Sweet and Sour Chicken

This is yet another of my recipes for chicken in the slow cooker. I know a lot of us are always on the look out for new ideas for both chicken and slow cooker recipes. I will say that for my taste this is really too sweet but I know other family members that absolutely love it. I have a feeling a lot of the sweetness level also depends on the brand of sweet and sour sauce you use. My grocery store only carries one brand and it is very sweet. Also you can always add some heat to this too.

Since this recipe requires you to pay a bit of attention at the end of the day plan it for a day when you have some time before dinner. Also it gives the perfect opportunity to out some brown rice in the rice cooker while dinner finishes up.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

1 ½ to 2 cups carrot sticks

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 medium onion sliced

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 jar (about 9 oz) sweet and sour sauce

1 (20 oz) can pineapple chunks

Place the carrots, bell pepper and onion in the slow cooker. Top with the chicken and sprinkle with the pepper flakes.

Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours until cooked through.

Drain off and discard the liquid that has accumilated in the slow cooker.

Add the sweet and sour sauce and the pineapple chunks to the chicken and vegetables in the slow cooker and heat on low for an additional hour.

Serve over rice

Cajun Chicken

It always seems like once the month of September rolls around I get way busier. After all school has started which translates to lots more driving and planning. And then all the late summer produce it getting ready and begging me to do something with it. With all that going on some days I just don't feel like making a big dinner. Unfortunately, my son still thinks he needs to eat (didn't I just feed him yesterday?? just kidding) Days like this need quick and easy dinners from the slow cooker.

And this brings us to today's recipe. Yes it is yet another chicken in the slow cooker recipe. I love these because I can put them on to cook and then get other stuff done. Also like a lot of my favorites this goes over some rice at the end of the day. That means all I have to do is get my rice cooker to cook the rice portion of the dish and I am done. If I choose to make a salad or cut up some raw veggies great if not, what the heck this has some veggies in it and we tend to snack on fruits and veggies a lot anyway. Some days you just need to have a one dish meal that you don't have to fuss over.

This is called Cajun Chicken for a couple of reasons, first off you start off the dish with the Cajun tradition of the holy trinity (bell pepper, onion and celery) and secondly the dish utilizes one of the commercial brands of Cajun Seasoning available in the grocery store. Use whatever brand your store carries (there are probably a ton of recipes online for a dyi version too)

This dish does require a few minutes of prep time to cut up the veggies, cook the bacon, sweat the veggies and brown the chicken, it took me about 15 minutes to get all that done. Once the dish cooks all day in the slow cooker (at least 8 hours) it really needs nothing else done to it so other than getting the rice cooked you are set to sit down and eat.

Cajun Chicken

3 slices bacon, chopped

½ cup chopped green bell pepper

¼ cup chopped onion

¼ cup chopped celery

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning blend

1 (14 ½ oz) can diced tomatoes (with the liquid)

Cook bacon in skillet until crispy. Add the bell pepper, onion and celery and cook just to soften.

Place bacon and veggies in the bottom of a 3 ½ to 4 quart slow cooker.

Sprinkle chicken on both sides with about ½ the Cajun seasoning. Brown the chicken in the remaining bacon fat in skillet.

When chicken is nicely browned (not cooked just browned on the outside) add it and any drippings in pan to slow cooker.

Stir the remaining teaspoon of Cajun seasoning into the canned tomatoes and pour over chicken in slow cooker

Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.

Serve over a bed of rice

Serves 4

Curry Chicken

This is definitely one of the recipes that falls under the heading “torture by slow cooker” because it just smells wonderful as it cooks. The house will be filled with the wonderful warm aromas of curry by day's end.

This is a fairly quick cook as slow cooker recipes go, about 6 or 7 hours so it is more for one of those days when you are busy running some errands or such rather than a day off at work. If left much beyond the 7 hours the chicken will dry out. You might give it a try with chicken thighs in place of the chicken breast if you want to let it sit longer.

Be sure to pair this with a nice bed of rice, you don't want to loose any of the wonderful sauce this cooks in.

And speaking of that wonderful sauce, the base of it is a jar of mango chutney. I usually find it in jars that hold about a cup and that is perfect for this recipe.

Curry Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 2 pounds total)

1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 medium onion sliced

1 red bell pepper chopped

1 cup fresh sugar snap peas

1 jar mango chutney (about 1 cup)

¾ cup water

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 ½ teaspoons curry powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

Layer the chicken, beans, onions, bell pepper, and sugar snap peas in the bottom of your 3 ½ to 4 quart slow cooker. I usually do 2 layers of each

Combine remaining ingredients stirring to combine and pour over chicken mixture in slow cooker.

Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours or until chicken is cooked through.

Serve over a bed of rice.

Turkey Taco Filling

This is one of those recipes that really doesn’t have an official name but it appears on our table regularly. The kids all love it and it is one of the recipes that my oldest son has been known to call me from the grocery store just to check that he hasn’t forgotten some ingredient because it just seems too simple to be correct. Yes, there really are only 2 things to put in the slow cooker and it can sit in there for up 12 hours (maybe even longer) and be wonderful. It is great as leftovers the next day and I have yet to find anyone that doesn’t like it. Even people that tell me they don’t really care for turkey can’t get enough of it.

The way we usually serve it is wrapped in a tortilla with cheese, sour cream, tomato lettuce, really what ever we have on hand that would normally go into a burrito or taco. I also love to use the leftovers to make a nacho the next day. My oldest son tells me it is fantastic mixed in Spanish rice too.

Turkey Taco Filling

2 turkey thighs (they usually come 2 to a package at my store)

1 package Taco seasoning (any style, any brand)

Place the turkey thighs in your slow cooker and sprinkle the contents of the package of taco seasoning over them. Use the entire package even though it looks like a lot it is just right.

Cover and cook on low for at least 8 hours, up to 12.

Remove skin and bones and shred meat. Use to fill tacos, burritos, in a nacho, and probably many more places that you can come up with.

Store leftovers in the juices that form in slow cooker in a container in the fridge. I find if I store it without the liquid it tends to dry out when I reheat it.

Abby’s Pork Roast

I got this recipe from my good friend Abby a few years back (I don't know where she got it) and although it has an official name at our house we just call it “Abby’s Pork Roast” if I give it another name my kids just look at me blankly. I think this is supposed to be a slow cooker version on the Kalua Pork that they cook in Hawaii but since I have never been there I am not sure how close it comes. All I can tell you is this is fantastic!

You do have to plan ahead for this one, it cooks for a very long time (20 to 24 hours) but it is so worth it in the end. The ingredient list is so short and no I didn’t forget anything, there really are just 3 ingredients.

The original recipe called for Hawaiian Sea Salt but I couldn’t locate that locally so I use Himalayan Pink Salt and it works wonderfully. I have used regular kosher salt and it is okay but I don’t recommend it (too salty and just missing something), look for a nice red or pink salt for this it is worth the effort. I buy my pink salt at Cost Plus World Market so if you have one near by be sure to check out their spice/ seasoning aisle lots of fun stuff there and the prices are usually really good.

For the pork roast for this you want something that will hold up to the long cooking time, think the type of cut you would use for a pot roast. I have even used bone-in country style ribs a few times and they worked out wonderfully too. The important thing here in my opinion is to use a roast with the bone in. The bone provides so much flavor that you really do need it there.

Abby’s Pork Roast

1 (6 pound) pork butt roast (or whatever size will fit snuggly in your slow cooker)

1 1/2 tablespoons Hawaiian sea salt or Himalayan Pink Salt

1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring 

I have changed up the method a bit from what Abby originally told me so here is 

how I do it.

Put the roast in the slow cooker sprinkle with the salt and the liquid smoke. Cover and 

cook on low for 20 to 24 hours. The roast will create its own juices over the cooking 

time. If in the morning when I get up and check on the roast I find that the top of 

the meat is not under the liquid I turn the meat (it will fall apart) over and push it 

as much as 

possible under the liquid. 

This roast is going to completely fall apart and that is the idea. 

The next day this will make the best pork sandwiches, just heat the leftover meat up 

put into a bun, cheese is optional but does taste wonderful.