remove the lid. The liquid will evaporate and you can return to low after the desired level of broth is achieved.

When someone in the house is getting hungry, who says you can’t make a great meal from whatever you happen to have lying around? Put that slow cooker to work tonight instead of having fast food or slaving in the kitchen all day long over a hot oven.

Pantry Staples for Crock Pot Cooking

A slow cooker in the kitchen will pay for itself in no time. The time it saves when preparing meals makes it priceless. But, if you plan on using your slow cooker quite often, there are a few staples you may want to keep on hand to enhance your dishes.

1. Beans – Beans are a cheap source of protein that cooks well. Each bean has its own flavor which is enhanced by the spices you use to cook them. Beans can be used as a meal base when meat is present or if you are a vegetarian looking to create an easy dish without much fuss. Whether navy, lentil, Northern, or black, beans create some amazing slow cooker meals.

2. Fibrous Vegetables – The average household has at least a few potatoes lurking around. They are a versatile food. Mash them, fry them, stew them, or throw them in the crock pot. Potatoes add density to soups, stews, and meals with meat. Because they, and other fibrous veggies like turnips and carrots, take longer to cook, they can be thrown in the cooker with the meat and allowed to cook all day.

3. Fresh Herbs – Herbs can dramatically change the flavor of almost any meal. Herbs come dried, but release a better flavor if they are fresh. You can grow your own herbs in the house in small pots. All you need is a sunny spot, good soil, and water. Home grown herbs can be dried to extend their life, making them easy to keep around without worrying about wasting them. Herbs are added near the end of the crock pot cooking cycle so their flavor infiltrates the cooked meal.

4. Broth – Anything cooked in the slow cooker needs a liquid to start the process. Instead of always adding water, try broth. Chicken, beef, and vegetable broth are available in most grocery stores for very little money. Many varieties come already seasoned and it’s a quick and easy way to add flavor to meat dishes.  

5. Flour or Cornstarch – Flour and cornstarch are used for thickening and sautéing. Applying a light coating of flour to meats and sautéing them in a little olive oil will create flavorful bits of essence that can be added to the slow cooker. At the end of a meal, adding cornstarch to the remaining liquid can create creamy gravy for dishes like rice or potatoes. Flour can also be used as a thickener, however cornstarch makes smoother gravies.

6. Meat – This article is about pantry staples, but since meat is the centerpiece of most crock pot meals, be sure to have some of your favorites on hand (in the freezer of course). It can be any meat you choose. A tougher cut of meat will cook better and almost melt in your mouth when the dish is ready. Slow cooking will add moisture and tenderize meat that would otherwise dry out and be tough when cooked in the oven.

With these ingredients on hand, you can create any number of basic meals in the slow cooker. By keeping them on hand, you’ll have a variety of dinner ideas without the hassle of running to the store or searching for an answer when asked “What’s for dinner?”

470 Crock Pot Recipes

Lots of people have Crock Pots but they hardly use them.

If you have at least one of these efficient and time saving appliances hidden away somewhere in your kitchen collecting dust, 470 Crock Pot Recipes may be just what you need. You probably thought that the crock pot was just for making soups or stews.

Well guess what, you can make delicious meals your family will love with less effort using a crock pot.

In 470 Crock Pot Recipes you will find tasty main dishes, side dishes and even deserts that can be prepared in your crock pot.

Whatever your families taste, you're sure to find a crock pot recipe inside 470 Crock Pot Recipes to help you make the perfect meal.

With this package you’ll never be at a loss again for recipes to make delicious Crock Pot meals. Access is instant so you can start cooking immediately.

Download This Package Now. Access Is Instant

Slow Cooker Basics Part 2

A slow cooker is a useful tool for any busy household. All that is required of you is to add your ingredients to the crock pot and be ready to eat a sumptuous meal when you return. Slow cookers come in many sizes to accommodate singles and larger family units. Before you begin to lick your lips, here are some basic tips about how and what to cook in your slow cooker.

First, there are slow cooker cookbooks on the market. They turn some of our favorite stovetop and oven recipes into slow cooker sensations. Dishes you may never thought of cooking in a crock pot cooker can be prepared without you even being there. I don’t know about you, but that idea sounds fantastic to me.

What you must remember when cooking anything in a slow cooker is the liquid component. There must be some type of liquid in the bottom of the cooker to begin the cooking process. Without it, your dish will cook to the bottom and burn. There doesn’t need to be a lot of it, just enough to cover the bottom in most cases. The juices within the meat will mingle with the other liquid during cooking to create more of a stock.

When using a crock pot it should be at least half full for maximum cooking potential. Keep in mind that the more food you add to the cooker, the slower it will cook. The temperature will cook the food evenly without overcooking if the heat settings are adjusted accordingly. If you aren’t careful and don’t adjust the crock pot heat settings, you may find that an eight hour setting cooked your dinner in two and spent the other six drying it out.  

Meats are the most common food cooked in a slow cooker. People use a crock pot to cook main dishes for dinner since this is the meal we struggle with preparing most on a busy schedule. Any meat used needs to be thoroughly drained before adding it to the cooker. Since meat takes longer to cook, they need to make up the bottom layer. This will also help keep the meat moist since it will cook into the liquid underneath.

For safety, cook meats at least three hours so that an internal temperature that is high enough for proper cooking can be reached. This is not usually a problem since many use the crock pot at its lowest setting (six to ten hours depending on the brand of cooker). Just a word of advice, whole chickens should not be used in a slow cooker. The internal temperature needed to safely cook that much chicken properly can’t be reached in time for eating at such low temperature settings.

If you plan to cook vegetables in your slow cooker, here are some tips. Tough fibrous veggies like carrots and potatoes can be tossed in at the beginning with the meat. It takes longer for the fibers to be broken down and the vegetables to be cooked all the way through. More delicate vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms should be added half an hour before the meal is done.

Slow cooking makes dinner a cinch when you are on the run. Just be sure to experiment with various dishes the first time to get an idea of how long your slow cooker takes to create the particular meal. Layering foods correctly and testing heat settings will ensure your meal will be delicious every time.

Veggie Scrambler

Ingredients:

• 4 organic or free range eggs
• 1 cup each zucchini, squash, onion, red and green bell pepper
• 1 T. organic butter
• 1/4 cup grated cheese

Method:

1. Lightly beat eggs in bowl.
2. Chop vegetables into small pieces.
3. Melt butter over medium heat in a cast iron pan, and cook vegetables until crisp-tender.
4. Add eggs and cook like an omelet - tilting the pan to allow uncooked egg to go underneath.
5. Just before eggs are done, sprinkle cheese on top.

Excellent at breakfast with herbed potatoes, or anytime with leafy green salad.

Note: 1 lb. tofu can be used instead of eggs. Break up tofu and "scramble".

Cooking In A Crockpot- Slow Cooker Basics Part 1

In today’s world, families are always busy. Whether it is your schedule or your children’s, a good home-cooked meal can be hard to come by. Enter the slow cooker or crockpot. It provides families with another way to prepare delicious meals for their household. The best part is that you don’t even have to be there while it’s cooking.

Slow cooker is another way to say “crock pot.” Most of us are used to hearing the latter, but the terms are interchangeable meaning the same thing. Now, if you are considering using a slow cooker (and I suggest that you do), there are a few things you should know before you start to enhance your chances of creating a successful meal. Yes, even a slow cooker meal can be horrible if some basic tips are not adhered to. No one wants to come home with a hearty appetite and find a pot full of mush. Yuck!

So let’s start with the purchasing of a slow cooker. You can crock pots in various sizes.From as small as one quart to as large as five quarts, you’re sure to find one that fits your needs. If you come across a larger one, that’s even better. Depending on your family size or the amount of people you’ll be preparing meals for with it, you may find the larger the slow cooker the better it will work.

Slow cookers also come with removable inner pots that allow for easier serving at the dinner table. A removable inner core allows everyone to sit and relax as they spoon their food onto the plate instead of standing at the stove. Some even come equipped with a non-stick inner pot, making clean up less messy.

Temperature settings vary among slow cookers. Many offer a range of temperature settings to meet the needs of the cook. Some have as little at two setting (high and low) and others include five settings that vary from high (two hours) to really slow cooking (ten hours). There may also be a warm setting in case the food has finished cooking but any accompanying side dishes still need to be prepared. This setting is also great for times when everyone isn’t ready to eat their meal just yet.

Be careful with your heat settings, however. As with ovens, temperatures and settings on the dial are a rough estimate. Don’t be like me who, at the expense of my meal, overcooked a roast the first time.Even though I had it set to the eight hour setting to cook throughout the day, my slow cooker has a high temperature and cooks boneless meats quickly. I could have put it in the cooker when I got home and still had a delicious meal in less than two hours.

Just goes to show, you live and you learn. To avoid such a food crisis, test your slow cooker on the weekend when you are at home. Start a meal in the late morning hours, using the lowest setting and see how long it actually takes for the meal to cook. You may need to make adjustments to cooking times when you are away based on what you discover.

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Hi Everyone,

This is just a short note to draw your attention to the tasty snack recipes I added to our different sites and blocks. I am giving you the links below. Do go there and get them, you will love them!

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Many of the file names may look more or less the same, but there are different recipes on each of them.

I'm am not going to bore you with the long story why I turned so silent, suffice to say – computer broke!!

Enjoy your day,

Jacob

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Thanksgiving Day Leftovers

It never fails that on Thanksgiving, our eyes seem to be bigger than our stomachs. We have to do jumping jacks or wait another day to eat more of that scrumptious meal. Even when our eyes are screaming “just one more bight”, our bodies are telling us “There’s not room for even one more crumb.” Ah the drama that goes on within us when it comes to food. So, how do you make sure the Thanksgiving Day leftovers are safe to eat tomorrow?

Most people think that food will keep as long as they need it to thanks to the miracle of refrigeration. Unfortunately, that is not so. Food has to be properly stored after dinner so that it is fit to eat the next day. Here are some guidelines for handling those turkey day foods so that they are fit to eat another day.

First of all, leftovers do not have an indefinite shelf life. Usually the sour smell or the sight of fuzzy stuff on the inside of the container alerts us to the fact that something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. As a general rule, leftovers kept in the fridge more than four days pose a potential poisoning hazard to whoever eats it.

Bacteria are small little guys that no one can see with the naked eye. Condensation buildup on the inside of a container can cause bacteria to grow. Despite the fact that the food doesn’t smell, the age of the leftovers makes them dangerous.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, a little food poisoning can ruin the entire weekend. Once food is cooked and ready to eat, don’t let it sit more than a couple of hours at room temperature. Some wait until they are ready to turn in for the night to clean things up but by then, the food has sat too long without refrigeration and the chance of harmful bacteria growth is extremely high.

If you are brave enough to bake the bird with stuffing inside, remember to remove the stuffing before storing the turkey in the refrigerator. With the stuffing still inside, the food will take too long to cool or will cool unevenly. The inside cavity of the turkey will remain warm and ripe for harmful bacteria to grow.

Containers used for storing gravy, rice, vegetables, and other side dishes needs to fit the amount of food inside of it. For instance, you wouldn’t store a cup of rice in a half gallon container even if it was the last one left. The rice would survive better wrapped in aluminum foil. The less air you have inside the container, the better for all concerned. Also, leave room around the outside of the container for air to flow and evenly cool the contents.

Eating turkey and stuffing the next day is even better than on Thanksgiving Day. In order to make sure everyone gets a belly full and not a belly ache, store your leftovers in a safe manner. You’ll be glad you did.

Enjoy your day,

Jacob


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