I’m in love with my Crock Pot. It’s red, it’s shiny, and it makes cooking dinner stupid easy. I use it at least twice a week. So far this is my favorite Crock Pot recipe:
Loaded Baked Potato Soup*
5lbs potatoes, skin on, cut up
2 8oz packages cream cheese
4 cans chicken broth
1 cup milk
1/2 - 1 onion (I use Vidalia) chopped
Garlic, salt and pepper to taste
Bacon, sour cream, chives optional for garnish
Soften cream cheese in slow cooker on low while getting the rest of your ingredients ready.
Add chicken broth and milk to cream cheese. Stir until cream cheese is broken down a bit, but it does not have to be completely creamy!
Add the rest of your ingredients.
Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours.
When done use a hand masher, I use this kind, to gently mash up potatoes. Top with bacon, sour cream, chives or whatever else you wish and enjoy!
I normally serve with cheddar and garlic biscuits, because of course you need a side of carbs to go with your main carb meal.
*This makes a lot of soup! Feel free to halve the recipe or freeze half for a quick meal on a busy night.
If you have a butcher or very well stocked grocery store where you can buy rabbit, get a couple. Put them in the crockpot with some diced bacon and cover them with your favorite tomato sauce. Cook until the meat falls off the bones. Good with pasta or mashed potato.
Crock pot dump cake. This stuff is stupid good and it’s real easy to make as well. My wife makes this without the nuts.
1 (21 oz) can cherry or blueberry pie filling
1 package yellow or white cake mix
8 tablespoons butter, cut up
1/2 C. chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted if you have time
Instructions
Rub the slow cooker generously with some of the butter. Place pie filling in the slow cooker. Mix dry cake mix and remaining butter until crumbly, sprinkle over filling. Sprinkle with nuts. Cover and cook on low for 2 – 3 hours. Serve warm in bowls.
A friend shared this today - it makes a pot roast and a stew at the same time:
Cover the bottom of the slow cooker in about an inch of soaked navy beans, add a thickly sliced onion and a couple of thickly sliced carrots, add a package (about a pound) of stew beef, add a roast, dump in some salt, thyme, and oregano, and then add enough water to cover the beans on the bottom. Cook on high for 4-ish hours and on low for 5 hours or more.
The roast on top cooks like a roast, and the stew beef cooks like stew. You can use a slotted spoon to get the root/bean part as a side for the roast, or you can use a ladle to get all of the bottom layers as stew.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I may very well do so this weekend.
Also, I just this week got this book from Amazon. While I’m not remotely vegan, there’s a bunch of good looking recipes in there that I can’t wait to make. Will report back once I make some.
I currently have cabbage rolls in my slow cooker, but seeing as I’ve never made them before and simply decided to wing it, I don’t know if the “recipe” will be worth sharing.
My absolute favorite thing to do is to take a pork butt, the largest that can fit, and season it with salt, pepper, thyme and garlic stuffed in slits all over the meat. I stuff that in the slow cooker with NO LIQUID and cook for 8 hours on low. The seasonings can be interchanged, but the addition of any liquid will give you much less than desirable results.
If you like peanut butter like I do, you’ll love this peanut butter pork recipe I make. Don’t forget the fresh-squeezed lime juice on top just before eating. I use a smallish pork roast instead of a tenderloin, and I double the sauce ingredients.
I made a sort of poor mans stew a couple weeks ago, my room mates loved it.
rice
can of
corn
black beans
pinto beans
tomatoes (I think, not sure on this one)
chicken, I had some that I smoked up a while back in the freezer that wanted to get eaten
thyme, salt, bay leaves some kind of hot pepper.
cook for 8 hours on low then eat.
I use my crockpot for French dip and for shredded taco beef. Both recipes start with a 2 lb. chuck roast, fat trimmed off, and go pretty much the same.
For the French dip, I mix 1/2 cup soy sauce, bay leaf, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, and pour that over the roast, then top off with water.
For taco meat, I rub the roast with two packets of taco seasoning, toss it in the pot, add a chopped onion, a few jalapenos, and a few garlic cloves, then cover with water.
I let it cook for about 12 hours on low, then remove the meat and shred it with a couple forks. For the taco meat, I strain all the solids out and shred them along with the beef; for the French dip, I discard the herbs and spices and save the au jus for the dipping.
This sounds like an awesome recipe and I intend to try it.
But cream cheese at the begining? How the heck does the cream NOT seperate? It seems to me a better method would be to follow your directions but add the dofened cream cheese in towards the very end.
I have been using my crock pot for lots of stuff. Recently made the baked potato soup and White Chili and both were fabulous!
One tip I have started using with my crock pot recipes is to add very little to no water. Most often the ingredients you add will have enough water to keep the meat/veggies moist.
Another fave: Southwest Chicken -
6-8 Boneless Chicken thighs (frozen or fresh)
1 can Black beans, drained
1 chopped onion
1 16 oz bag of frozen corn
1 can Rotel tomatoes (or other spicy tomatoes)
1 pkg cream cheese
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 cup cheddar or monterey jack cheese
6-8 hrs on low, 4-5 on high
I put the chicken on the bottom if frozen, then put in the chopped onions, beans, tomatoes and corn. Then I cut up the cream cheese into small chunks and put on top and sprinkle the taco seasoning over it. (If it’s non-frozen chicken I put it on top then the cream cheese over that.)
You can also use chicken breasts, but they can tend to get tough if cooked all day. The chicken thighs just have a better flavor.
The cream cheese looks like it is separating if you open the lid about half way through cooking, but don’t give up! It will smooth out and incorporate nicely by the time it is finished. I do a quick stir about halfway through, but it’s not necessary, you can let it cook all day on low and it will be fine.
I put the cheddar or monterey jack (or both) in right before serving. This stuff is yummy in tortillas or over rice.
I can’t believe I forgot this one - everyone I’ve recommended it to has loved it. One friend has made it with turkey instead of chicken, but still said it was great. It’s a forgiving recipe too - I like more beans in mine.
A few years ago on the Dope I read a thread arguing the merits of different Italian Beef Sandwiches. Just out of interest I tried doing it in the crockpot and it was great. Like any crockpot recipe it was easy and fed a bunch of people. Once it’s done everyone just helps themselves to assemble a sandwich (or 2).
There is a good recipe and video here. I have made it just using a packet of dried Italian salad herbs from the market but it’s better to make your own mix. You can get away with any herbs and spices you like really. It’s the way the meat ends up, shredded and swimming in some delicious sauce or other, that is the main attraction.
Often I slice lots of onions and peppers and put them in the bottom of the crockpot.
I thought the same thing, but it all melts together nicely. I think using the hand masher after everything cooks also helps to blend it all together. If you try it and add the cream cheese at the end let me know how it turns out!
