Filed under: Crock pot
I’ve mentioned before that I consider myself relatively slow at prep work in the kitchen. I had this Crock Pot Chicken Vindaloo in my slow cooker in exactly 10 minutes, and that included gathering all my ingredients. Unfortunately, in my whirlwind I sliced my finger open while cutting the onions. So perhaps you should aim for 15 minutes of prep!
I used almost 2 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. Otherwise, I followed the seasoning pretty closely, using what I had in my spice rack. Use it as a guideline: I subbed ground cinnamon for the stick, used whole cloves instead of ground, and skipped the cardamom.
I had steamed a lot of green beans for Thursday night’s dinner, and I had about two cups leftover, so I did not include them in the slow cooker until about a half hour before the vindaloo finished cooking — just enough time to heat them through. I finished the dish with a large handful of chopped cilantro.
I have become a total convert to boneless, skinless chicken thighs as my slow cooker meat of choice. They handle the long cooking time very well, and never seem to dry out. Plus they have a lot more flavor than chicken breasts. They performed as I expected in this meal, which is seriously delicious. I tend to under-spice food when left to my own devices, and I’m sometimes surprised at how absolutely popping with flavor a meal can be when you use a liberal amount of seasoning. The tomato-based sauce is thick and perfect for spooning over rice.
I couldn’t help but think of Merrie as I was plating this dinner, because she is a big fan of adding potatoes to meals in her Crock-Pot. They would be a perfect addition to this dish.
May 9, 2010
I love Slow Cooker Ratatouille. It’s easy (true, there is a lot of chopping), healthy, and tasty. The trifecta! This afternoon I chopped up a large onion, 3 Japanese eggplant, carrots, a yellow pepper, a green pepper, a small zucchini, and 3 cloves of garlic and threw them into my slow cooker with a 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, a squeeze of tomato paste, and some fresh parsley. After 5 hours on high and some seasoning with salt and pepper, it was ready to eat.
We piled spoonfuls of ratatouille on top of split Portuguese rolls, and topped the vegetables with slices of fresh mozzarella. The warm ratatouille slightly melted the cheese, and added just the right amount of creaminess to make delicious dinner sandwiches.
This Crock-Pot dish freezes well, and can be used in so many ways. I have mixed it with cottage cheese and served it over pasta, used it as a side dish to chicken, and even as an omelet filling. Tonight I was thinking about adding some curry powder and chickpeas, and then putting that over rice. I know what I’m doing with the leftovers!
April 21, 2010
Updated to add: I used a 16 oz. jar of medium salsa, which is more than the original recipe calls for. Also, I did get some slight burning of the beans around the bottom edge of the crock, but not enough to bother me or really detract from the recipe.
I bookmarked this Martha Stewart recipe for Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans a couple of months ago because I wanted to start experimenting with using dried beans in my slow cooker. I wound up starting it late — it was almost 11 AM — and I was worried about the beans finishing in time. So I cooked it on high for 3 hours, and then once I saw that the beans were softening enough, I switched it to low for another 3 hours (yes, I open my Crock-Pot during cooking).
I used vegetable stock instead of water, and omitted the canned chipotle chiles because I was hoping to make something mild enough for the kids to eat. I liked it a lot; it’s a solid recipe that doesn’t take on that generic mushiness that some slow cooker recipes have. The dried beans hold their texture, and I find that the dark meat of the chicken holds up better than white meat does. My preparation wasn’t bland, but I do think it would have been a lot tastier with the chipotle, or with some chili powder or other spices added. As leftovers today for lunch, the pintos reminded me of refried beans, which I like. I’ll definitely make this dish again.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I offered A. 25¢ to try the meal. He bargained me up to 50¢, and took a bite. Then he took several more bites because apparently it wasn’t quite as horrible as he’d expected. I’ll take it as a small victory.
April 13, 2010
I’ve been dragging this week, and I am craving comfort food without a lot of work. I’d planned on roasting butternut squash and tossing it with goat cheese and farro for dinner Thursday night, but as I was making lunch that day I decided to throw something homey into the Crock-Pot instead. These were all ingredients I had on hand (I used flanken straight from the freezer), and by the time dinner came around I was thrilled and thankful to have this haimish dish ready to go.
The boys wouldn’t touch it, and J. finished a small bowl. When I asked him what he thought about it, I got no response. I know I’m not doing much to convince you to make it, but I really enjoyed these flavors together and this stew is a good way to make a little meat go a long way. I froze the bulk of the leftovers and will serve it (and happily eat it) another day.
Slow Cooker Beef & Barley Stew
1 lb. flanken (a cut of beef short rib)
32 oz. vegetable stock
1 medium onion, diced
1 c. pearled barley, rinsed
10 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, cleaned + quartered
1 c. carrots, chopped (about a large handful of baby carrots, cut into coins)
1 bay leaf
black pepper + salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in your slow cooker, and cook on high for 4 hours. Take flanken out of the crock, discard the bones, and shred the meat making sure to trim off any visible fat. Set the meat aside. Remove and discard bay leaf and any remaining bones that are in the stew. Then add the shredded meat back into the crock, stir, and adjust seasoning with salt + pepper. Serve hot.
March 6, 2010
I saw flanken at my kosher butcher several months ago, and knew back then that I wanted to make it with split pea soup. Flanken are thinly-cut beef short ribs; Beth has a great photo of them on her site. Flanken-cut ribs are sometimes called “Korean style” as well — they’re usually barbecued, while kosher flanken is usually cooked low and slow. Perfect for the Crock-Pot.
I used Stephanie O’Dea’s CrockPot Split Pea Soup Recipe as a starting point, and to get the liquid to solid ratio right for my soup. I had the bag of dried peas in my pantry and the flanken in my freezer, so although I hadn’t shopped for the other ingredients I decided to pull it together from what I had on hand. It was so delicious, I’d probably make it the same way next time!
We wound up not eating this for dinner (J. and the boys had way less enthusiasm for trying this soup than I did), but I have been enjoying it myself one bowl at a time. I did freeze a good portion, and after removing the flanken from the bone, shredded it and put it on top of the soup. I’m going to defrost it and serve it for dinner tomorrow night, when my parents are here — I think they’ll love it too.
If I’d had enough vegetable stock in the house to do so, I would have eliminated the veggie stock cube entirely and just done 5 cups of broth. I might have also added some chopped carrots.
I found the consistency of the soup was smooth enough for me without blending, but you can certainly use an immersion blender to get it more uniformly creamy. Just don’t forget to remove the bay leaf and flanken first!
Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup with Flanken
1 lb. flanken-cut beef ribs (or a little more)
1 medium onion, diced
1 lb. bag dried split peas, rinsed and picked through
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. kosher salt
10 grinds black pepper
1 vegetable stock cube (I use Telma), crushed
1 c. vegetable stock
4 c. water
Add ingredients in the order listed to a 6 qt. slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove bay leaf, discard. Remove flanken and set aside until it is cool enough to handle. Remove meat from the bones, and shred. Serve soup with a small portion of flanken on top, or stir it back into the pot.
February 1, 2010
I first tried to recreate a restaurant-quality coq au vin at home last May, and although the result was pretty tasty it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I found using bone-in chicken awkward, since the end result is like a stew, and the bones had to be fished out.
I came across another coq au vin recipe in a Better Homes & Gardens Ultimate Slow-Cooker magazine that I borrowed from Suzanne. It reminded me I wanted to give this traditional dish another go. I preferred this version, but it’s still not exactly right. It definitely needs some more seasoning — black pepper, a bay leaf, or maybe tarragon? Also, I liked the tomato paste called for in the first recipe I tried; it added some depth and nice color that I missed in this one. Plus the sauce in this recipe is very thin at the end. That’s fine if you’re putting it over noodles or rice, but it just lacked the right velvety mouth-feel I was looking for.
I’m posting the recipe as I made it, because my mother in law wants to try making it herself! That’s a lovely compliment to get. Also, A. told me that while this was cooking it smelled delicious, like pancakes. And he ate a whole piece of the chicken, sans veggies. I would make this dish with dark meat only, but I had some people eating with me that prefer white meat, so I used a combination of thighs and breasts.
Slow Cooker Coq au Vin, Second Try
Adapted from BH&G Ultimate Slow-Cooker
1 lb. frozen pearl onions
1 c. baby carrots (a large handful)
2.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breasts)
20 oz. mushrooms, cleaned & quartered (I like baby bellas, white are fine too)
1 c. beef stock
1/2 c. dry red wine
In a large (6 qt.) slow cooker, layer the ingredients in the order listed above. Cook for 4 hours on high, then season to taste. Serve over egg noodles or rice to soak up the cooking liquid.
January 29, 2010
I spent some time over the past two weeks looking at Chick in the Kitchen site statistics for 2009, and thinking about ways I’d like this blog to grow in 2010. It was particularly interesting to me to see that my top five posts (by the amount of direct traffic they received) in 2009 were actually written in 2008!
They were:
1. Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins
2. Slow Cooker Italian-Style Turkey Meatballs
3. Unstuffed Cabbage with Ground Turkey
4. Spinach & Cheese Muffins
5. Slow Cooker Ratatouille
I feel like those were really good dishes that, with the exception of the savory muffins, I come back to again and again. But it was still surprising to me that something more recent didn’t make the cut.
If you take the 2008 posts out of contention, the top five 2009 Chick in the Kitchen posts actually written in 2009 were:
1. Have You Tried Truvia?
2. Dimer Dalna (Egg Curry)
3. Chicken and Figs
4. Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin, First Try
5. Chicken Scarpariello, Take Two
I do love the egg curry and have made it several times. I feel the same way about the Chicken & Figs. See the Coq Au Vin post reminded me that I want to try it again with boneless, skinless chicken thighs. And the Scarpariello, well, it’s still not for me.
The most popular keyword search used to find my site was “chick in the kitchen.” I hope they found exactly what they were looking for here! Second and third place go to “slow cooker ratatouille” and “quinoa pudding.” And while simplyrecipes.com refers the most direct traffic to me, Facebook is (not surprisingly to me!) in the top five.
Most of all, my site statistics remind me that although I’m looking at anonymous numbers, all those digits represent real people worldwide who, even if just for a moment, came to read something I wrote. The thrill of that can’t be measured.
January 3, 2010
The Costco near my parent’s house has started carrying a wider range of fresh kosher meats (pre-packaged elsewhere), and my mom and dad were kind enough to pick me up a huge tray of chicken breasts plus a first-cut brisket the last time they went shopping. The brisket is packaged by Teva Meats, and the one I got was a very manageable size — just under 3 lbs. J. was impressed with how nicely it was trimmed; there was little for us to do to prep it for the Crock-Pot.
We made up this recipe as we went along: First we dumped lots of cut-up potatoes, carrots, and onions in the bottom of the crock, and placed the brisket, which had been rubbed with a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, on top. No liquid to start. The cover went on and we cooked it on high for an hour, then put it on low for about another 6 hours. Somewhere in there — maybe 2 hours before we took it out? — J. added a squeeze of tomato paste and a little red wine. When it was done, we removed the brisket to slice it, and then added it back into the crock to serve.
It was very good, and not too much like pot roast, which I feared it would be. In fact, because of the onion soup it was a lot saltier than foods I normally cook, and it actually reminded me a little of pastrami. It was very tender, and because it was a lean cut of meat there wasn’t a lot of grease left in the crock. Braised meats like this (and stews) are not my favorite, but I still found it tasty. J. and his parents really loved it. I can’t say that I’d make it again, but J. might!
December 21, 2009
I was sure I had nearly a full bag of lentils in my pantry, but it turned out to be just half a cup. This turned out to be a happy mistake. Instead of the two full cups of lentils this recipe called for, I used a quarter of that and then filled in the rest with chunks of washed, but unpeeled, white potatoes from my farm share. They are perfect together, and create a really delicious Indian-inspired dish. Although there are green chiles in here, it’s not spicy, I promise.
I probably would have preferred the onions if I’d taken the time to caramelize them in some olive oil first. I also thought the flavor improved the second day, when my leftovers were reheated. Still, I will definitely make this recipe again, and it inspired me to think some more about other curry dishes for the Crock-Pot.
Crock-Pot Indian-Spiced Chicken with Lentils & Potatoes
Adapted from Indian Spiced Lentils with Chicken
½ c. lentils, picked through and rinsed
1 qt. potatoes (4-6 medium), washed and cut into chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1½ tsp. cumin
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. dried mustard
½ tsp. turmeric
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 4 oz. can chopped green chiles
1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
4 c. vegetable broth
1.5 – 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breasts, halved)
Place everything up to and including the vegetable broth in the slow cooker and give it a stir to combine. Lay the chicken on top. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. Stir and serve over rice, if desired.
Note: the original recipe suggests leaving the lid off the Crock-Pot while it is still on high for the last few minutes of cooking if you feel there’s too much liquid left for your taste. I didn’t do this, but did use a slotted spoon to serve.
December 6, 2009
This is not really a recipe, just a dump and set: Add about 1.5 lbs. of trimmed skirt steak to your slow cooker, cover with a bottle of barbecue sauce (I used an 18 oz. bottle of Open Pit Original Barbecue Sauce), and cook on low for 8 hours. Shred. Serve on a roll or over rice.
J. felt lukewarm about the results, which are as tender as can be but a little vinegary (the vinegar flavor from the barbecue sauce is definitely heightened as the steak cooks). I thought it was a nice change of pace from Ropa Vieja, which is usually how I prepare skirt steak in my Crock-Pot, and you can’t beat it for easiness. I want to try the “dump a jar of barbecue sauce” technique on some chicken breasts next.
November 24, 2009
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I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two boys, ages 4 and 6, and husband. Trying to feed my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 