Who likes to make their slow cooker do all the work? ME!
St. Patrick’s Day is this Sunday and what better way to celebrate the holiday than by dusting off your trusty KitchenAid slow cooker and letting it cook dinner for you! Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage, to be exact! Seriously. I’m not kidding. This is a 100% slow cooker meal. A one-pot wonder in my book.
Simmering for hours on low allowing for the Corned Beef to get nice and tender. Everything goes in the slow cooker in the morning sans the cabbage which is added to the slow cooker during the last hour of cooking. I love to use big thick carrots when making any type of roast and this one is no exception. Believe it or not these veggies will not turn to mush after slowing cooking them all day with the meat. They are fork tender and full of flavor.
I also like to get my Corned Beef drunk… I submerge it in 3-1/2 cups of dark beer. It just so happened that when I made this Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage that my husband had a dark ale that he had recently home brewed. So that is what I used. It is really convenient to have a beer on tap at your disposal! If you don’t like dark beer don’t fret. I’ve used lagers before and they work wonderfully. Don’t like beer? Just add water then, but trust me you can’t taste the beer–the alcohol cooks off in the meal.
I am a soup fanatic… I could live on soup. As a kid, I preferred to eat soup for breakfast instead of waffles! In the dog days of Florida summers you will still find me eating soup! I typically try to make at least one pot of homemade soup each week. Most of the times it’s my go-to recipes that I’ve made for years now, and other times I’m working on a new recipe! I am always looking for new soup recipes, and even better crock pot recipes. This soup reminded me of a soup I had when I visited Austin, Texas last February. I went to a super authentic tex-mex restaurant and ordered the chicken soup. It just so happened to be sleeting in Texas while I was there and this Florida girl was freezing! I had never had an ear of corn in my soup before until that day. I must admit… it gave great flavoring to both the soup and the ear of corn, and from that point on I was hooked! This is a very basic chicken soup recipe, so if you are looking for bold flavors you may be disappointed and will definitely want to add more spices. You’ll notice that this is a pretty simplistic pot of soup, but a delicious one none-the-less!
Author: Katie Jasiewicz of Katie’s Cucina Adapted from Rachael Ray Magazine, Oct 2011
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 lb yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 whole chicken
4 cups chicken broth
4 scallions
1 medium white onion, diced
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 tbsp maggie seasoning
3 ears corn, cut into 3-inch pieces
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 avocados, cubed
tbsp sour cream *for each bowl of soup
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
Place the yellow potatoes and sweet potatoes into a crock pot followed by chicken, broth, scallions, onion, and garlic. Add 4 cups water then season the pot with salt, pepper, and maggie seasoning. Tuck the corn around the chicken. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours.
Transfer the chicken to a shallow bowl. Using a large slotted spoon run it through the soup pot a few times to make sure no bones have fallen into your soup! Using a fork carefully begin pulling the meat off the bone. Once you’ve picked all the meat off the bone discard the carcass and place the chicken back in the crock pot. Stir in a ¼ cup of cilantro. Serve each bowl of soup with cubed avocados, dollop of sour cream, and more fresh cilantro.
Ever since visiting New Orleans earlier this year I’ve really had a greater appreciation for all cajun food. One in particular. Jambalaya. Last month a coworker and close friend of mine was telling me about this awesome new crock pot recipe she found I knew I had to try it. It had all the ingredients that my husband would love and I really did enjoy eating Jambalaya in New Orleans.
I wasn’t sure about the andouille sausage, but decided to give it a shot. Woah, buddy. It gave the spiciness that this dish deserved! I’ve made this meal a few times now and have found it’s best with the rice cooked in with the meal. It will take an additional 2 hours give or take. Be prepared but know that its well worth the wait. If you get home at 5 your meal is almost done cooking. Add the rice in followed by shrimp and you’ll have dinner on the table by 7. If you aren’t patient and don’t want to eat that late then cook the rice on the side and spoon a generous portion of the jambalaya on top of the rice.
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 pound andouille sausage, diced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning
1 tsp hot sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 pound frozen peeled shrimp, thawed
2 cups white long grain rice
Fresh chopped parsley as garnish.
Directions
Prepare the ingredients for the crockpot: cut chicken, dice sausage, and chop the onion, green bell pepper, and celery stalk.
In the crock pot combine chicken, sausage, tomatoes, onion, green pepper, celery, and chicken broth. Stir in oregano, cajun seasoning, hot sauce, bay leaves, and thyme. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours.
Once the contents in the crockpot are done cooking, carefully remove the liquid. You will use this liquid to cook your rice in a separate pot. Cook the rice according to package directions using as much jambalaya liquid as possible; 2 cups rice needs 4 cups liquid. Typically I can get 2 cups of liquid from the crock pot so I'll use an additional 2 cups water. While rice is cooking, stir in the thawed shrimp in the crockpot, cover and cook until the shrimp are cooked (about 30 minutes). Once rice is done mix into the crock pot. Discard bay leaves, add fresh chopped parsley if desired, and serve.
Notes
*If preparing the night before store the crock pot ingredients in a ziplock freezer bag or large tupperware in the refrigerator.
*I cook my rice in a rice cooker using as much liquid from the jambalaya as possible. This adds flavor to the rice and makes it taste like its been cooking with the jambalaya for hours.
I’m always looking for a good soup. While on a business trip earlier this year I was introduced to the Cooking Channel. I know to most this is not a new channel, but to me it is. I don’t have that channel at home. For the 4 days I was away on business every minute I spent in my room the Cooking Channel was on. I happened to finally see an episode of Hungry Girl and she just so happened to be cooking this chicken soup. It looked and sounded amazing and I knew I needed to make it. Any time I can make a delicious and healthy meal in my crock pot I’m a happy girl. This will make a lot of soup. Don’t worry though, freeze the extra servings in individual servings. When your hankering for chicken soup (or worse sick and don’t feel like cooking) you can pull out the soup, defrost, and then place in a large pot. Add 1 cup chicken broth and begin simmering. In no time your home will smell like chicken soup has been cooking all day and you will be enjoying a nice home-cooked meal without any of the crazy canned-soup preservatives! If you want to beef up this already hearty version of chicken soup you can add a few tablespoons of cooked rice to each bowl. Don’t add it to the soup directly or the rice will absorb all of the broth. Always add individually!
Ingredients: 1-1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp black pepper 1 small onion, diced 2 carrots, chopped 2 cups coleslaw mix 3-1/2 cups fat-free chicken broth 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 1 can stewed tomatoes (not drained) 1 cup frozen peas 1/2 tsp fresh thyme 1 bay leaf
Directions: 1. Season the chicken with 1/4 tsp salt and pepper. Place all ingredients in the crock pot and stir. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours (until chicken is fully cooked and is falling a part).
2. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Remove the chicken and place in a bowl. Shred each piece using two forks. Return the shredded chicken to the crock pot and stir into the soup. Season with remaining 1/4 tsp salt and enjoy!
Tip: Freeze leftovers in individual containers for up to 3 months.
The first thing that came to mind when we received our massive bucket of tomatoes was to make my own sauce (from 100% scratch). No canned tomatoes are found in this sauce. Do you know that there are almost no recipes on the internet for making your own peeled, diced tomato sauce? With a little research on how to peel a tomato I created this delicious recipe.
I just so happened to have mild Italian sausage links in the freezer, and figured I add additional flavoring to the sauce from the sausage. I’m not a big fan of sausage, but this sausage was amazing. It was fork tender, melt in your mouth kind of sausage. I don’t think I can ever make sausage any other way now. It must be cooked in the crock pot!
{Crock Pot} Fresh Tomato Sauce with Italian Sausage
Author: Katie Jasiewicz of Katie’s Cucina
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
8 fresh tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 (6oz) can of tomato paste
1 tbsp italian seasoning
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ onion, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced plus additional for garnish
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
(optional) ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes *for a little spice
1 lb mild Italian Sausage
Instructions
To remove the skins from the tomatoes, take a large pasta pot and boil the water. Once the water starts to boil carefully place the tomatoes into the pot. Watch the tomatoes; you’ll notice that the skins will start to split. Carefully remove the tomatoes individually from the pot and place into a large bowl filled with ice water. After the tomatoes sit for 30 seconds in the ice water the skins should easily peel right off. Set to the side. Once all the skins have been removed from the tomatoes, chop, and place in crock pot bowl.
Add tomato paste, italian seasoning, minced garlic, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Mix well, then add sausage. Make sure all the sausage links are covered. Lastly, submerge the bay leaves in the sauce. Set the crock pot on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Upon being ready to serve the sauce, cook pasta according to packaging. Top each pasta bowl with additional parsley and a sprig of fresh basil.
I featured this Thai-Style Pork a few week’s ago from Mostly Food and Crafts. I love Thai food, but to be honest am not the biggest fan of pork. I made this in hopes to keep my husbands love for pork alive! This was very easy to put together prior to leaving for work. I prepped the red bell peppers and garlic the night before, and to be honest I probably could have let everything marinate in the crock-pot the evening before–making it even easier for me to just put the pot into the “crock”, set it and go. I was very excited about this recipe, but to be honest once I tasted it I was a little disappointed. It was a bit on the salty side for me, and I’m a salt freak! I know it’s because of the teriyaki sauce. If I was to make this again I would probably use half the amount of teriyaki sauce required and the other half water (maybe 2 tablespoons teriyaki and 2 tablespoons water). I wouldn’t use a broth since that typically has fats in it, and I think the “sauce” would be extra greasy. I think water would work best. Typically I would just cook plain long grain rice, but I made sure to buy the basmati rice for this dish, and I was very happy I did. It was fluffy and absorbed the sauce well. I could have eaten a bowl of the rice by its self it was that good! I also found out that this happens to be my husbands favorite rice. After nine years–I never knew that! We had more than enough to take to work the next day, plus I was able to freeze a container for later use.
On a side note, I just recently defrosted the Thai-Style Pork. I defrosted it in the microwave then added the container to a large sauce pan. I cooked the pork on medium heat and added about a cup of peanut butter to the sauce pan and about a half cup of water (eyeballed it). Continuously mixing, until the water and peanut butter mixed into the pork. I reduced the heat down to low and let it simmer in the sauce pan for another few minutes.
1. To prepare stew, trim fat from pork. Place pork, red bell pepper, teriyaki sauce, rice wine vinegar, crushed red pepper, and minced garlic in an electric slow cooker. Cover with lid, and cook on low-heat setting for 8 hours.
2. Remove pork from slow cooker, and coarsely chop. Add peanut butter to liquid in slow cooker; stir well. Stir in pork.
3. Combine stew and rice in a large bowl. Top each serving with onions and peanuts; serve with lime wedges.
My good friend Rachel introduced me to this recipe a few months ago. She got the recipe from her sister and so-on and so-forth. Rachel and her sister altered the recipe, and I’ve done the same as well. I’m not even sure of the real name to this recipe, but this is what I call it in my house.
I’m always looking for a great crock pot recipe, and this indeed is by far my favorite to date, I thought “salsa chicken” was amazing–think again! This recipe is super fresh in taste and does not lack flavor. I’ve made it at least 3 times since I first tried this recipe 2 months back, and I’ve even frozen and reheated containers. This will make a lot of food, and best of all you can eat it many different ways. The first night with rice, the second, as burrito’s or taco’s, for lunch shredded chicken nacho’s or even a quesadilla! It’s so flavorful and I don’t feel at all guilty when I eat this dish. I hope you will give this recipe a try and enjoy it just as much as I do!
1. In a crock pot place the chicken breast, drained black beans, vegetables, salsa, frozen corn, green chilies, and chili powder into the crock pot. Mix the wet ingredients on top and set the crock pot on low for 8 hours (or high for 4 hours).
2. Prior to serving, remove the chicken from the crock pot and shred with a fork. Add the chicken back to the crock pot and add the quarter cup minced cilantro, mix well. Serve with rice and a wedge of avocado and shredded cheese if desired.
While working on cleaning and organizing after the holidays my husband made me go through 3 massive stacks of cooking magazines that I had collected throughout the year. I can’t tell you how many magazines I browsed through, and then of course started tearing out recipes from! This just so happens to be one of the recipes I ripped out of a magazine!
Source: Family Circle, November 2010
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 7-1/2 hours on Low
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 lb chuck steak, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 medium-sized carrots, cut into1/4 thick coins OR 1 cup baby carrots
1 pkg (10 oz) cremini mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pkg (1lb) frozen pearl onions
1-1/2 cups low-sodium beef broth
3/4 cup dry red wine
3/4 tsp dried thyme
1 pkg gnocchi
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, toss together steak, flour and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and black pepper. Place steak in slow cooker with carrots, mushroms, garlic, onions, broth, red wine and 1/2 teaspoon thyme. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.
2. Remove lid and stir in the remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and dried thyme and the gnocchi. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes or until gnocchi is tender.
Most of my friends make there chili in the crockpot, so when a few of my friends heard that I’ve never made it in the crockpot and only on the stove they were all shocked! After that discussion I decided to look for a crock pot recipe so I could give it a try the way they do. Although, I’m not a huge fan of chili my husband is and with that being said he was more than happy with this recipe.
1 Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner {best way to not have to clean up a huge mess}
1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 cans (15oz.) red kidney beans, undrained
2 packages chili seasoning mix
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (10 oz.) diced tomatoes and green chiles
Cheese, green onions, and sour cream for topping
Directions:
1. Place a slow cooker liner snuggly in the crock pot bowl, and pull the top of the liner over the rim of the bowl.
2. Brown ground beef, bell pepper, and onion over medium-high heat in skillet, drain well. Add beef mixture into slow cooker (liner). Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl then add to beef; gently stir. Place lid on slow cooker, cooking on low for 6 to 7 hours or high for 3 to 3-1/2 hours until heated through. Serve immediately and top with cheese, sour cream, and green onions if desired.
I found this recipe through my local grocery stores weekly ad. In my efforts to cook more pork I figured I would give this easy crock pot recipe a try! Typically when I eat pork chops I normally have apple sauce on the side, so I figured it had to be just about the same… it was! Tasted exactly like pork chops and apple sauce… and even better I only had to do minimal work to achieve this great flavor. This is a great weekend recipe since you need to be by the crock pot while its cooking. Unfortunately, its not a set it and leave it all day until you come back from work type of recipe. It does require a little extra work on the cooks end, but I think you will be overall happy with the end result. **A few things I would do differently. No where on the recipe did it say to peel the apples… next time I would do that! The apples were just about mush by the time I was ready to serve {leaving all the skins scattered around the crock pot}! I would also only cook the apples on 1 hour high or 2 hours low… thus cooking the pork an extra hour before adding the apples. I would have liked to have the apples a little more in tact (that’s just me, but if you want it more like “apple sauce” then cook it as the directions are stated below). Other than that.. this recipe was a winner in my book! I paired this meal with rice, but you could probably pair it with just about anything. I took the extra pork out of the juice and saved it for the next day when I made a killer baked pork sandwich (recipe to come)! This is a great recipe to stretch into 2-3 additional meals! Enjoy!
3 medium tart green apples, peeled, and cut into wedges
4 celery ribs, chopped
1 boneless Boston butt pork roast (2-3lbs)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
3-1/2 cups apple juice
1 (12 oz) bottle poppy seed dressing
Directions:
1. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes. Place oil in pan, salt and pepper pork, then add pork to the pan; cook 2–3 minutes on each side or until well browned.
2. Transfer pork to slow cooker; add wedges of onions, chopped celery, apple juice, and poppy seed dressing. Cover and begin to cook on high for 2 hours (or Low for 3 hours).
3. Add peeled wedged apples; cook on high 1–2 more hours (or on Low for 3–4 more hours) or until 180°F (for slicing) or 190°F (for shredding).
4. Slice or shred pork; serve with apples and sauce.
I'm Katie Jasiewicz: home cook, food blogger, and recipe developer. I’ve always had a love for cooking, and more so in the past few years a love for eating!
Join me on a culinary adventure where life always tastes good. {more}
I'm Katie Jasiewicz: home cook, food blogger, and recipe developer. I’ve always had a love for cooking, and more so in the past few years a love for eating!
Join me on a culinary adventure where life always tastes good. 
