Crock-Pot Cooking

Can we get a Crock-Pot thread going? I found one of these ( without the dipper ) on clearance and picked it up. I'm thinking I'll give it away as a gift for a birthday or Christmas and then buy the one with the Dipper for myself but I was wondering if Veeky Forums had any favorite recipes for slow-cooking. Inb4 "read included booklet" because as nice as those sorts of recipes usually are I want to find the recipes people get wowed over from people who've made them.

Boneless chicken breast + pasta sauce. It's not the best recipe, but it's by far the easiest, and if you want to improve it, you can use homemade pasta sauce for better quality.

If you're feeling sciency, the entire recipe can probably be distilled into "meat+acid", and you could easily try any number of variations on that. Substitute porkchops or a low quality cut of beef for the chicken, or use any number of acidic fruits, vegetables, or drinks instead of tomatoes.

Neato, thanks. I'll jot that down as something to try just because of how simple it sounds. How would you feel about adding thigh meat in too though? Also, do you have any recipes for seafood or steak?

salsa chicken

Thigh meat would probably work as well as breast, though I'll admit I never tried it before.

I ask because I was told using the thigh and breast meat together helps keep the breast meat soft; something about the juices or something from both the dark/light meat mixing.

Pulled pork.

Get a nice cut of pork with some fat + what ever you want to add. Cook it low and slow

>something about the juices or something from both the dark/light meat mixing.

What you were told was absoloute bunk.

"Juices" are not the key to keeping meat soft. All you have to do to have tender breast meat is to either not overcook it (for fast-cooking dishes), or braise it long enough that it becomes tender (as in the case of a crock pot). It's about cooking time, nothing more.

And dark meat would be much better for use in a crock pot; it's more flavorful than breast meat and with the long cooking time it won't be tough at all.

>Also, do you have any recipes for seafood or steak?
Those are poor choices for a crock pot because both have fast cooking times. Crock pots are for braises--choose foods which have a long cooking time.

>Crock pots are for braises...

Good to know, thanks.

>pasta in water longer than 10 minutes
enjoy your mush

Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, is it?

...

I made this a while ago with a ghetto Mexican spice blend, basically mild chilies and tomato paste and limes. So good and savory, I need to try it again soon.

>Beef Stew
Heavily S&P 2 lbs of stew meat then coat in flour and brown. Throw that shit in the cooker with some chopped tomatoes, carrots, an onion with garlic thats been sweated, a can of tomato paste, and chopped red potatoes. Set to low, and when bubbling add 1 tsp pepper. Take the shit left over in the skillet and throw guinness in there to get the bits out and throw them in the cooker too. Cover the rest with beef broth. Cook until taters carrots and beef is done right then add peas and cook for another 30. Get some sourdough for that shit.

>Red beans and rice (not authentic)
Get 2 cups of red beans and soak them overnight. Go find andouille and brown in skillet. Throw in cooker. Put ham hock in there. Add beans. Sweat garlic, onion, 1 red bell, and 4 jalapenos then throw in cooker on low. Wait until bubbles then add 1 tbsp cayenne, 1 tbsp creole seasoning, and 1 tbsp parsley. Monitor ham hock until you can pull bone from the rest, then do that and add meat/skin/fat back into pot after tearing up. Cook until beans done then mash the fuck out of them with a ladle and add some celery. Cooker another 30 then serve on rice.

You can also thicken with a dark roux, but mashing the beans usually makes the consistency correct.

Use olive oil for browning/sweating everything.

Made a soup today and just finished my first bowl.

Bag of dried lentils
Eight boneless chicken thighs
Onion, chopped
Garlic, minced
Sweet potato, peeled and chopped
4 cups broth
2 cups water
Salt
Pepper
Curry powder

Cook on low 8 hours, or your regular work shift. Cheap, tasty, healthy. Freezing the leftovers to eat this weekend.

awful

I want to make lentils in my slow cooker. Any ideas? Also, how long should i cook them for? 2hrs on low?

I did this to make a simple pulled pork. Some pretty basic pantry ingredients, 8 hours and I had a shitload of food.

I tried to make carnitas in a crock-pot today. Forgot that crock-pots don't really boil off liquid really well, and that the recipe I was using called for cooking off all the liquid in the pot.

So I just poured all of the pork out of the crock pot and through a strainer when I got home, and then spread the pork out and roasted it on the oven.

Anyways, simple recipe rundown:

Cut a 2-3 pound pork shoulder into bite-sized pieces. Place in pot (or crock-pot in this case). Dice a large white onion, add to pot. Add 1/2 Tbsp each of cumin, coriander, and oregano. Salt well. Crack open a can of Chipotles en Adobo Sauce, add like two of the chipotles, maybe three if you're brave. Put the rest in a ziploc bag and freeze for later.
Put Crock-Pot on Low for 6-8 hours or so
When you get home, or it finishes, strain it. Now that you've strained it, locate and remove the chipotles, and then use a fork to "pull" the pork. Make sure there are no big chunks left. it should absolutely fall the fuck apart at this point.

Now, spread the pork out in a thin layer on a pan, and put under the broiler if you want your carnitas to have some crisp to them. Broil for 5-10 minutes, until browned on top.

Now, put on a taco or enjoy over some spanish rice with refried beans or something. However you enjoy your carnitas.

Cooking it in Coca-Cola, then draining excess Coke, adding a mixture of sweet baby rays and a bit of ghost pepper hot sauce is pretty good and really easy.

Awkward ......

Actually, a seafood bisque does really good in a crock pot. I've never made one but I know everyone who's made one for parties jve went to has made it in a crock pot.

I'm not sure why you'd choose a crock pot for that. Seafood bisque doesn't need a long cooking time so what's the point? Not to mention flambeing the lobster/crayfish/crab/etc to make the base for the bisque is a bit cumbersome to do in a crock pot.