Crockpot Chicken Gyros

Happy New Year!

Here's a healthy, delicious, and simple crockpot recipe to kick off 2014. We've enjoyed this meal a few times. Eating this dinner brings me back to enjoying gyros while basking in the Mykonos sun a few summers ago. That vacation was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us so I like to relive it whenever possible. This is a quick version of this popular Greek dish that can cook while you're at work all day. As soon as I spotted this on Kate's Recipe Box, I knew it would be a winner in our kitchen. I immediately doubled that recipe to yield more leftovers that we could enjoy in more wraps and over salads. This reheats well, and I think it would freeze well too. I need to find a good, authentic Greek style pita option to enjoy these in. Maybe I'll have to look into making my own.

You will need:
*2 pounds chicken breasts (frozen works well here, no need to thaw)
*6 cloves garlic, minced
*
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
*1 onion, diced
*
1/2 cup water
*2 tablespoons olive oil
*4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
*2 teaspoons oregano

*1/2 teaspoon allspice
*2 teaspoons lemon pepper
*
Tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, romaine and pitas, for serving

1. Place the chicken breasts in the base of a slow cooker. Whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

2. Shred and serve in pitas with desired toppings.
Don't forget the tzatziki! I use Trader Joe's prepared or make my own.

Recipe Swap: Crockpot Beef and Broccoli

Sarah is hosting another What's Cooking Recipe Swap. For this swap I was assigned Simple Gourmet Cooking. I had fun browsing Dawn's blog, and it was difficult to decide which recipe to try first! I pulled Dave in to help sort through my narrowed down choices. This beef and broccoli was perfect. I love utilizing the crockpot to cook weekend dinners. We both really enjoyed this dinner and plan to repeat it again. It was the perfect amount for the two of us to enjoy dinner and lunch the next day.

You will need:
*1 cup beef broth
*1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
*1/3 cup brown sugar
*1 tablespoon sesame oil
*3 garlic cloves, minced
*1 pound stew beef or a sliced beef chuck roast
          (We can never get a roast under 3 pounds, so I used the butcher's precut stew beef)
*2 tablespoons cornstarch
*frozen broccoli florets (as many as desired-we used 16oz)
*Rice, cooked

1. Add the beef broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and garlic to the insert of the crockpot. Stir together to combine.

2. Place the beef in the liquid and toss gently to coat. Cook on low 4-6 hours, until beef is completely cooked, but not shredding when touched.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together 4 tablespoons of the crockpot broth mixture and the cornstarch.  Add back into the crockpot and mix well. Cook on low for an additional 30 minutes to thicken up the sauce. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, add in the broccoli to heat through.

4. Serve hot over rice.

Crockpot Cheddar Chicken Tacos

I'm finding that our favorite crockpot recipes often include beer. BBQ Beer Shredded Chicken is a regular in our menu rotation and a favorite of many friends as well. As soon as I saw this recipe on How Sweet it is I knew we'd love it. The first time I made this for a potluck dinner and forgot to add the cheese. It was tasty, but much better when we finally tried it again and added the cheddar. Crockpot meals are perfect as the warmer weather starts. You can have a home cooked meal without heating the house by turning on the stove.

You will need:
*4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
*3/4 cup beer
*1 tablespoon chili powder
*1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
*1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
*1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
*1/4 teaspoon onion powder
*pinch of cayenne pepper
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1/2 teaspoon pepper
*3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
*taco shells or corn tortillas
*toppings of your choice, suggestions: Greek yogurt, avocado, salsa, sliced red onion, black beans, mixed greens, additional cheese, etc.

1. In a bowl, make the taco seasoning by stirring together chili powder, cumin, garlic, onion, paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper. In a measuring cup, combine the 3/4 cup beer with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the taco seasoning and whisk together.

2. Place chicken in the crockpot and top with seasoned beer. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4 hours.

3. Shred chicken. Taste and season with leftover taco seasoning if desired. Right before serving, turn off the crockpot and mix the cheddar cheese into the shredded chicken. Immediately transfer the cheesy chicken to a large bowl so the cheese does not make a mess of your crockpot!


4. Serve the tacos with any topping you'd like. We used corn tortillas, red onion slices, mixed greens, and Greek yogurt. The leftover chicken also made great taco salads for lunches.

BBQ Beer Shredded Chicken

I love using the crockpot on Sundays. Dinner is quickly prepped in the morning and ready by the end of the day. This recipe is from one my absolute favorite blogs, How Sweet It Is. We've made this recipe twice recently. Every one who has tried it has enjoyed it. The best part, at least to me, is that it yields a lot of leftovers. You could make sandwiches, nachos, quesadillas, and much more with this chicken. We usually have sandwiches and portion out enough for two lunches and freeze the rest. We were able to simply freeze the remainder in a Ziplock bag. I defrosted it in the fridge when we were ready to enjoy it again. It reheated really well. I highly recommend you try this soon!

It is definitely worth splurging on the barbeque sauce suggested in the recipe. As far as beer goes, I've made this with Sam Adams Lager and the Octoberfest. Any beer would work, but I'd stay away from light beers for this recipe. I look forward to trying it again with a Winter Lager next month. I have a slight obsession with Sam Adams seasonal beers. (With exception to the disgusting spring option, Noble Pils)

You will need:
*3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (fresh or frozen will work)
*1 tablespoon onion powder
*1 tablespoon smoked paprika
*1 teaspoon garlic powder
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1/2 teaspoon pepper
*8 ounces of beer (and clearly, you should drink the remaining 4oz)
*32 ounces of Bone Suckin' barbecue sauce

1. Place the chicken in the crockpot. Top with onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Add beer and 24 ounces of barbecue sauce. (Don't worry if you accidentally dump it all in. I did this once, and it didn't make a noticeable difference!) Cook on low for 8 hours.

2. Shred the chicken with two forks; add remaining barbecue sauce. Keep on warm setting until serving. Enjoy!

Crockpot Corned Beef and Cabbage

Corned beef and cabbage, a staple St. Patrick's Day dinner growing up. Many boiled or roasted dinners happened on Sundays, and my Grandmother always said we had some Irish in us. My father set out to recreate many of these meals during my childhood. I spotted this recipe in the Food Network Magazine March 2010 issue and knew I had to try it out. We actually made this last year on St. Patrick's Day. I liked that this meal cooked in the crockpot over time making it tender and ready by dinner time. It didn't convert me to loving boiled dinners, but it was much better than I anticipated! If you like a traditional boiled dinner, I suggest you give this slow-cooker method a try.

You will need:
*4 pounds lean raw corned beef brisket
*3 tablespoons pickling spice (often included with brisket)
*1 medium rutabaga, halved and cut into wedges
*1 pound large carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
*1 1/4 pounds large fingerling potatoes
*1 leek, white and light-green parts only, cut into 3-inch pieces
*4-5 cups hot water
*1/2 head Savoy cabbage, cut into wedges
*1/3 cup horseradish, drained
*1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream

1. Place the corned beef in the bottom of your slow cooker and scatter the pickling spices on top. In the following order, layer the rutabaga, carrots, potatoes and leek around and over the beef. Add enough 4-5 cups of hot water to cover the meat by at least 1 inch. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high, 7 to 8 hours.

2. After the 7-8 hours, remove the meat and vegetables from the slow cooker and keep warm. Put the cabbage in a microwave-safe dish with 2 cups cooking liquid from the slow cooker. Cover and microwave for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender. Meanwhile, boil another cup of cooking liquid in a small skillet for about 10 minutes, or until it's reduced by half. Mix with the horseradish and creme fraeche in a small bowl.

3. Slice the corned beef and serve with the vegetable, cabbage, and horseradish sauce.

Apple BBQ Crockpot Chicken

We get together with friends to watch the Patriots Game almost every Sunday during football season. Last week's game start was at 4:00 which formed a plan to have dinner at halftime. I made this crockpot recipe and was not disappointed. This recipe was posted on What's On My Menu last fall. I think I slightly overcooked my chicken because it much more shredded than I expected. This is probably because I butterflied the chicken breasts. Next time, I will use thicker pieces of chicken or alter the cook time. I noted this below in suggesting a cook time of 6-8 hours.

You will need:
*1/2 cup barbecue sauce
*2 apples - peeled, cored and grated
*Juice of 1 lemon
*4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
*8 slices of bacon

1) Combine barbecue sauce, apple and lemon juice.

2) Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry. Wrap 2 pieces of bacon around each chicken breast and place in crock pot. Top with barbecue sauce mixture; cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Santa Fe Chicken

This is another great recipe from Gina's WW blog. We made this a few weeks back, and now that we are in the craziness of moving, I am thinking we will be having it again soon. It was a simple recipe that can be ready when you get home from work. I served this over brown rice. I love using my crockpot when the warm weather hits. It does not heat the kitchen the way using an oven does.

You will need:
*1.5 lbs chicken breast (I put them in frozen)
*14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies
*15 oz can black beans
*8 oz frozen corn
*1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
*14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
*3 scallions, chopped
*1 tsp garlic powder
*1 tsp onion powder
*1 tsp cumin
*1 tsp cayenne pepper
*salt to taste

1) Combine chicken broth, drained black beans, frozen corn, tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt in the crock pot.

2) Season chicken breasts with salt and place in crockpot mixture. Cook on low for 10 hours, or on high for 6 hours.

3) About a half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Adjust salt and seasoning as desired. Serve over rice.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

How does one photograph soup to make it look appetizing? This meal is really just putting canned goods into the crock pot. It was filling, and we ate a few lunches out of it too. I made this last weekend, when I was dreading returning to work after two blissful weeks off. I used frozen chicken that I had on hand, so I added a bit more than the recipe called for which overpowered the broth. Next time, I will be sure to not use quite as much! I found this recipe on Lemons&Love (who got it from All Recipes). As suggested on that blog, I also added some other seasonings-red pepper flakes, cumin, garlic powder, and oregano. I incorporated these seasonings right after I shredded the chicken. I made a few other changes that I noted in the recipe below.

You will need:
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans (red beans)
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 ounce) can or bottle beer
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained (I used 1 -14.5oz can)
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning (I used low sodium)
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
crushed tortilla chips (optional)

1) Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.

2) Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup (this is where I added some other seasonings), and continue cooking for 2 hours (I did just over 1 hour and it was fine). You can serve this topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips.

Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken

I need some practice at improving my photographing of food!

It doesn't help that it just keeps getting darker earlier.
Thanks for bearing with me!
**Thank you to Jessica at the Novice Chef for helping me edit the above photo!**

I tried two new crockpot meals this weekend. Saturday night I made a buffalo chicken lasagna and it was a fail. It just didn't have the taste we had hoped for, and it burned a bit to the sides of the crockpot. Although a bit hesitant, I continued with the plan to try another new chicken recipe on Sunday. This Cream Cheese Chicken came from A Year of Slow Cooking. I am glad we did try this becauseit came out much better! It was tasty served over whole grain pasta. I think next time I will try to incorporate some vegetables into the mix.

You will need:
-1 can cream-of-something soup (I used mushroom)
-1/2 cup chicken broth
-frozen chicken pieces (I used about 2 pounds of frozen breasts I had)
-packet of Italian salad dressing mix
-2 cloves minced garlic
-block of cream cheese-to add later

1) Put everything except for the cream cheese into the crockpot, and cook on low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and begins to shred.
2) Shred the chicken with two large forks, and mix in the block of cream cheese.
3) Switch the crock to high and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is fully melted.
4) Serve over pasta.

Pumpkin Pie Dip

We made this as a football appetizer yesterday. It was sweet and a bit different from the usual dips. We liked it and would make it again. I found this on A Year of Slow Cooking. Her blog is full of fabulous crockpot recipes!

You will need:
1 cup canned pumpkin pie mix
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
chopped walnuts, for topping if desired

I used my Little Dipper that came with my crockpot. You could put a smaller dish inside a larger crockpot and alter the cooking time.

Here's what I did:

Add the cream cheese to the bottom of the Little Dipper. Add the sour cream, and then pour in the pumpkin pie filling.

Cover and cook for about an hour, then stir well. If the cream cheese isn't fully melted, cook a bit longer. (I ended up cooking it for about an hour and a half)

We served this with pretzels, TJ's ginger cats, and apples.

Salsa Chicken in Crockpot

We had a very busy Sunday and needed to be quite a few places. This dinner was so easy to throw in the crockpot and have just about ready for us when we came home. I made the beans and rice recipe from the Goya black beans can to have with this. We also enjoyed putting the rice mixture and the chicken into corn tortillas. This is a simple and delicious recipe that you should try! I got it from one of my favorite food blogs: The Novice Chef

What we used:
3 boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts
1 cup Tostitos Medium Salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can reduced fat condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream


Directions:
1. Add chicken to the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
3. Mix salsa, sour cream, and cream of chicken soup; pour over chicken.
4. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. (I did exactly 7 hours and it was perfect)
5. Shred Chicken with two forks and mix back in with all the sauce.
I left the crockpot on warm with the shredded chicken while I prepped the beans and rice.

Easy Crockpot Pulled Pork

Another simple weeknight dinner! This was tasty and plenty for the two of us. The one thing that was a bit of a pain was cleaning the crockpot! We will surely make this again.

I have seen this recipe many ways in many places. Here is how I did it:

Ingredients:
24 oz. (two cans) Root beer
Bottle of BBQ Sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)
1 pound lean pork loin

Directions:

1) Place the pork loin in the crockpot. Pour the rootbeer over it and cook on low for 6 hours.

2) Remove the pork and shred it using two forks. (It came apart very easily!)

3) Wash out the crockpot before placing the shredded beef back in. Cover the beef with your bottle of barebque sauce. Cook on low for another hour to hour and a half.

4) Serve on hamburg rolls.

Crockpot Version of 40 Clove Garlic Chicken

My first blog entry was for this chicken recipe. I came back to add the above picture because the first time we made it I didn't take a photo. This recipe is one we have now enjoyed a few times. It is great with some bread to smooth the garlic onto. Both Dave and I love garlic, so we enjoy the smells as this cooks all afternoon.

I used this recipe I found on The Novie Chef:
Crockpot Version of 40 clove chicken

You will need:
2 pounds chicken parts (I used 2 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breasts)
1 large yellow onion
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used 2 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
40 cloves of garlic (I used two bulbs which yielded about 30something cloves)

Place onion slices on the bottom of the stoneware insert. In a large mixing bowl, toss chicken parts with olive oil, salt, paprika, pepper, and all of the garlic cloves. Pour into crock pot on top of the onion (do not add water). Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6.

I cooked the chicken on low for 6 hours and it came our perfect. For only two pounds, I would not recommend cooking it any longer. The garlic spread nicely onto bread. We also prepared a side of spaghetti squash and mixed some of the roasted garlic into it.