Since moving out to college, getting married, etc. I've learned how to make the easiest, fastest meals. Honestly, crock pots are the lazy wife's secret tool!
I have a few favorites that I want to share with y'all.
I call this
"The Easter Roast"
I only call it that because I made it for our Easter dinner. Yum!
I had to sneak a bite before the picture! You can just see it falling apart in the picture.
When I tell you the ingredients for this, you will probably think I'm crazy!
Ready? Mustard, ginger, soy. It's a real thing, I promise!
Now, I don't technically follow a recipe for this bad boy, so I'll do my best to give you an idea.
You will need:
-Pork (roast, should, butt, loin, etc.) Whichever you love most!
-Mustard: Just the standard yellow mustard you buy for your hot dogs
-Ginger spice
-Soy. I like Kikkoman.
Technically, you're not supposed to put frozen things in the crock pot, but I break that rule. Often. I would recommend thawing out your roast overnight if you're nervous about it.
Directions:
1. Throw pork into the crock pot on low
2. Mix together the mustard, ginger, and soy.
-Approximately: 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 c mustard, and 1/3 c soy.
3. Pour over roast.
4. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Probably 5-6 hours on high.
After a few hours, I like to throw on some extra mustard and soy for good measure. If you feel there isn't enough liquid in the crock pot, throw some water or even broth in there with it!
My philosophy for the slow cooker is always the longer the better. I recently cooked a pork roast for almost 24 hours. That may be a bit of an overkill, but man was it delicious!
If you try this recipe, let me know!
Ranch House Chicken
You will need:
- 3 or 4 chicken breasts
- Cream of chicken soup (I get the big can or use two 10 oz cans)
- Dry ranch dressing mix
- Sour Cream
- Cream cheese (optional)
The original recipe suggested to shake the ranch powder on last, but I put it directly on the chicken just in case! It probably doesn't matter. It was drool worthy.
1. Put the chicken in the crock pot
2. Sprinkle the ranch packet over chicken
3. Put in sour cream and cream of chicken
4. Put on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours
I put in the cream cheese in the last few hours of cooking. It didn't look creamy enough for me, so I threw it in last as an afterthought!
Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.
We ate it with mashed potatoes, but you couldn't taste the potatoes! I would recommend eating this as the main dish or having the potatoes on the side.
Here's the original recipe! http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2013/01/ranch-house-crock-pot-chicken.html?m=1
The best thing about this dish was how good it tasted days later! My husband raved over how good the flavors were. I was pretty happy with this one.
Blunder to Thunder!
Forgive my terrible joke. You'll see what I mean ;)
I love the idea of salsa and chicken! Eat it over rice, in tacos, etc. To be honest, I had never tried making it before, so I gave it a shot. And I didn't follow a recipe. I just threw what I thought was yummy into the crock pot. This is almost always a good idea. In this case, though... I did an oops.
I threw in:
-Chicken breasts
-Salsa
-Chicken Broth (first mistake)
-Cream cheese (never a mistake)
-Cooked rice (second mistake)
To be fair, I added the rice at the very end. I thought my husband would be home soon, so I threw in some rice to mix it in and thicken it up.
When I served in an hour later, the rice had turned to mush. I don't know why I didn't realize this would happen... Oops!
My husband kept telling me how good it was during dinner. He is so sweet, but it was awful. The texture of the rice was not a good thing. We sucked it up and ate it.
I contemplated turning it into a casserole with cheese and chips crumbled on top, but never went for it.
Here's where the thunder comes in! The next day and a couple days after that, it was so delicious! I guess the fridge made the rice bearable, the flavors were so yummy, and with some cheddar cheese sprinkled on top (and that is never EVER a bad idea), it was so good! I may have to try this one again, but leave out the rice until just before serving (although I believe that's what made the flavors pop!)
Yum.
Here come the real blunders...
I stumbled upon a recipe that I thought sounded absolutely divine. It turns out that is isn't so great. But maybe that's just me.
The recipe is Orange Chicken in the crock pot.
Here's the original recipe: http://thefrugalgirls.com/2013/04/crockpot-orange-chicken-recipe.html
I have to admit that there are still leftovers in the fridge. Even though it was only two days ago, I still don't love the idea of it.
I love salt. Salty meat. Salty food, period. The idea of sweet on meat has to be very convincing. That cranberry-like sauce Ikea puts with their Swedish meatballs: BEAUTIFUL. Honey glazed ham? I can do it.
Maybe there was just too much sweet for me in this dish.
All I did was throw chicken, BBQ sauce, and orange marmalade in the crock pot for 8 hours. Served over rice. It smelled so delicious.
Not.a.fan.
Who knows! Maybe you will love it. I think I may have overdone the marmalade a bit, but I think I just didn't love the dish at all overall.
Have you had any crock pot successes or failures? Share with us!
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