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Slow-Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | Make Ahead Mondays

March 25, 2013 by 21 Comments

Slow Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | www.foodiewithfamily.com

That is a sandwich you need in your life right now. Luckily, it takes little time to accomplish such a sandwich even though the Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken is made in the slow-cooker. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank Kalyn from Kalyn’s Kitchen for her original recipe that inspired my version you’re seeing here today.

Now, let’s get into what makes this chicken so very good. I am a chicken breast lover in a dark meat chicken loving household. Most often, I use chicken thighs because it seems to be a happy medium and it’s usually far less expensive per pound. This chicken, however, starts with boneless, skinless chicken breast. Mrawrrrrrrrr.

Although all by itself, boneless, skinless chicken breast tends to cook more quickly than dark meat chicken, it gets a boost here by being trimmed, cut in thirds lengthwise and then in half crosswise. What this does for us to reduce the cooking time even further. You start it cooking on HIGH for an hour then drop it to low for the remaining two hours. That’s right. Three hours to slow-cooked perfection. That means that you might even be able to squeeze this in on a week night.

Cutting the chicken thusly serves another purpose, too, though. It sets it up for shredding more quickly and into more manageable bite sized pieces. See? This is the chicken straight from the slow-cooker.

Slow Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | www.foodiewithfamily.com

And two forks and five minutes later…

Slow Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | www.foodiewithfamily.com

As for the sauce, there’s nothing complicated to it. I drop all the ingredients in the blender (including the onion and garlic) and whizz ’til smooth. If you’re blender-averse (or blender-less) you can chop the onions and garlic separately then whisk it into the liquid ingredients before adding to the slow-cooker. When you take the chicken out of the slow-cooker, simply pour the sauce into a saucepan and reduce it over high heat until it’s thick. You return the chicken to the slow-cooker while it’s reducing, then pour the thickened, reduced sauce over the chicken and toss. Fast and fabulous is hard to beat.

This recipe also holds the distinction of being something every one of our family members loved. My kids like spicy foods, so we went with the high end of the Sriracha. If you have more delicate taste buds in your crew, reduce that down, but don’t omit it; it delivers such flavour, the chicken would be lost without it.

So why is this a Make Ahead Monday recipe? Because this recipe feeds my hungry horde two full meals! It’s hard to believe that six little boneless, skinless chicken breasts could stretch like that, but it does. And you could easily increase it to the point where you’ve filled your slow-cooker. In that case, it might take just a wee bit longer to cook, but the end game remains the same: tasty honey tinged gently spicy barbecue shredded chicken for topping salads, pizzas, sandwiches, and more.

Speaking of sandwiches, I chose to serve the chicken on toasted whole wheat buns with a simple salad of cucumber ribbons (just cut a cucumber in quarters lengthwise and use a vegetable peeler to cut the ribbons) and fresh cilantro leaves. That was topped -in turn- with a runny-yolked fried egg.

 

Slow Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | www.foodiewithfamily.com

It’s eye-roll-into-the-back-of-your-head good. Really. Just look at that. I can’t help myself around runny yolked eggs. I get weak in the knees with joy. I lose control of my better senses; I lick the plate in front of my children.

Slow Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | www.foodiewithfamily.com

So today, YES, please today, make yourself a batch of this chicken and divide it into meal sized portions. You’ll be so glad you did!

XO,

Rebecca

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Slow-Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | Make Ahead Mondays

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

Slow-Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken | Make Ahead Mondays

Gentle sweetness from honey brings out the best of the tasty heat from Sriracha in this great Slow-Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken. Pile the chicken high on sandwiches topped with a cucumber, cilantro salad, and a fried egg ~or~ on a tossed salad, in tacos or on a chicken fajita or barbecue pizza. Leftovers store beautifully in individual portions in the freezer.

Adapted from and with thanks to Kalyn's Kitchen

Ingredients

    For the Sauce:
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped (*See Notes)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (*See Notes)
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1-3 tablespoons of Sriracha, depending on your heat tolerance
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
    • For the Chicken:
  • 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts trimmed of visible fat
  • salt and pepper to taste, but don't add until the sauce has been reduced.
    • For the Sandwiches:
  • 1 English cucumber, cut in quarters lengthwise then into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
  • fresh cilantro leaves, to taste
  • 1 fried egg per sandwich
  • 1 whole wheat sandwich bun per sandwich

Instructions

Cut the chicken breast into three strips lengthwise, then cut once crosswise. This will reduce each chicken breast into 6 pieces for faster cooking and shredding when it is done. Lay all of these in the bottom of a slow-cooker crock.

Place all of the sauce ingredients in a blender, fix the lid in place, and blend on HIGH until smooth. Pour this over the chicken in the slow-cooker. Put the slow-cooker lid in place and cook on HIGH for 1 hour. At that time, reduce the heat to LOW and cook for another 2 hours or until you can pick up a large piece of chicken with the tongs and break it in half easily by pressing it against the side of the slow-cooker crock.

Use tongs to transfer all of the chicken to a cutting board. Pour the sauce into a saucepan and place it over medium high heat to reduce, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. While it reduces, use two forks to shred the chicken and return the shredded chicken to the slow-cooker on the Keep Warm setting or off, but either way, put the lid on to keep the chicken warm and prevent it from drying out.

When the sauce is reduced, pour it over the chicken and use the tongs to toss to coat it with sauce. Taste the chicken and adjust with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot on a toasted whole wheat sandwich bun topped with cucumber ribbons, cilantro leaves and a fried egg, cold on salads, tucked into tacos or baked on pizzas.

Leftovers can be frozen in individual meal-sized portions in airtight containers.

Notes

*If you do not have a blender, finely chop the onions and garlic and whisk them into the liquid sauce ingredients before pouring over the chicken in the slow-cooker.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/03/25/slow-cooker-honey-sriracha-barbecue-chicken-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Chicken and other Poultry, Happy Healthy and Wise, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Slow-Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

September 11, 2012 by 11 Comments

 

I think it’s been so long since I’ve been sick that my body forgot how to go about being sick. It’s not a complaint mind you, just an observation. I spent a day with a weird headache and sore throat of the move-slowly-through-the-day variety, went to bed with an ibuprofen cocktail and woke up with a good old-fashioned cold.

And so I plopped myself on the chair with a cuppa tea, dictated school lessons from my chair and plotted all the comforting foods I was going to inhale that day because my nose wasn’t doing any inhaling and part of me had to keep the process going.

I prioritized; nothing too complicated for energy and dish purposes, no running to the store- had to make do because I was not going out looking like this (pointed at the hair scraped back and perched on the top of my head and the Rudolph nose.), had to be a crowd-pleaser, and had to have big flavour. You know, so I could actually TASTE whatever it was I made.

At the top of the list was a version of slow-cooker black bean enchiladas I tried from TheKitchn a while back. Simple, not fussy, comforting, big-on-taste, hearty, filling and inexpensive, these enchiladas deliver a lot for the small amount of work behind them. They were just what I needed and wanted.

I’ve made this same recipe both in the slow-cooker and the oven. You get a more ‘authentic’ enchilada texture from oven-baking them, but they’re ever so good in the slow-cooker. The tortillas soak up everything and get all salsa-fied and still get some crispy edges where they come in contact with the side of the slow-cooker. The instructions specify to cook the enchiladas in the slow-cooker for two to four hours, and I’ve settled on about three hours as my preferred time. Closer to two hours yields a firmer tortilla while cooking it closer to four hours creates a much softer tortilla… almost fall-apart soft. When I let mine go the full four hours, I ended up with a texture that was more like enchilada casserole. It was still delicious, it was just different.

Whichever way you prefer to go, you’ll get a serious dose of delicious comfort for your minimal efforts. The enchiladas dress up nicely, if -unlike me- you’re serving dinner in something other than yoga pants with tissues stuffed in the waistband. On the other hand, they sit beautifully in a bowl that you can cradle in your lap while sitting on the couch watching BBCAmerica broadcasts.

Because sometimes, really, it’s not so bad to slow down and indulge the sniffles. At least not when you have a plate full of these…

 

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Slow-Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

Rating: 51

Slow-Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

Authentic? Maybe not, but these gooey, bursting-at-the-seams, simple to pull together, slow-cooker enchiladas are packed with delicious black beans, moist chicken, corn, and spices. Salsa delivers the saucy punch and loads of melted, oozy cheese makes it the perfect comforting dish for days when you're short on time.

Adapted gently and with thanks from TheKitchn

Ingredients

  • 1 cooking onion, diced small
  • 1 bell pepper (any color), diced small
  • 2 cups cooked black beans or 1 (16-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 cups frozen corn
  • 2 cups shredded fully cooked chicken. This chicken is perfect.
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or pressed (or 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder.)
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups shredded cheese. I prefer a combination of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Queso Blanco, but use what you prefer and have available.
  • 3 (16 ounce) jars of your favorite salsa
  • 24 (6"-8") corn tortillas
  • Optional:
  • sour cream
  • additional chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
  • avocado slices or cubes

Instructions

Mix together the onion, pepper, black beans, corn, chicken, cilantro (if using), garlic, spices, and 1 cup of the cheese in a mixing bowl. Pour one full jar of the salsa into the bottom of the slow-cooker and spread it evenly with a spatula.

Dampen a tea towel, wrap 12 of the tortillas in it and microwave for about 30 seconds, or until the tortillas are flexible and warm.

Working with one tortilla at a time, scoop about 1/3 cup onto the tortilla, roll it tightly and place it firmly against the edge of the slow-cooker, seam side down. Repeat this with another tortilla, nestling it against the enchilada that is already in the slow-cooker. Continue filling, rolling and nestling the enchiladas until the bottom of the slow-cooker is covered. Spread another jar of salsa over the enchiladas and top it with another cup of cheese.

Create a second layer of enchiladas with the remaining tortillas and filling. Pour half of the last jar of salsa evenly over the top. With the lid in place, cook on HIGH for 2-4 hours. 15 minutes before the enchiladas are done, sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup of cheese, letting it cook just until the cheese is melted.

Serve the hot enchiladas with chopped cilantro and the remaining salsa.

Store leftovers, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Note: These are equally good (and maybe even a touch better, texture-wise) when baked in a 400°F oven covered with foil for about 20 minutes. Simply hold off on the last bit of cheese until you remove the foil, return it to the oven and bake 'til the cheese is bubbly.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/09/11/slow-cooker-chicken-and-black-bean-enchiladas/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Chicken and other Poultry, Comfort Food, Main Dish, Recipes, slow-cooker Tagged With: , , , , ,

Slow-Cooker Red Beans and Rice and Creole Seasoning | Make Ahead Mondays

July 16, 2012 by 25 Comments

I’m going to go ahead and say right now that I have absolutely zero idea how authentically “Cajun” today’s recipe is, having never actually been to the great state of Louisana. All I know is that it is very possibly one of the tastiest things to come out of my kitchen in recent weeks.

There are few things more satisfying than a big bowl of cooked rice topped with saucy, spicy, tender red beans and smoky sausage rounds then crowned with green onions and sour cream. Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, as the saying goes, you can weather it better with a bowl of this under your belt. It is one of the few comfort foods that does hot or cold weather conditions equally well.

On a wild hare, I decided to throw my usual red beans and rice ingredients into my slow-cooker and see what happened. I figured that the worst case scenario would be a flavourful mush and the best case scenario would be the world’s easiest and wickedly economical dinner. I turned my best beloved slow-cooker to high, let ‘er rip, and walked away for six hours.

The next six hours were spent trying fervently not to eat everything in the pantry because it smelled so ever loving good in this house that I thought I might die. I repeatedly broke the cardinal rule of slow-cooking and crockpot-ery by lifting the lid and testing and re-testing beans to see if they were (oh please oh please oh please) done yet. After those agonizing six hours were up, I was rewarded with the easiest -and easily the best- red beans and rice I had ever made.

The facts that it didn’t heat up my kitchen and that the hardest part of the whole procedure was keeping myself from eating it before it was done were just gravy. My word, friends, it was so good.

So good, in fact, that I made a double batch again later that week and plan on making it for company when we receive a houseful of family for my brother’s wedding next month. It’ll be just thing; set it up and let it cook while running around for rehearsals, making the wedding cake, and trying to get five boys who’d rather not see the inside of a shower ready for their uncle’s wedding. Pray for me folks. It’s the getting the boys ready that’s giving me palpitations.

There is one grave danger attendant to making this recipe. It smells so good while cooking that there is a very real possibility that you will gnaw off your own leg of that of someone nearby.

I have just a couple of other thoughts to share about this recipe.The Creole Seasoning is wonderful to have on hand for recipes that call for it, to be sure, but we like to use it on other things, too. For instance, we love it on popcorn or homemade tortilla chips.

I like to make it really spicy and then mellow it out in my own bowl with a big dollop of sour cream. I think a fistful of grated Cheddar would do something similar if you’re so inclined. To do this, I tend to use the higher amount of cayenne pepper I specify in the recipe.

On the other hand, you could just keep the spice to a minimum in the first place. If you’d like to keep it on the milder side, cut back on or omit the additional cayenne pepper (above and beyond the small amount that is already in the Creole Seasoning) from the recipe.

I know andouille is the sausage darling of Cajun/Creole cooking, but it can be hard to find in these parts, so I most often make mine with smoked sausage. I absolutely love it this way, so do not feel like your ability to make this spicy, smoky classic hinges on the availability of andouille.

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Slow-Cooker Red Beans and Rice and Creole Seasoning | Make Ahead Mondays

Slow-Cooker Red Beans and Rice and Creole Seasoning | Make Ahead Mondays

Whip up a batch of this handy Creole seasoning to add a little oomph to your every day dishes or reserve it for the most wonderfully tantalizing and simple red beans and rice you've ever had. The slow-cooker does the work so you can stay out of the kitchen on hot days. Be forewarned: this smells so good while it's cooking that you may feel ravenous by the time dinner rolls around.

Creole Seasoning adapted from Emeril Lagasse's recipe.

Ingredients

    For the Creole Seasoning:
  • 3 tablespoons paprika
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dried thyme
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper
    • For the Slow-Cooker Red Beans and Rice:
  • 10 cups water
  • 3 cups small red chili beans (about 1 1/2 pounds), rinsed and picked over
  • 1 pound smoked sausage or andouille, sliced into 1/4 to 1/2-inch rounds
  • 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 medium cooking onion (yellow or white), peeled, trimmed of root and blossom ends, and diced
  • 1 rib celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1 tablespoon Creole Seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/8-1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (according to heat preference)
  • For Serving: Hot cooked rice and green onions
    • Optional: Sour Cream

Instructions

To Make the Creole Seasoning:

Add all of the ingredients to a small mixing bowl bowl and toss together with a fork or a whisk. Store, tightly covered, in a jar or other airtight container in a cool, dry place. This is good for about a year after mixing.

To Make the Slow-Cooker Red Beans and Rice:

Add the water, beans, sausage, red bell pepper, celery, Creole seasoning, thyme, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf to the bowl of a slow-cooker. Add the lid and turn the heat to "HIGH'. Let it cook for 6 hours, stirring once or twice. After 6 hours, use a spoon to fish out a bean to test. If it is tender, turn off the heat. If it is still underdone, replace the lid and cook for another hour or until the beans are tender. Remove and discard the bay leaf.

Gently stir the contents of the slow-cooker before ladling over bowls of hot, cooked rice. Garnish with chopped green onions and -if desired- sour cream.

Store leftover beans tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze in individual portions for longer storage: up to 6 months.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/07/16/slow-cooker-red-beans-and-rice-and-creole-seasoning-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, kid food, Make Ahead Mondays, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

(Classic) Slow-Cooker Cuban Pork | Make Ahead Mondays Highlight

June 11, 2012 by 20 Comments

 

Back in March of 2009, this blogging novice posted a recipe that remains one of the most popular ever here on Foodie With Family. And let me tell you, it deserves every bit of its popularity. Slow-Cooked Cuban Pork is one of those crazy recipes that somehow manages to be dead simple, insanely inexpensive, habit-formingly delicious, almost infinitely customizable, and wickedly versatile. This is the original Foodie With Family unicorn recipe.

A testament to how fabulous this recipe actually is is the fact that so many of you made it even though I split the recipe into two different posts and made you go to two places to print it. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I was a newbie. So today, for Make Ahead Mondays, I am finally righting my wrong against you all with a bright, shiny, easy printable version of this classic recipe. I’m doing a little roasting two pigs with one post action, too… because in the last several months the readership here has grown explosively AND I LOVE YOU ALL MADLY FOR IT but that means that some of ye who are new around these parts may not have yet seen the Slow-Cooked Cuban Pork and in a wild display of run-on-sentence-ery, I’m here to tell you that you must, must, MUST make one or several.

If the five reasons given above weren’t good enough to convince you to make this at the soonest possible moment, I have a couple more to persuade you.

  1. It makes a massive amount which makes it good for…
  2. FREEZING. I realize I’m type-screaming a lot with the all-caps today, but I’m very excited to share this recipe again.

This is truly Make Ahead Monday friendly. You get a gigantic amount of shredded pork to eat off of and freeze into individual portions. Win/win!

We use leftovers from this recipe for Barbecue Pulled Pork Sliders, Barbecue Pulled Pork Pizza, and Hot TexMess among other things. A couple containers of this pork in the freezer is the best guarantee against the “I have no idea what to make for dinner” syndrome.

Over the past three years, I’ve received all sorts of emails from people who have up-sized the Cuban Pork enough to feed a couple hundred people at church suppers, wedding receptions, and down-sized it to feed a singleton or a couple. If you’ve been around here for a while, and you’re one of the many who HAVE tried the recipe, would you tell us how you made it? Did you serve it for a special occasion?  Did you make any changes to it? Add anything to it that you absolutely love? Fill me in!

If you prefer the old posts along with the photo tutorial, they’re still there and here, but I, for one, will be using this brand-spanking new all-in-one, easy-print version below.

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(Classic) Slow-Cooker Cuban Pork | Make Ahead Mondays Highlight

(Classic) Slow-Cooker Cuban Pork | Make Ahead Mondays Highlight

Of all the recipes published here on Foodie With Family over the years, this remains one of the best loved and for good reason. Fragrant, garlicky, moist and yet crispy, this mouth-watering pork is as easy to make as it is wonderful and habit forming. The recipe yields a large amount making it perfect to feed a crowd or freeze for quick meals in the future.

Ingredients

    Step 1:
  • 1 (8-10 pound) bone-in pork shoulder, make sure it fits into your slow-cooker. Cut to fit if necessary.
  • 1/2 cup frozen 100% orange juice concentrate
  • 1/3 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed or bottled)
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 8 whole peeled cloves fresh garlic (or 1 Tablespoon granulated dried garlic)
  • 1 Tablespoon (or more, to taste) ground cumin
  • 1 Tablespoon dry oregano leaves
  • 1 Tablespoon or more fresh ground pepper
  • 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
  • if available, 2 stems (no leaves, just stems) fresh cilantro
    • Step 2:
  • Slow-cooked pork shoulder, thoroughly chilled
  • Cooking juices from slow-cooked pork shoulder
  • 2 Tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 Tablespoons white wine or cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder
  • 2 drops liquid smoke, optional

Instructions

Step 1:

Drizzle the olive oil in the slow-cooker bowl. Place untrimmed pork, fat side down in the bowl then flip fat side up. Toss garlic cloves in around the roast and sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin, oregano and crushed red pepper flakes. Use a spoon to dollop the frozen orange juice concentrate over the top of the roast. Pour the lime juice around the edges of the roast, toss on cilantro stems- if using, cover, and turn cooker to ‘HIGH’. Allow to cook for 1 hour, turn the heat to ’LOW’ and continue cooking for another 12 hours or until meat falls apart when prodded with a fork. When the meat is tender, turn off slow cooker and place the slow cooker bowl in the fridge. (If your slow-cooker doesn’t have a removable insert, transfer the contents to a large container with a tight-fitting lid and pop that into the fridge.

Step 2:

Use a spoon to remove the congealed fat from around the pork shoulder. Discard the fat. Transfer pork shoulder to a large cutting board, preferably one with a groove to catch juices. Otherwise, keep the paper towels handy! Let sit while attending to the pan juices.

Pour the cooking juices that surrounded the pork through a fine mesh strainer positioned over a saucepan. Remove and discard any solids left in the strainer. Add the lime juice, vinegar, garlic, red pepper flakes, dried mustard powder and liquid smoke to the cooking juices. Whisk until evenly combined and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Allow to boil (while working on shredding the pork) until reduced to about 1/4 of the starting volume. Set aside until pork is fully shredded.

Pull the bone out of the pork and discard. Scrape as much fat as you can from the outside of the pork shoulder. Throw away the fat or give it to your spoiled and lazy dogs. Pull large chunks of the shoulder apart. It should naturally come apart at places where there is additional fat you can remove. Take as much of the fat out as you can without wasting meat.

Using your hands -or two forks- shred the meat into small pieces. When you’ve shredded all the meat, you can leave it as is or chop through it quickly with a knife to ensure that you have small bite-sized pieces. It depends on what you’ll do with the pork. I usually run through it with the knife since I have so many little mouths eating it. When pork is fully shredded (and chopped, if desired) transfer to a 9? x 13? baking dish with sides. Pour the reduced pan juices over the pork and toss. Tightly cover the pan with foil. If you plan on serving it immediately, put into a preheated 350ºF oven and heat for 25 minutes, or until hot all the way through. If you are preparing this ahead of time you can either place the pan directly into the freezer or into the fridge.

To reheat from chilled:

Place, still covered in foil, in a preheated 350ºF oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

To heat from frozen:

Place, still covered in foil, in a preheated 350ºF for 45 minutes, or until heated through.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/06/11/classic-slow-cooker-cuban-pork-make-ahead-mondays-highlight/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Component Foods, kid food, Main Dish, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

March 12, 2012 by 13 Comments

Let me tell you about last week. It was busy. Oh, it was biz-ay. B to the HOLY-COW-HOW-WILL-I-GET-ALL-THIS-DONE to the U-S-Y, man. Or wo-man. Woah, man.

I was hauling my rear (and a bunch of children to boot) all over this stretch of God’s country in my big ugly purple van. I drove people here. I drove people there. I dropped people off. I picked people up. In fact, I went one place with my five boys and came home with seven, only three of whom I had birthed. I balanced brooms in the kitchen to show off the awesome wackiness of the solar flares. I spent the entire week wondering how we could possibly make it to all of our commitments.

On the subject of solar flares, I’d just like to say one word. WEIRD.

Okay, I have a couple more words. Did you balance your broom? I’m not even kidding. Did you know that during solar flares you can take a broom –even a raggedy old angled one like mine- and balance it with no support? Go on. Test it. All the cool kids are doing it. You know you want to. (As a homeschooling mom, I have to practice my peer pressure skills so my kids don’t have to miss out on all the good stuff.)

I’m still not entirely sure how we did it, but we did manage to get to everything we had on the schedule and threw in a big family get together on Saturday for good measure. The biggest yeehah of them all, though,  the icing on the cake, was when the entire family (including those who had come to visit earlier in the day) went to watch a battle of the bands in which my fourteen year old bass-playing eldest son and my eight year old “Animal” drummer participated. It started at eight o’clock at night.

Did you catch that?

As in the same night as the time change. In other words, my  husband and I and our fourteen, twelve, ten, eight and six year olds were in a large auditorium full of big, loud, boomy amplifiers and microphones and screaming rock guitars (and some screaming vocalists) along with my sister, her husband and their eight, six and two year olds, and my mother. Nana was banging her head. At least I’m fairly certain she meant to and wasn’t being thrown back against the wall by the sub-woofer.

This brings me to another point. Can I talk about how much I despise this time change? They are taking an hour from me! Who decided that was a good idea? Do they not know how much I’m trying to cram into a day?

When we were in the process of moving to where we live now, I joked with friends that in order to buy the home, we had to convert to the Amish faith. Since moving here, I’ve gotten to know many Amish and one of the most fascinating things I learned was that they don’t  “do” the time change. Well, hallelujah. I think I’ll convert after all.

Solar flares, time changes, extra kids, battles of the bands, and go, go, GO! I hit my freezer food bank pretty hard this week. And on the subject of a stash of food…

You all know I love me some pulled pork. In fact, one of the all-time most popular posts ever here on Foodie With Family is my Cuban Pulled Pork recipe. It tastes wonderful and it makes enough to stash away three or four meals worth of food (even for a family our size!) It is so good. So good, in fact, that for a very long time (longer than I care to admit), I didn’t make pork shoulder in any other way. Why?

Because IT WAS SO GOOD!

You know what? It’s still that good, but I realized something really crucial. Expanding the pork shoulder repertoire does not mean I love the Cuban Pork any less. It just means I have more opportunities for eating pork!

Pork shoulder is the busy person’s best friend. You wouldn’t think it to look at that massive cut of meat, would you? You look at the marbled hunk of meat with that bone down the center and think, “All that work! Who has time?” You do! I promise. It is one of the most economical cuts of meat and requires so little hands-on time that it’s almost criminal not to take advantage of it.

For this Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork, we begin with the same method used in the Cuban Pork recipe; cook overnight in the slow-cooker, chill during the day, shred the pork, reduce the pan juices, and pour it over the pork. Instead of our well loved Cuban spices and juices, we add cola, onions and chipotles in adobo. Rawr. Then we diverge a bit more… Instead of baking the pork, we press a goodly amount of the shredded pork into a super hot pan until it’s crispy brown around the edges. Flip it over, make it crispier and then? And then. Oh, then.

This, my friends, is the stuff of dreams. Crispy pork carnitas.
We can serve that crispity yet juicy, delectable, slightly spicy and sweet, flavour-packed pork on tostadas, pizza, in tacos, or like we’re doing today on Carnitas Rice Bowls. You cannot possibly imagine a meal that is this easy to throw together can taste this incredible.

This is good enough to bump itself into the rotation with my beloved Cuban Pork.

And much like Cuban Pork, it makes enough to feed a massive crowd ~or~ sock away several meals worth of already cooked meat. With that in the freezer, like all of our other Make Ahead Mondays recipes, dinner is just minutes away.

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Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

Rating: 51

Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

Slightly spicy, smoky and a little sweet, this slow-cooker cola pulled pork is so easy to make you'll be shocked and is so good that you'll be thankful it yields enough for several meals-worth to be stored in the freezer. One of our favourite ways to use it is on Carnitas Rice Bowls; hot cooked rice piled with the crispy "little meats" and a variety of flavourful toppings. Go wild and really pile it high. This meal pleases all ages and is easy on the wallet.

Ingredients

    For the Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork:
  • 3 large onions
  • 6-9 pound bone-in pork shoulder or pork butt
  • 2 small cans of chipotles in adobo
  • 2 (12 ounce) bottles or cans of your preferred cola (I like Mexican Coca-Cola.)
    • For Each Serving of Carnitas Rice Bowls:
  • ½-3/4 cup slow-cooker cola pulled pork
  • 1 teaspoon canola, peanut or vegetable oil
  • 1 to 1 ½ cups hot, cooked rice
    • Optional, but oh-so-tasty:
  • salsa
  • shredded pepper jack or Cheddar cheese
  • Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce
  • sour cream
  • sliced or diced avocado
  • finely diced red onion
  • chopped cilantro or parsley
  • lime wedges

Instructions

To Make the Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork:

Cut the stem and root-ends from the onions, cut the onions in half and remove the peels. Arrange the halved onions over the base of the slow-cooker. Position the pork roast –fat layer facing up- on top of the onion halves. Pour the cans of chipotles in adobo (with all the sauce) over the pork shoulder then pour the colas over the chipotles. Cover the slow-cooker and cook on ‘LOW’ for 8-9 hours.

Cool the pork roast (still in its juices in the slow-cooker insert) completely until the pork fat congeals around the roast on top of the cooking juices. Scrape away and discard the fat. Transfer the pork roast to a cutting board and pour the remaining contents of the slow-cooker into a sieve positioned over a saucepan. Push the contents of the sieve with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Set the saucepan over medium high heat and bring it to a boil. Let it boil and reduce until it is about ¼ of the original volume.

Pull the cooled pork roast apart and scrape excess fat from the meat. Use your hands or two forks to shred the pork. To get smaller pieces of pork, you can chop through the pile of shredded pork with a large knife a couple of times. Put the pulled pork into a large mixing bowl, pour the reduced pan juices over the top and toss until the juices are evenly distributed.

To Freeze to Serve Later:

Divide the pulled pork between zipper top bags in meal-sized portions. Try to squeeze as much excess air from the bag as possible before sealing. Try to flatten the bag so that it takes up less room in the freezer. Freeze for up to 8 months.

To Serve from Fresh:

Put a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the oil to the pan. Swirl to coat, then pile the pulled-pork in the center of the pan. Use a spatula to press the pork into the pan. Fry until the pork is brown around the edges. Use a spatula to flip the pork until crisp on the other side.

To Serve From Frozen:

Thaw the pulled pork in the refrigerator or in the microwave. Put a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the oil to the pan. Swirl to coat, then pile the pulled-pork in the center of the pan. Use a spatula to press the pork into the pan. Fry until the pork is brown around the edges. Use a spatula to flip the pork until crisp on the other side.

To Assemble the Carnitas:

Put the hot, cooked rice in a bowl, use a spatula to place the crispy pork on top. Pile any or all of the toppings on the crispy pork.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/12/slow-cooker-cola-pulled-pork-and-carnitas-rice-bowls-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | Make Ahead Mondays

February 20, 2012 by 19 Comments

WARNING: Downton Abbey Spoiler Alert! I’m  putting this on in an excess of caution, but given that last night was the season finale here in the US, I just want to be certain that you have a chance to see it before reading. I don’t actually give anything away, but I don’t want you to draw conclusions and then hate me forever.

This Sunday was a memorable one. Two of my boys had their first ever band practice. I stood in the kitchen listening to the guys jam, sneaking glances as often as I could without looking like a nutty backstage mom. I walked by and took as many surreptitious photos as I possibly could and tried desperately not to cry lest they think I didn’t like it.

Now, if you have a house full of teenaged boys, it doesn’t matter how distracted or otherwise occupied they appear, you’d best get some food going. Thank heavens I practice what I preach with Make Ahead Mondays. I had a freezer full of last minute options. I went with the easiest of the clean up options for dinners.

Why?

Lately, on Sunday nights, I’ve done the world’s fastest tucking-in of the kids. We’re talking smooch, pray, blankies-yanked-up-to-the-neck, find lost stuffed animals, pat the head and then a soothing and sincere, “If you come downstairs and interrupt Downton Abbey I will be crankier than Voldemort.”

Then I run back downstairs -wild horses aren’t in it, people… I fly-  to make a pot of tea and plant my backside firmly on the couch, remote-in-hand. Mercifully, DVRs exist, because I am quite clearly not an effective deliverer of threats. Either that, or my children are not good receivers of threats. Because they descend the stairs more often than the staff of Downton.

Forget the Superbowl. I sit here watching Downton Abbey saying things like,

“SHUT UP, THOMAS!”

“NO, Mr. Bates! NO!”

“I really like Anna’s hat.”

“Poor William.”

“Poor Daisy.”

“The Dowager Countess is my favourite person in the whole world.”

“Well, you did it NOW, didn’t you, Thomas?”

“Oh, Anna!”

“YES! Matthew socked him!”

But most importantly, and most frequently I scream, “SIR RICHARD IS A JERK!”

Can I get an amen?

Or a subdued, “Very well.”

In fact, I’m so devoted to Downton Abbey, I believe that The Dowager Countess (THREE CHEERS FOR VIOLET!) has a quote for just about everything, including Make Ahead Mondays.

“Oh, is her cooking so precisely timed? You couldn’t tell.”

Okay, so maybe I stretched that quote just a bit. But this last one comes from me talking to Lady Grantham about Make Ahead Mondays:

Lady Grantham: “You are quite wonderful the way you see room for improvement wherever you look. I never knew such reforming zeal.”
Rebecca: “I take that as a compliment.”
Lady Grantham: “I must’ve said it wrong.”

Well, alright, that wasn’t quite right, either.  I’m sorry. I’m just so obsessed.

Here’s the point, though…

I got a meal for ten on the table in thirty minutes and cleaned up in just thirty more. The sloppy joes in the freezer made it possible. And that in turn made it possible for me to clap like a seal and start singing, “Mary and Matthew sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.”

Let this be a lesson to you. Cousin Violet loves sloppy joes.

Er.

Or something.

~~

You’ve never really had sloppy joes until you’ve had homemade sloppy joes. Go on, didn’t some of you curl your lips a bit when you saw “sloppy joes” in the title? Don’t go there! This might be “below the stairs” food, but it’s darned good! When you make them from scratch, they’re an entirely different story! When you take browned beef, luscious tangy sauce, loads upon loads of vegetables and simmer them for hours upon hours their flavours mingle and marry. Kind of like Sybil and Branson. Sigh. Pile that onto soft homemade rolls and you are in heaven. Make no mistake. They are sloppy. You’re going to want a goodly pile of napkins nearby. Or a footman with finger bowls. The choice is yours.

Either way, this stash in your freezer makes dinner a breeze.

A while back, I ran this recipe as a classic Foodie With Family Record-Eagle column. I hope you enjoy this printable version!

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Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | Make Ahead Mondays

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | Make Ahead Mondays

You've never had a sloppy joe until you've had a sloppy joe made from scratch. Crammed full of veggies, big on flavour and huge on comfort, these sloppy joes are a great way to get your daily vegetable servings into picky eaters. As if they weren't wonderful enough, they're kind to the wallet and half-your-brain-tied-behind-your-back easy.

If you're feeding a big family, I highly recommend doubling or tripling this recipe (most slow-cookers can handle the upsize with no difficulty) and freezing the extras for last-minute meals.

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs. lean ground beef or turkey
  • 2 large onions, finely chopped
  • 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 large ribs celery, finely chopped
  • 1 small carrot, peeled and finely chopped or grated
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 3 6-oz. cans tomato paste
  • 1/3 c. cider vinegar, plus extra for adjusting flavor after cooking
  • 1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar, plus extra for adjusting flavor after cooking
  • 3 t. paprika
  • 2 t. dry mustard
  • 2 t. salt
  • 2 t. chili powder, more or less, to taste
  • 1 t. fresh ground black pepper, more or less, to taste
  • ½ t. hot pepper sauce

Instructions

In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the beef with the onions, bell pepper, celery, carrot, and garlic, breaking up meat with a fork or wooden spoon until meat is lightly browned. Drain meat mixture and remove to a slow cooker, adding remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined, cover and cook on low for six to seven hours. Adjust flavor by adding additional brown sugar and vinegar to taste, if desired.

Serve filling loosely piled on rolls with choice of toppings.

To Freeze:

Cool the leftovers completely, scoop into a pre-labeled (with contents and date) resealable zipper bags in one-meal-portions. Close the zipper partway and squeeze as much air from the bag as you can without spilling the contents. Finish closing the zipper and lay the bag flat, gently squishing the bag to evenly distribute the sloppy joe filling. Lay the bags on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer until solid.

To Reheat:

Snip the top from the freezer bag and empty the contents into a microwave safe bowl or a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight fitting lid. If microwaving, cover bowl with plastic wrap, venting one side. Thaw first, then microwave on high, stirring every 2 minutes or so, until the filling is hot through. If using the stovetop, add 1/4 cup of water, lid tightly, and warm over low heat, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until the filling is hot through and through.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/20/slow-cooker-sloppy-joes-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Main Dish, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

February 17, 2012 by 85 Comments

Update: Like a goose, I left the onions out of the ingredients list and instructions. I have fixed and updated the recipe. My apologies to those who might have printed it before seeing the correction. I imagine it will still taste marvelous made sans onion, but with onions, it sings!

Everybody wants a unicorn recipe. It’s the kind of dish we all secretly hopes exists but despair of actually finding.  You try recipe after recipe after recipe trying to find something, ANYTHING that isn’t a burger (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) or a hot dog (Nothing wrong with that, either, but EGADS, give us some variety, please.) that will make everyone happy. All we want is tasty unicorns.

What would you say if I told you that I have a slow-cooker recipe that requires no more work than chopping an onion and a few garlic cloves and a wee bit of ginger, whisking a few liquids together and pouring it over some boneless skinless chicken thighs in the slow cooker? And then if I were to tell you that you didn’t have to do any pre-browning on that chicken? Wait, then I also said that it was easy on the wallet, too.

But what if I followed all that up by saying that four hours after doing that, you would have a dish that (even out of the slow-cooker) was deep and complex, flavourful and beautiful, and made every single person in my family happy. Would you think I was a liar?

Or would you believe me if I told you this is a unicorn?

Normally something that simple doesn’t yield palatable let alone fabulous. This, however, is fabulous.

Sweet, tangy, spicy, garlicky, gingery with a velvety sauce and tender chicken. It’s just so very good. I first saw this over on my friend Amy’s blog and knew I had to try it. True to Amy’s promise of success, we had no leftovers the first time I made it (and I had doubled her recipe!) And as a testament to the taste of this unicorn, I made it again just under a week later, this time with a few changes that I wanted to try. My husband was on (ANOTHER) business trip, and again, I doubled the amount of meat. And again? No leftovers. I repeat. NO LEFTOVERS. My five sons and I polished off a batch of it that was every bit as large as the batch that my adult male husband helped us consume earlier in the week.

Woah.

A.) These guys eat a lot. Okay. I’m no slouch. But still… I weep for my food budget.

B.) I may have to triple the recipe next time.

C.) Help.

When I told my husband later that night what we’d eaten for dinner as we caught up over the phone, he said, “Oh man. I missed it? That stinks.”

He had gone out to a restaurant that night and was jealous of our dinner. I call that a score for me.

Let me tell you one more thing, though… I’ve mentioned my picky pants gruesome-twosome anti-veg contingent before, right? They sucked this up like hoovers. They didn’t slow down to realize there were itty bitty minced onions in the dish.

Saddle up this unicorn and believe!

 

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Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Sweet, tangy, spicy, garlicky, gingery: You never expect something that is this simple to make to taste this deep and complex. With a maximum of 10 minutes of hands-on time required to put this together, you will be thrilled and so will the rest of your family!

Adapted with big thanks from my dear friend, Amy of Very Culinary

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • salt and pepper
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 4 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup of water
    • Serve with:
  • Hot cooked rice
  • Sesame seeds
  • Scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions

Very lightly season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place them in the slow cooker.

Whisk the honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, canola and sesame oils, ginger, garlic and pepper flakes together in a mixing bowl and pour over the chicken thighs. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.

Use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken to a rimmed plate or bowl and cover lightly with foil, leaving the pan juices in the slow cooker.

Stir the cornstarch into the water with a fork or small whisk until dissolved. Whisk the mixture into the pan juices in the slow cooker. Re-cover the slow-cooker and turn the heat to high. Let it cook and thicken for 15 minutes.

Carefully transfer the chicken back into the slow-cooker. Serve the pieces of chicken over the hot cooked rice, spoon the sauce over the chicken and garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/17/slow-cooker-honey-sesame-chicken/

 

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Happy Healthy and Wise, kid food, Main Dish, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

September 2, 2011 by 55 Comments

Update with a correction: In the recipe, I accidentally forgot to include the whole jalapeno pepper that I simmered with the sauce. It will be good without it, but it’s great with it. I have modified the recipe to reflect the correction.

This plate of Chicken Tikka Masala (because that’s what it is) represents a giant victory sixteen years in the making. We are talking about a serious case of I-told-you-so mixed with a pretty solid  I-was-right-and-you-were-wrong combined with a decade long desire for Indian food thwarted by… my husband.

I love that man of mine -love him dearly, bigger than the bay and to the ends of the earth- but he has sworn up one wall and down the other for the duration of the time I have known him that he despises Indian food.  He has blamed heartburn from the curry (okay, I can buy that), muddy flavours (that I blame on just plain bad take-out food) and unattractive presentation (because my husband is -and I’ll bet you didn’t know this- Frank Bruni, New York Times Food Critic. I’m kidding. He’s Darth Vader. But anyway.)  Like I said, though, I loves ‘im… and you don’t deliberately serve food to your loved ones that will make them unhappy, right?

Then I got a good deal on some chicken thighs and I had a thought. I busted out two slow-cookers. In one, I decided, I would make chicken taco meat: easy, delicious, well-loved by the husband. In the other? I was going to be a wild woman, throw caution to the wind and not only make *GASP* Indian food, but I was going to make my own version of the classic Chicken Tikka Masala. When I live dangerously, whew, I do it up right*.

*Look. I have five kids. At the moment? This is living dangerously. Just go with me on it, please, so I don’t feel pathetic. Tell me I’m crazy. Now.

I browned the yogurt and spice marinated chicken thighs in a saute pan with butter then tossed it into the slow cooker. Next up, I browned the onions, garlic and ginger, and spices, deglazed with the sauce ingredients then scraped those (minus the cream, which was added at the end to prevent curdling) and let it go for a few hours while the taco chicken cooked in a separate cooker. Simmer, simmer, simmer; that’s what the dueling crockpots of chicken did.

When, after a few hours, I stirred the heavy cream into the saucy, fragrant chicken, I was thrilled. It was beautiful, it was delicious, it was done. I tasted it and was *this close* to weeping tears of joy.  It wasn’t even close to dinner time yet, but I had wanted to get a jump on the evening. There was no way I was going to wait another minute. I piled a giant amount of rice cooked with peas and butter onto the plate. I ladled an enormous amount of the Chicken Tikka Masala over it, and tossed an industrial-sized fistful of chopped cilantro over the top and snapped a picture.

Then I looked into the camera again to snap another. Something was a bit off…

“Hey guys?” I called as I turned around to find three of my sons and one of their friends standing silently at the ready. With forks. “Um, would you guys like to be my guinea pigs?”

They polished that plate off in short order.  They wanted more. My three boys (including one from the no-green-stuff crowd) and their buddy loved it. The buddy asked me to give the recipe to his mom.

That was one obstacle cleared with daylight between me and the hurdle. The big question, however,  remained. What would my Indian cuisine averse beloved think?

I put together the most exquisitely plated dish of Chicken Tikka Masala that I possibly could and stuffed it into his hands while he sat at his computer working on a program. My husband knows better than to question a plate of lovingly offered food whatever the hour may be and he dutifully laid into it.

“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it. I have taco meat going in another slow-cooker.” I disclaimed…

“Mmmm! Sgood!” he said.

“So, you like it?” I asked.

“Yeah! Sreallygood!” he said, mid-bite.

“So, you really like it??” I asked. And then he looked at me funny. Then he looked at the plate and then again at me and said,

“Yeah! Sreallygood. Thank you?”

And I’m sorry to say this, but I am fairly certain I smirked. I am an adult, but I am human. I got a hold of myself before I continued,

“Oh sure, honey. Eat up! If you’d like more, there’s plenty.” I walked away happy.

Victory. It tastes sweeter when defeat tastes great, too.

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Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 hours, 30 minutes

This classic Indian dish is sure to win over even the pickiest eaters with its creamy, rich, complex comfort food bona fides. This dinner is the perfect fall or winter warm-me-up and it reheats like a dream.

Ingredients

    For the chicken:
  • 9 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 4 tablespoons butter
    • For the sauce:
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 large onion, peeled and diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 large piece of ginger (2-3 inches in size), peeled and grated
  • 3 tablespoons garam masala
  • 4 cups crushed tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon raw sugar (or granulated white sugar)
  • 1 whole jalapeno, washed, stem removed and pierced several times with a sharp knife
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch or cleargel
    • To Serve:
  • Hot, buttered, cooked rice with peas (see recipe below)
    • Optional:
  • Cilantro

Instructions

Cut the boneless, skinless chicken thighs into 1- 1 1/2 inch pieces. Sprinkle the coriander, cumin and 1 teaspoon salt over the chicken, then stir in the yogurt until all the pieces are evenly coated. Cover lightly and let sit for 10 minutes before proceeding.

Melt 1 tablespoon the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Raise the heat to medium high and quickly brown about 1/4 of the chicken. Transfer browned chicken to the slow cooker as it is finished, using 1 tablespoon of butter per batch, and repeat until the chicken is all in the slow-cooker.

Return the pan to the heat and melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat. Add the onions, garlic, and the 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, then stir. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to lightly brown around the edges.

Stir in the garam masala and ginger and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute) before raising the heat to high and adding the crushed tomatoes and raw sugar. Stir well, scraping the caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan and bring to a boil. Pour over the chicken in the slow-cooker and add the jalapeno pepper.

Cover and cook on LOW for 5 hours, or until the chicken is very tender.

Use a fork or whisk to stir the cornstarch or cleargel into the heavy cream until smooth. Pour into the slow-cooker and stir gently until the colour is even. Replace the lid and let cook for 10 minutes or until bubbly around the edges.

Serve over hot rice topped with a generous amount of chopped cilantro.

Try not to gloat.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/02/slow-cooker-chicken-tikka-masala/

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Buttery Rice and Peas

Buttery rice and peas is comfort food at it's easiest. If you want to serve this with Chicken Tikka Masala and make it most authentic, use white basmati rice. If basmati is not easily available, you can substitute another long-grain white rice so long as it is not quick cooking or instant.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups long grain white rice
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 cup frozen sweet peas

Instructions

To Cook in a Rice Cooker:

Add rice, butter and water to the rice cooker and program for the regular cycle. When it is complete, open the lid, stir in the peas, and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

To Cook on the Stove top:

In a mid-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the butter, water, and rice and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water comes to the boil, cover the pot tightly, and drop the heat to low. Simmer for about 12-15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the rice looks fluffy. Fluff the rice with a spoon, stir in the frozen peas, and let sit, partially covered, for 10 minutes before serving.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/02/slow-cooker-chicken-tikka-masala/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, kid food, Main Dish, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker Tagged With: , ,
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