Entries tagged with recipe: meat

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Crock Pot Mediterranean Chicken

I found this on Pinterest; the original recipe is over here. I made a couple small changes and will add another when I make it again.

3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
28 oz canned whole tomatoes, do not drain, chop very roughly (or use sliced)
28 oz canned artichoke hearts, cut in half (or buy them pre-cut)
2 large sweet onions, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted, chopped roughly (about 28 olives)
1/4 cup rice vinegar (originally white wine vinegar)
1 Tbsp tomato chicken bouillon powder
1 Tbsp (heaping) curry powder
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried thyme
2 Tbsp (or more) minced garlic [addition for next time]

Put the onion in the bottom of you crock and top with chicken and then the other ingredients. Cook on high for 6 hours.

When you stir it the chicken should fall to shreds with minimal prodding. Serve over whatever seems appealing (rice, couscous, pasta...).

Note that I tend to leave out salt and pepper when I cook things in the crock if it seems like they might already be in other ingredients (in this case the bouillon and the curry powder) so season to taste.

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Tomato Chicken Lentils

I felt like tossing things in the slow cooker today.

1 large onion. 1/2" diced
1 generous handful of baby carrots cut in thirds (about 1/2" dice)
1 cup lentils
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can (15oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 can (15oz) fire roasted Tex Mex diced tomatoes, undrained
1 Tbsp tomato-chicken bouillon powder dissolved in 1 cup water

Layer the ingredients in the crock and cook on high for 6 hours. The chicken will fall into shreds with some poking and stirring. Since I don't add salt when cooking in the crock, be prepared to salt to your taste when it's finished.

I'd like to make this again with chicken thighs sometime.

I'm not one for spicy food so you could certainly use more of the Tex Mex tomatoes and less of the plain (or use a whole can of the Tex Mex and one good sized fresh tomato). The Tex Mex tomatoes are something we pick up at Wal-Mart, you could substitute about a cup of roasted tomato salsa (or more if you like things spicy).

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Crockpot Orange Chicken

This is a slightly modified version of a recipe I discovered via Pinterest. I've doubled the amount and adjusted the seasoning.

Note that ¹/₄ cup + 2 Tbsp equals ³/₈ cup, if you are fortunate enough to have a ¹/₈ cup measure.

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1.5-2" chunks
1 c flour (approximately, for dredging)
vegetable oil for frying

1 can (12 oz) orange juice concentrate
¹/₄ c + 2 Tbsp brown sugar
¹/₄ c + 2 Tbsp ketchup
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp salt
¹/₄ tsp red pepper

Dredge the chicken pieces in flour and brown them on all sides. You don't have to cook them through, just get a nice golden brown on them. Put the browned pieces in the crock. Unless you have a much larger pan than I do you'll have to do the chicken pieces in 2-3 batches.

Mix up the other ingredients in a bowl and pour it over the chicken in the crock. Give it a good stir and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

I cooked this batch 6 hours as the recipe stated but I think it would have been fine with just 4 hours. My crock has a notorious hot spot and with all the sugars in this recipe it got a bit dark in places even though I stirred it every couple hours and turned the ceramic liner end for end half way through. It still turned out tasty though. :9

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Korean Roast Chicken Thighs

I made these for supper tonight and since both Bill and I liked them the recipe gets stored here so I can always find it.

The original recipe is here, and has a handy feature that lets you adjust the number of servings. I made a couple modifications so here's my version, the largest change is the amount of sesame oil:

10 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
¹/₂ cup soy sauce
¹/₂ cup minced yellow onion
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp honey
2 tsp minced garlic
¹/₄ tsp ground ginger
¹/₄ tsp ground red pepper

Combine everything in a gallon sized ziplock bag and marinate at least a couple hours¹.

Place thighs in roasting pan, skin side down, and pour remaining marinade over them. Bake uncovered at 375°F for 45 minutes. Turn pieces over and bake for another 15 minutes.

Since I was going to have the oven going for the chicken I also scrubbed some yellow potatoes, cut them into large chunks and tossed them with some seasoned salt, red pepper, and vegetable oil. I roasted them in a separate pan at the same time, giving them a stir when I turned the chicken.

1. I mixed mine up around 10:30 at night and put it on the bake the next day at 5pm.

If chicken is not your thing, this marinade is awesome on pork as well. Take a pork loin that will fit in your slow cooker and trim off the fat. Cut the loin into slabs 2-3" thick, coat them in the marinade and then stuff them, and the rest of the marinade, in your slower cooker and let it cook until the pork falls apart when you poke it. Leftover pork makes awesome fried rice. :)

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Baked Pasta, take two

I made the baked pasta dish again tonight, this time adding a 15oz can of diced tomatoes (seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic). I baked it for 35 and 15 minutes and it turned out perfect! That little bit more moisture and tomato did the trick.

And for fun:

You Are a Carrot Cake Cupcake

You are a complex person. You have many interesting layers to your personality, though others might not know it.

You are drawn to a cross section of people. You friends play different roles in your life.

You are like a cupcake because you are are deceptively simple. There's actually a lot to you!

There are many ingredients in your life, and you only want them in proper amounts. Being you is a delicate art.

What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

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Baked pasta with as little work as possible

All ingredients up for personal choice, tonight's choice in parenthesis.

Required:
1 pound dried pasta (radiatori)
1 26oz jar pasta sauce (Ragu Super Chunk Mushroom)
1 jar of water
2 cups shredded cheese (Italian 4 cheese - mozzarella, provolone, romano, asiago)

Optional (I never make it without meat of some sort)
1 pound ground beef
1/2 bag frozen onions and peppers
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained

Brown up the beef, onions, and peppers; drain excess fat.

In a 13x9x2" pan mix the dried pasta, sauce, and one full sauce jar of water. Sprinkle meat and veggies on top and cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Remove foil and stir, checking that the pasta is al dente (if not add a bit more water if it looks like it needs it and bake some more). Sprinkle with cheese and return to the oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and perhaps lightly browned.

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Ridiculously simple but tasty

2 Johnsonville Stadium Style Brats, sliced into "coins"
1/2 bag Birds Eye Pepper Stir-Fry
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 can sliced mushrooms (or fresh if you have them)
1 can (15oz) sliced stewed tomatoes
cornstarch and water to thicken
seasonings
cooked spaghetti, noodles, rice, or whatever else you think it might be tasty over

Heat a saucepan with a bit of oil and lightly brown the brats and stir-fry mix with the garlic (add fresh mushrooms at this point), add tomatoes and mushrooms and bring a boil. Thicken with the cornstarch and water mixture and season as you like.

I just used seasoned salt and red pepper.

You could thicken this with tomato paste if you wanted a stronger tomato sauce flavor. I didn't want to open a can to use only part of it and I liked the lighter flavor that thickening with cornstarch gave.

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Sausage and Sauerkraut, the original stovetop version

Since I made this last night (in massive amounts for freezing) I thought I'd go ahead and post the recipe.

1 lb bacon, cut in half for shorter strips
6-8 large onions, cut in 1" dice
6-8 Granny Smith apples, cored but not peeled, cut in 1" chunks (any firm tart apple would work)
6 pints sauerkraut
1 bottle white wine (cheap but drinkable, not "cooking wine")
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
coarse black pepper to taste
Sausage¹
Pork²

1. 10 sweet Italian, 6 garlic and cheese, 5 fresh bratwurst, and 1 fresh kielbasa (aka "Polish sausage") cut into 10 pieces
2. one medium center cut pork loin sliced into 10 slabs

As with the slow cooked version, the amounts are flexible and the meats are entirely up to your preference. Since it's difficult to tell sausages apart after cooking (and they will break in half so you can't go by lengths) I don't use hot sausages any longer, but I have in the past. That said, the bratwursts were darker than the other sausages in this batch.

Obtain a heavy pot large enough to hold everything, I used a heavy turkey roaster (which can hold a 25lb turkey) and had plenty of room to stir things ~~this time~~.

Cook the bacon until the fat has rendered, add onions and apples and cook until lightly browned and soft. Add 'kraut, wine, brown sugar, and pepper and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add the meats, cover and simmer for as long as you can stand the wait. Add water/broth/wine if needed to keep everything moist.

I started this batch around 2:30 and served when my mother got home from work at 7:30.

We generally have it with mashed potatoes (Dad's choice) or rice (everyone else) and I suspect it would be lovely with buttered noodles.

Dark pumpernickel bread and nutty brown beer are optional but highly recommended.

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Fish Chowder

Even my brother, who opined that chowder was "a waste of fish", liked this one... once we badgered him into trying it.

Amounts are approximate and somewhat proportional, a serving of fish and potato per person with enough broth to construct a soup out of it.

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter
1 medium onion, diced fine
2 ribs celery, diced fine
3 quarts water
1 bottle clam juice (8oz)
2 Knorr vegetable bouillon cubes (1 cube makes 2 cups of broth)
4 tsp Better Than Bouillon clam soup base
5 medium/large potatoes, cubed
2 large fish fillets (firm-fleshed whitefish, such as pollock or cod), cut into 1" cubes (approximately 2 pounds?)
1 can minced clams, with juice
1 can whole corn, with liquid
salt & pepper to taste

Saute onion and celery in butter until translucent or lightly browned. Add water, clam juice, bouillon, and soup base. Bring to a boil and add potatoes, cook until nearly tender (approximately 15 minutes). Add fish and reduce to heat to a hearty simmer/slow boil. When fish is cooked through add clams and corn, stir well, and adjust seasonings to taste.

This is a "New England home style" chowder, which means you add milk (or cream) just before serving. We've always added it to our bowls "to taste" and toss in some oyster/soup crackers.

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Slow Cooked "Barbecue" Pork

My latest recipe in development, it's close to "just right" though.

1 pork loin, size to fit in your slow cooker (my crock is 1.5qt)
1 onion chopped
1 Tbsp oil (approximately)
¹/₄ c vinegar or lemon juice
1 can tomato paste (6oz)
¹/₂ c dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp prepared mustard
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
~~2 Tbsp cornstarch~~ (see edit below)
1 tsp salt
¹/₄ tsp pepper

Trim the excess fat from the pork loin and cut it crosswise into slabs about 2" thick.

Saute onions in oil until brown and caramelized. Deglaze pan with vinegar and pour into the crock.

Add remaining ingredients, excluding pork, and stir well.

Coat each piece of pork in the sauce and wedge them into the crock.

Cook on high for at least 6 hours. You want the pork to fall apart and shred itself.

The sauce was a bit too thin for my taste still (even after reducing the liquid in the sauce recipe and adding cornstarch) so I added a bit of cornstarch and water paste at about hour 5 and let it thicken up while I prepared side dishes in the last hour or so of cooking.

Anyone have any experience with the "tapioca trick" for doing thicker stews in a slow cooker? I'm wondering if I would be better off with using a couple tablespoons of fine tapioca in the recipe rather than cornstarch.

Edit: 10-10-07

Dredging the pork (or beef or whatever) chunks in flour solved the watery sauce problem.

Edit: 02-06-08

Just an update since I've got this thing "perfected" now. Recipe stands as is (with cornstarch omitted). Dredge the pork in flour and don't shake off excess before you cram it into the crock and smush it around in the sauce. It's best cooked on LOW for 13-14 hours but high for 8-10 works too. About half way through the cooking time you should poke and prod and stir to break up the meat and get it to start shredding into the sauce. Give it a good poke and stir an hour or two before you serve it too.

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"German" Hot & Sour soup

Whenever I post a recipe that is something I came up with on my own the ingredient amounts are all guesstimations unless I'm baking. Sorry about that.

stew beef (1-2 pounds, how much meat do you like in your soup?)
one large onion, cut in quarters and sliced
4-5 cloves of garlic (we just buy minced in a jar so a generous heaping tea spoon, the sort you stir your tea with)
water (I used about 3 quarts)
beef soup base or bouillon to make that water into broth (or just use broth if you have it handy)
a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1 large turnip (or 1 small rutabaga), chunked
a generous handful of baby carrots cut in half crosswise (or about 2 regular carrots, chunked)
1 humongous potato or about 2 normal sized ones, peeled or not as to your taste and chunked (we like Yukon Golds)
1 can sauerkraut, size determined by how sour you want your soup (15oz is a good starting point)
black and cayenne pepper to reach the desired level of "hot"
vinegar if you need more "sour"
salt to taste

If the stew beef is in big chunks cut them down to bite size. Sear them in a bit of oil to get a nice carmelized brown on them.

Add onions and cook until soft and somewhat browned, add garlic, cook a bit more but don't burn the garlic. If you burn the garlic there's no recovery.

Add water, soup base, Worcestershire, some of the pepper, turnip/rutabaga and carrots. Cook until turnips and carrots are about half cooked.

Add potatoes and simmer until they are done.

Add sauerkraut and heat through.

Adjust hot/sour/broth-iness to taste.

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Sausage & Peppers Cornbread Ring

More recipes, getting tired of them yet? This one is really easy but requires a tube pan (sometimes called an Angel Food pan), you could probably make it in a Bundt pan but I like the removable bottom of the tube pan.

Ingredients:

Cornbread batter sufficient for 2 9x9" pans, divided¹
Sausage, either links or loose, about a pound, you want enough to make a nice continuous circle in your pan
Peppers and onions²
Cheese, about 2 cups of grated mozzarella or whatever you like

Cook the sausage completely. Drain, reserving some of the fat to fry the onions and peppers.

Cook the onions and peppers in the sausage fat. Drain excess fat if necessary.

Grease and flour your tube pan.

Mix up one box of cornbread mix or one batch of a recipe, and pour it into the pan. Top with sausage and peppers and sprinkle with cheese.

Mix up the second box/batch of cornbread and pour over the filling.

Bake at 400°F for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cornbread comes out dry (and possibly cheesy at the end). Let it cool about 15 minutes before removing from the pan and slicing.

This is excellent right out of the oven and also sliced cold the next day and fried in a bit of butter (I also top it with a bit of maple syrup, but New Englanders tend to be a bit weird about that). It also warms up in the microwave nicely if you cover it with a damp paper towel.

1. I use Krusteaz Honey Cornbread mix, two boxes, because it's faster and easier than making my own from scratch and tastes just as good. You'll need 1 egg and 1 cup of milk per box.

2. Go ahead and save time by buying them cut up and frozen. Birdseye's Pepper and Onion stir-fry blend is excellent but the cheap diced onions and peppers will work just as well. If using fresh vegetables figure on one small-to-medium onion and two medium peppers, or 2-3 cups worth (uncooked).

If I had more icon slots I'd make a cooking one for these posts... something from Yakitate! Japan or Addicted to Curry or something....

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Current Music: Melissa Etheridge - I'm the Only One

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Sauerkraut & Sausage - slow cooker version

Normally I make massive amounts of this on the stove top and freeze most of it, which means that I haven't made it for

hafoc since we got rid of the big chest freezer years ago. (I still make it every time I visit my folks though.)

So this is an incredibly stripped down version for a slow cooker. Amounts are approximate since this sort of cooking isn't exactly precise.

1-2 onions, chopped in 1/2-3/4" cubes
1-2 Granny Smith apples, cored, not peeled, cut in cubes like the onions
1-2 15 oz cans of sauerkraut (drained or not, rinsed or not, as your preference)
1/2 cup beer, white wine, water, vegetable OR chicken stock (pick whatever is handy)
2-3 Tbsp brown sugar
fresh ground pepper to taste
a bay leaf if you want it
sausage or pork as fits in your slow cooker*

You want to have about equal amounts of apples and onions. Use an amount of sauerkraut equal to larger than the onions and apples together.

Mix everything in the slow cooker, cook on high 6-8 hours. If you're using pork bits they should be at the stage where they start to fall apart if you poke them. Kielbasa will split their skins. If you can locate any apple chunks it's not really done. ;)

* Today I used a smoked kielbasa but I have used in combination: sweet and hot Italian sausage, garlic and cheese sausage, beer and cheese sausage, bratwurst, beer bratwurst, fresh Polish sausage, kielbasa, chunks of deboned and trimmed pork shoulder, boneless country style ribs, slabs of pork loin... you get the idea.

I need to get my website revamped and online again, the original stove top massive amounts version was on there.

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One Dish Chicken & Rice Bake

Just sticking this here so if I forget the proportions again I won't have to wait for Campbell's site to load. :P

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup water *
3/4 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Mix soup, water, rice, paprika and black pepper in 2-qt. shallow baking dish. Top with chicken. Season with additional paprika and pepper. Cover.

Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes or until done.

For creamier rice, increase water to 1 1/3 cups.

I sometimes add some canned mushrooms. I'd try fresh but they'd add so much liquid I'd have to recalibrate the recipe.

I used to do this a lot in grad school. And when I was working in Tucson and had a Trader Joe's nearby I would make this without the chicken (basically baked mushroom pseudo-risotto) and have it with roasted duck breast¹ and a vegetable (usually beets.)

1. Trader Joe's would have boneless Muscovy duck breast for about $7.50. Since one breast would make two meals for a single person with ease, I would indulge myself with duck perhaps a bit too often.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Chelsea on Fire - Sticky

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Slow Cooked Barbecue Beef

Yeah, more recipes. I'm sick and generally miserable but I'm cooking... I don't get it either.

This one is basically my semi-sweet barbecue sauce (half batch with alterations) mixed in a crock pot with stew beef.

1 cup fine diced onion
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup water
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons prepared mustard (we only had spicy brown on hand today, I usually use plain yellow though)
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1-2 pounds stew beef (I had a 1.75 pound package, that worked out pretty well)

Saute onions in oil until browned and beginning to caramelize, add garlic and saute a bit more being careful not to let the garlic burn (because nothing can save a dish that has had garlic burned in it.)

Deglaze the pan with the water making sure to dissolve all the nice caramel-y onion flavor. Pour the onion mixture into your crock pot and add everything else except the beef, mix well.

Stir in beef and cook on high for 4-6 hours.

I'm currently trying to decide if I want potatoes or rice with my beef. :)

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Simple slow cooked roast recipe

I'm mostly sticking this here so I'll remember it some months from now. Sometimes the really simple things are the easiest to forget about.

This was in the latest issue of Quick Cooking magazine (mom's a subscriber).

2 2.5 pound boneless chuck roasts (I've made this with a 3 pound brisket)
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1/2 cup water

Place roasts in slow cooker. Combine mixes with water and pour over roasts. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. The drippings can be thickened to make a very tasty gravy.

I'm wondering if it's worth the hassle of digging out the slow cooker (if

hafoc hasn't gotten rid of it due to lack of use) or if I should just oven roast instead.

Hmm... perhaps I could substitute boneless skinless turkey breast and turkey gravy mix....

The best part of cooking is taking an idea and running with it. :)

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Yummy fried fish recipe

The recipe of the evening appeared in an issue of Quick Cooking magazine last summer. As of yet I have not made modifications other than the species of fish used.

Angler's Delight (original recipe name)

2 pounds firm white fish (originally haddock or cod, I've used catfish and tilapia)
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons taco seasoning (I'm a wimp and use mild)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Marinate the fish in the lime juice for 15 minutes.

Combine flour and seasonings in a resealable bag, blend well.

Drain fish, dredge in the flour mixture, and pan fry.

With a thin fillet like catfish or tilapia the lime flavor is very distinct. I think if I make this with tilapia again I will either reduce the time I marinate it or I'll dilute the lime juice.