Ok in a crockpot:
Smoked sausage
Potatoes
Onions
Can of cream of chicken soup
Chicken broth? Or Half and half?
Would like to add a cheese element to it but I don’t know if I should put it in with the crockpot or just add shredded cheese to each individual serving.
Thanks for any input.
First, I’d brown most/all of the ingredients, first.
Is the smoked sausage a deli style cold, or a raw style sausage. If the latter, definitely cook ahead of time and use the fat to brown the potatoes and onions.
Can of cream of chicken - eh, if you like it, but it’s a lot of sodium, and could be the lowest common denominator of your ingredients. I’d skip it and instead do your last line, chicken broth or stock (ideally homemade, which is very easy, see any of our threads on it) and half and half. Controls the sodium!
I’d probably add a few more herbs, but that’s a highly personal thing. Maybe some paprika, some sage, but absolutely some quality white pepper and some garlic seps or chives for topping.
Also consider how and with what sides you’re serving. Complement and contrast. Is this going to be more of a soup/stew? Or a braise? Your base is just the beginning!
Serving it over noodles? Shredded cheese when you plate it.
Yeah, put the cheese on afterwards. It sounds good. I would throw in a can of corn and some diced celery as well. I second browning the sausage first, and put the sausage drippings in as well. Cut the potatoes up into smaller pieces so they will cook faster. And if the sausage is not very spicy, put some spices in as well. You can cook them in the sausage drippings for a minute or two after browning which will “bloom” the herbs so that their flavor really comes out strong.
I’d add canned, drained great northern beans. (The liquid can be bitter,IMO) Exchange the cream of chicken for cream of mushroom soup.
Yeah, there are a number of ‘cream of’ soups that would go better with smoked sausage, potatoes, and onions!
And if you want ‘cheesy’,
Another route you could take is to make it more of a stroganoff. Worceshstire sauce, flour, Greek Yogurt (or sour cream)for the sauce. Then serve it over egg noodles.
Wow lots of great input. Thanks for the ideas guys.
Why bother with the crock pot in the first place? There isn’t a thing in your recipe that will actually benefit from long, low and slow cooking. In fact, it’ll probably just make the sausage weird and water logged, and turn the potatoes to mush.
I’d use a normal pot and aim for something more akin to the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana, and do the following:
Slice the sausage into small bite sized slices. Brown in your pot, then remove. Make a mirepoix of finely chopped carrots, celery and onion. Cook in the pot with the sausage grease (add oil if needed) until lightly browned. Toss in a minced clove or two of garlic for the last few minutes.
Add in your broth, cook for 45 minutes to an hour at a simmer, add the potatoes at the last 15 minutes, then add some heavy cream at the end. Salt and pepper to taste.
I’d get red or yellow potatoes, because russet potatoes have a tendency to turn to mush in soups.
Hands-off-edness. Throw in ingredients, run off to work, come home tired & hungry to a hot meal waiting for you.
Otherwise, concur that your “regular pot” version would probably have nicer texture and more control (since you can take a quick sip while stirring and go, “Hmmm, needs sage.”)
The latter, definitely.
Smoked AND also raw? Never seen that, at least not in the mass market stores.
Stick blender. Whizz that mush into starchy goodness. Super thick porridge style soup, absolutely lovely in winter.
My tastes would shy away from cream of chicken soup and use broth and cream. I’d also toss in some spinach to make it something similar to Tuscan Sausage Soup. That’s a random recipe I pulled up, I don’t stick to any particular version of it.
A friend’s wife does all the “cooking” but almost every meal is made in the crockpot. She likes to wake up and get her “cooking” out of the way so she can do other things all day. He tells me horror stories about her tossing random odds and ends into the crockpot. Occasionally the meal isn’t half bad.
I’d hesitate to use cream IN a crockpot recipe, but would absolutely 115% recommend stirring some drizzles into the finished bowlfuls.
The smoked sausage in canned cream of <…> soup doesn’t sound like an obvious pairing and a long cook in a crockpot sounds, sorry, pretty bad.
You’re right. It wouldn’t hold up to a long cook. I agree with others also who don’t think this is a crockpot type dish.
Sorry, I was working from -MY- own assumptions, not mass market assumptions - you are absolutely correct. I personally love smoked food (fish, meats, cheese) and buy local cold smoked sausage when I can fit it into my budget. It’s partially cured, and smoked at temperatures insufficient to be considered ‘cooked’, so you have to finish it at higher temps to be safe.
But I was typing in a hurry, and looking back on my post, that sentence was garbage. What I was trying to say was to ask if it was a cold deli section smoked sausage (like Lil’smokies) or a raw meat style sausage (like I buy). The first wouldn’t render the same amount of fat as a fresh, raw meat style sausage, and therefore would be harder to use to brown the rest of the ingredients.
But again, I should absolutely have considered the third option you mention, smoked sausage at the mega mart that is already pre-cooked, and would just want the browning for color and additional flavor.
Meh, I was sloppy, apologies.
Regarding the potatoes - agreed that russets would likely have a weird texture in a LONG duration slow cooked dish, but for a shorter 2 hour braise style on high, everything else would likely work okay. And if the OP is using waxy / semi-waxy potatoes, should work fine for even longer durations. The OP didn’t specify if it was russets or waxy style though.
Plus, I don’t question why they want to use a crockpot - a while back @bordelond had a request for slow cooker / crockpot options for desserts because their oven was un-useable. NOT saying that’s the case here, but not going to fight the hypothetical.
Portuguese chorize (or chouriço) is smoked, and fermented. It’s sometimes ready to eat but mostly sold in a form that needs cooking. How much and what is smoked varies a lot, sometimes it’s just loaded with smoked paprika and other ingredients and the meat is unsmoked. You can find it everywhere in these parts but it’s rare in the rest of the country.
This sounds more like a skillet supper.
Slice and dice the sausage, potatoes and onions.
I’d toss the taters with oil and spices and roast at 400f for about 25 min.
Brown the sausage and onions in a skillet add soup and roasted potatoes. Let simmer until hot. Cheese as desired.
Or just put it all in a casserole, layer in some cheese and bake until hot and bubbly.
I made this last night with leftover instant potato soup using turkey kielbasa and little potatoes.
Yeah lesson learned. The cream broke in my dish. It still tasted good but I should have waited till the last minute to put the cream in.