Slow-Cooking?

[lillibet]

One of the excellent Christmas gifts I received this year is a slow-cooker. I'm thinking of trying it out tomorrow--anyone have a simple recipe (or pointer to same) to nominate as my first attempt?

Comments

[ariwriter.livejournal.com]

Do you mean a crock pot?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

In a sense, yes. Crock Pot is the trademarked name of the slow cookers produced by Rival, Inc.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

In fact I do! A really easy one that I happen to be planning to make tonight, believe it or not.


Ingredients
2 cans black beans
16 oz jar salsa
1/2 cup brown rice (uncooked)
1 lb chicken breast

Directions

Place frozen chicken breasts in slow cooker.
Pour beans, rice and salsa over chicken.
Cook low 8-10 hours and serve.

Number of Servings: 6

Fat: 1.9 g
Carbohydrates: 40.0g
Calories: 298.8
Protein: 30.8g

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

Here's my recipe for crockpot chili. This does need to be started the night before, unless you substitute canned kidney beans. Since I'm a cheapskate, I use dried ones.

1/2 lb dried kidney beans
2 cups water
1-2 pounds ground beef
15 oz can tomato sauce
28 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 large chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
3 T chili powder (I like Penzey's medium)
2 T brown sugar
1/2 t ground pepper

Put kidney beans and water in crock pot. Cook on high 1 hour. Leave to sit overnight.

Brown & drain ground beef. Add all ingredients to crock pot. Cook 8-10 hours on low.

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

Turkey Chili

1 lg or 2 small chopped onion
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 lg (24oz? I can't check right now, I have a cat on my lap) can tomato puree (I like Muir Glen)
1 lb ground turkey (or obviously you could use whatever kind of ground meat or meat-subtitute you wanted but 1% lean ground turkey's very nice)
3-4tbsp chili powder (I use Penzey's)
salt to taste when it's done (maybe 2tsp salt)

Stir it all up in the slow cooker and let it go for 6 hours.

If you want to put a little more effort into it, seed and stem 2 fresh jalapenos, 2 fresh poblanos and 2 fresh anaheim peppers (or any peppers of your choice), roast them in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, then chop them up after they're cooled and add them to the chili.

I find that 1% lean turkey gives you great texture and absorbs the flavor of the chili powder and tomato so well you'll barely notice it's not beef.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

My crockpot (I think it is a Rival brand) came with a recipe for BBQ pulled pork that is quite good (I mean, it's not serious BBQ smoked pulled pork, but it still tastes good with BBQ sauce.) I don't have it up here, but can pass it on to you if you're interested - it is mostly a spiced-rubbed slow-cooked pork butt or pork shoulder that you cook long and slow with a bit of vinegary sauce, and then shred.

Another crockpot stew I like to make is sort of improvised, so this recipe isn't exact, but I use roughly equal proportions of carrot, parsnip, and potato chopped into 3/4 to 1" thick chunks, and add a small splash of red wine or cider vinegar, some cooking sherry, a little water or broth, salt, pepper, maybe some marjoram or thyme and either chunks of stew meat (works well with lamb or pork or veal) or lay a single lamb or veal shoulder chop on top of the vegetables. You can also add some chunks of squash, if you feel inclined. I think I may find this so good just because I have fallen in love with the combination of cooking sherry and parsnips, though. In the crockpot, your total liquid can maybe 1/2" to 1" deep, it doesn't need to get that wet.

(I've also done things with this in a le creuset, here is one I posted
about last year.)

[the-gadgetman.livejournal.com]

Probably the easiest thing I've ever done is to take a chicken, drop in it a slow cooker on top of a few rolled up balls of foil, sprinkle on some kosher salt, and cook for several hours. Tenderest chicken I've ever had, and about as low-key cooking as it comes.....