SLOW COOKER SANTA FE CHICKEN

It was a frigid -1° on the thermometer in our backyard this morning, it’s at 9° now, and there's too much snow on the ground.  

 

Slow Cooker Pork Roast w/Mushroom Ragout & the Blizzard

The blizzard came with a vengeance, delivering 19.8” of snow from late Saturday through 1:00 a.m. this morning ~ making this the 5th heaviest snow in history for this area.  The howling winds that came with it left 4-foot snowdrifts in some spots, and only an inch of snow in a few other places.

 

It’s that eerie howling wind that so unsettles me and puts me on edge…  

Our version of a sea wall!

  

Thankfully, New England’s win made it all better and a great diversion!

Brady & Kraft - the Champions!

On with the slow cooker ~ if you like tender pork, mushrooms and an easy dish to make for dinner, this recipe may be just right for you.

I like all mushrooms, especially the full flavor of cremini mushrooms.  Cremini mushrooms are dark brown with a slightly firmer texture than the everyday button variety.  So I knew when I saw this recipe in my Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook, that it was a must try.

Serve it with hot cooked egg noodles, or mashed potatoes, to round out your easy meal.

When all was eaten and done, I thought it was good, whereas Bill liked it more than I did.  I hope you like it too, if you try it.


Pork Roast w/Mushroom Ragout 
Adapted

Ingredients:

1 cup crushed tomatoes, divided
¼ cup flour
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 (16-ounce) package button mushrooms, cut in half
1 (8-ounce) package cremini mushrooms, cut in half
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
½ ounce dried tomatoes, packed without oil, quartered, about 6
1¾ pounds boneless pork loin roast
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon seasoned pepper 

Method:

Combine ½ cup crushed tomatoes, flour and thyme in a 5-quart slow cooker.

Stir well with a whisk.
Add all mushrooms, onion and dried tomatoes.
Trim fat from pork, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place meat on top of mushroom mixture.
Pour remaining ½ cup crushed tomatoes over pork.
Cover and cook on HIGH 1 hour.
Reduce heat to LOW, cook 7 hours.
Remove pork from slow cooker, cut into slices.
Makes 5 servings

ENJOY!

Slow Cooker Barbecued Pulled Pork

There are probably as many recipes for slow cooker pulled pork as there are celebrity chefs…

And, this recipe for it is a cinch ~ easy, easy, thanks to the slow cooker. The pork cooks for hours in its penetrating smoky, slightly sweet, spicy sauce, until it’s falling-apart tender, and you can pull it into shreds with a fork. 

As a bonus, it fills your house with mouth-watering aromas ~ you will be drooling!

Why spend all day cooking when the slow cooker can cook this scrumptious dish for you, vastly cutting your kitchen time?

Before

Voila!

Slow Cooker Barbecued Pulled Pork

Ingredients: 

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed

1 onion, sliced thin

2 cups ketchup

1 cup water

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons liquid smoke

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce

2 teaspoons paprika

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon seasoned pepper

8-10 soft hamburger-style buns

Method:

Trim pork and place in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Spread sliced onions over top.

In a medium bowl, combine next 10 ingredients and stir well.

Pour into slow cooker, set on low for about 8 hours, or until meat shreds easily.

Place on buns and serve.

Mouth-watering delicious!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and delicious easy recipes! 

Mary’s Roast Beef

I don’t know Mary, but I savored every bite of her roast beef!

Instead of the oven for roast beef, this time I used the slow cooker, and a recipe from Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook.   It’s the way to a tender roast that nearly falls apart at the touch of a fork for mouthwatering deliciousness.  It turns out succulent, juicy and good enough for company too, I think.

This simple recipe has the beef cooking in gravy, with chopped onion and garlic, along with dried basil.  Nothing can be easier and more tasty than this roast beef served alongside mashed potatoes laden with gravy!

But, to tell the truth, while I thought it was delicious and would like to cook it again, Bill wants no part of a sirloin tip roast prepared this way again!  

To each his own…

Mary’s Roast Beef

Ingredients:

1 (2½ to 3-pound) beef sirloin tip roast

2 tablespoons oil

1 medium onion, quartered and sliced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup brewed coffee

¾ cup water, divided

1 beef bouillon cube

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon seasoned pepper

2 teaspoons dried basil

Flour for gravy

Method:

Sear roast on all sides in hot oil in a large skillet.

Place roast in a 4-quart slow cooker.

Add onion and garlic to skillet, and sauté until tender.

Blend in coffee, ½ cup water, bouillon cube and next 3 ingredients.

Transfer to slow cooker.

Cover and cook on LOW 6-7 hours or until tender.

Transfer roast to serving platter.

Measure drippings, and return to slow cooker.

For every cup of drippings, add 1 tablespoon flour to the remaining ¼ cup water.

Whisk to blend flour and water.

Stir mixture into drippings.

Cook, uncovered, on HIGH 5 minutes or until gravy thickens, whisking frequently.

Serve gravy with roast.

6-8 servings

ENJOY!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and delicious easy recipes! 

Succulent Slow-cooker Pork Loin in Gravy

It’s that time of year when I like pulling out the slow cooker and letting it cook dinner for us!

  

This slightly adapted recipe is from Trisha Yearwood’s Home Cooking cookbook.  Not only can she sing, she can evidently cook very well also.  Her cookbooks are filled with down-home simple recipes that would appeal to most anyone.  

We really like pork and I really like the slow-cooker, so this recipe is a win win!  It has the right mix of ingredients with its spicy rub, chicken broth, lemon juice and soy sauce.  The pork is fall apart tender and delicious

Trisha says, “ Before I found this recipe, my attempts at cooking pork loin usually began with high hopes and ended with dry, overcooked meat.  The secret is the slow-cooking crockpot.  Spices in the rub get a chance to really flavor the loin, and it doesn’t dry out.  In fact, it’s so tender that it actually falls apart!” 

Browned in skillet

Ready to slow-cook

The singer/cook is right ~ it is scrumptious!  I hope you try it and like it as much as we do!

Slow-cooker Pork Loin in Gravy

Printable recipe

Ingredients:

1 (2-1/2 to 3 pound) pork loin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 teaspoons low-salt soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Salt and pepper

Method:

Trim the visible fat from the loin; if necessary, cut the roast to fit into a 3 1/2, 4-, or 5-quart crockpot.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, ginger, thyme, and pepper.

Rub the spice mixture over the entire surface of the loin.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and brown the loin slowly on all sides, drain off the fat.

Transfer the loin to the crockpot.

Combine the chicken broth, lemon juice, and soy sauce; pour over the loin.

Cover and cook on a low heat setting for 8-10 hours or on a high-heat setting for 4-5 hours.

When the roast is done, transfer the meat to a serving platter and cover to keep it warm.

To make the gravy, pour the juices from the crockpot into a glass measuring cup.

Skim off the fat.

Measure 2 cups of liquid, adding water to the juices, if necessary to make 2 cups.

Transfer the juices to a saucepan, reserving 1/2 cup.

Stir the cornstarch into the reserved 1/2 cup of juice until dissolved, then stir into the juices in the saucepan.

Heat, stirring frequently, until the gravy is thickened and bubbly, 5-7 minutes.

Cook and stir 2 minutes more.

Season the gravy to taste with salt and pepper.

Slice the roast and serve it with the gravy.

As my dear Aunt Ruth used to say,  “Deeeee-licious!!!”

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and delicious easy recipes! 

And ~ take a minute to enter my giveaway for Tate’s Bake Shop Cookie and Bar Tower, if you haven’t already.  You just might be the happy winner!

Pinto Beans and Kielbasa Stew in the Slow Cooker

It was the perfect day ~ a chilly rainy day ~ to pull out the slow cooker, and let it do its magic!

This stew is filled with lots of good flavors, from the pinto beans, to the spices and veggies, to the kielbasa.  To cut the fat content, I used turkey kielbasa.  Do not add it until the last hour of cooking, in order to keep it firm.  

 

Ground ancho chile pepper has a smoky, fruity flavor, with tones of licorice and coffee and a little woodsiness, that is a great addition to this stew.  It’s actually made of dried poblano peppers and is the sweetest of the dried chiles, having mild heat. 

Along with a little heat and lots of flavor, ancho chile pepper adds a nice red color to marinades, rubs and sauces, such as the great Mexican mole sauce.  You can add it to beans and rice, sprinkle it on hot chocolate, include it in brownies, for a twist, and to stews such as this.  If you’ve never used it, I hope you give it a try ~ preferably, with this recipe!

   

Highly adaptable, the fresh Poblano becomes the Ancho when dried.

 

Slow Cooker Pinto Beans and Kielbasa Stew

Ingredients:

1 pound dried pinto beans

2 quarts water

5 cups chicken broth

1 large tomato, chopped

4 ribs celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup molasses

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons ancho chile pepper, ground

2 teaspoons onion powder

Salt and seasoned pepper, to taste

1 pound turkey kielbasa, sliced

Method:

Rinse and sort through the beans, to remove debris.

Combine all ingredients, except kielbasa, in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low setting for 6 hours.

Add kielbasa, turn heat to high and cook for another hour or so.

Serve with a good rustic bread, and…

ENJOY!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog, @My Kind of Cooking for great tips and delicious easy recipes! 

Slow-cooked Barbecued Chicken

This “fix it and forget it” slow cooker chicken is a hearty dish that is made for cold wintry days.  I saw this recipe in the January issue of “Southern Living” magazine and had to give it a try. 

It’s a simple tasty dish that makes an easy meal.   I doubt that the bourbon would make much difference if omitted.   The mix of vinegar, brown sugar and ketchup gave the chicken an appealing tangy flavor, with the lemon adding piquancy.

This resulted in very tender chicken that shredded easily.  The next time I make it, I will do exactly that:  Prepare the chicken, cook it in the slow cooker and when done, remove the chicken, let it cool slightly, discard the bones and lemon, shred the chicken and serve it on buns for delicious slow-cooked barbecued chicken sandwiches!

Ready to simmer

Slow-cooked Barbecued Chicken

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons salt

1½ teaspoons paprika

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon pepper

3 pounds cut-up whole chicken*

½ cup cola soft drink

1/3 cup ketchup

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons bourbon

1 lemon, sliced

Method:

Stir together first 4 ingredients in a small bowl.

Sprinkle over chicken.

Place chicken in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Whisk together cola soft drink and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl.

Slowly pour mixture between chicken pieces (to avoid removing spices from chicken).

Place lemon slices in a single layer on top of chicken.

C0ver and cook on HIGH 5 hours or on LOW 6½ to7 ½ hours, or until done.

Transfer chicken pieces to a serving platter; discard lemon slices.

Skim fat from pan juices in slow cooker.

Pour juices over chicken; serve immediately.

6 servings

*Pam’s note:  Use a whole chicken or your favorite pieces.  I removed the skin from all of the chicken---no fat to skim from pan juices.

As Southern Living says, “take comfort in this!”

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda, at My Kind of Cooking!  She’s hosting a great giveaway now ~ one of her cookbooks and cute kitchen towels.

Smoky Beef and Hominy Stew

I remember Mom serving hominy occasionally in a stew when I was young.   I haven’t eaten or thought about it since then, until I saw it included in a recipe in Family Circle magazine.  

I showed Bill the recipe and asked if he liked hominy ~ he didn’t really know anything about it but said he was willing to try it if I cooked it.

If you’re not familiar with hominy either, it’s dried corn kernels with the hull and germ removed.  

This is done through a process called nixtamalization, which is a procedure of treating corn kernels with an alkaline solution to remove the hull and the germ. It is said that this process makes hominy more flavorful and aromatic with superior nutrition.

Supposedly, hominy has been used by the Native Americans for a very long time. In fact, the history of hominy has been traced back to 1200 BC. 

It is said that the process of nixtamalization originated during that period, in some parts of Mexico and Guatemala. Today, hominy is popular throughout the United States, especially in the South.

Hominy is more tender than corn with a much creamier texture.  Stir it into hearty stews or chili instead of the traditional beans.  

I followed the list of ingredients, except for omitting 3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro and I cooked it in a slow cooker instead of in a Dutch oven on the stovetop. If you haven’t enjoyed hominy before, try this!

Spicy Beef and Hominy Stew

Adapted slightly

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons flour

1 to 1½ teaspoons chipotle chile powder, depending on taste

1 pound beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 cups reduced-sodium beef broth

1 can (14.5 ounces) stewed tomatoes

¾ teaspoon dried oregano

2 cans (15-ounces each) hominy, rinsed and drained

1 pound carrots, sliced

1 large green pepper, chopped

4½ cups cooked rice (1½ cups uncooked)

Method:

In a shallow dish, whisk flour and chile powder.

Coat beef with flour mixture; reserve unused flour.

In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.

Add beef and cook, turning, until all sides are browned.

Add all of remaining ingredients, except rice, into slow cooker.

Stir in beef and combine well.

Cook on low for 7 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Serve with cooked rice.

Please visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes.

Be sure to enter my Tate’s Bake Shop Giveaway if you haven’t already.