Slow Cooker (Crock Pot) Recipes?
 

I rely on my slow cooker a lot as I am gone from 7.30am - 6pm Monday to Friday and I want to try some new recipes.

Got any favorites that a young family will like?

No I don't have any recipes, only questions. My wife and I are shopping for a crockpot/slowcooker. From what I gather Crockpot is a brand name. Mother in law says get a crockpot, not a slowcooker, because a slowcooker is a pot sitting on a hot plate, while a crockpot has the heating elements on the bottom, and the side. Why do the heating element need to be on the side? Doesn't heat rise? So I saw a Crockpot brand in the store the other day, and it said slowcooker right on the package. What's up with that?

We dont have crockpots over here....just slow cookers.

A slow cooker usually has a removable ceramic casserole dish that slides into an outer casing with elements on the bottom.

I havent seen them with elements up the sides, but you wouldnt want one with those anyways.

My greatest advice is...DONT get one thats too big for your family! Bigger isnt necessarily better unless you plan to make large quantities and freeze the massive amount of leftovers.

Mine has a low, high and auto settings...which I like. The Auto heats everything up really quickly, then clicks onto low and stays like that until you turn it off.

I know you could get crockpots over here in the 70's. Aren't they available anymore?

I don't do that sort of cooking much, so I don't have any good recipies.

Hmmmm...what am I doing in this thread?

Crock-Pot (tm) is a brand name of slow-cooker. Rival makes 'em.

The recipe thread has a slow-cooker recipe for Boston baked beans from scratch.

For many years, Mable Hoffman (that's how she spells it) ruled the slow-cooker Earth. Now some competitors are composing their own slowcookbooks.

The array of heating elements probably has to do with trying to make the heat distribution more even, and a bigger array of elements would speed the time the cooker comes to full heat. A ceramic crock liner is an easy thing to wash, but it's a lousy conductor of heat.

I'll be able to give you a few recipes in a few days DucksNuts since I have many "country" friends that hunt and they are very good with croc pot cooking. I am bringing one up next year so I don't have to constantly eat dorm food and I've been meaning to ask, thanks for giving me the motivation.

In order to know what not to suggest, we need to know what you've already been a-cookin' in yours, ducks ...

no favorites really, but I'm working on grouping recipes on my del.icio.us account. Here are my crockpot entries:

http://del.icio.us/Violet.West/recipes:crockpot

The removable ceramic crock is key... someone left an old fashioned one with veal scallopini in it after a party at my house once. I was scarred for life by the cleaning process.
I don't use mine very often but I like it - has hi and low settings and hour buttons (2,4,6 and 8 I think) and it switches to warm when the designated hours are up.
I usually just put meat and veggies in it... ex. a bottom round roast with potatoes, onions, carrots... or a couple pork tender loins with sauerkraut... a roaster hen with rosemary and potatoes etc...

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two: For the Small Slow Cooker

THE best 2 cookbooks for explaining crock pots, which to buy, crock pot cookery basics (don't use dairy, what will freeze well etc. ), with recipes you'll actually eat.

I'll check those out! I have a cookbook I bought a while back, but a distressingly large number of the recipes involved actual cooking. For example, take some chicken parts and brown them, then put them in the crock pot with . . . wait WTF?? If you have to brown the chicken, what's the point in the crock pot? However beef stew always worked well.

because browning improves the flavor and texture.

I do chilli con carne, lasagna, meat n vegies (stew type stuff), corned beef, spiced chicken, curried sausages and last nite a Baked Rice Pudding (awesome!!).

SD - I have recipes that require browing, but I dont bother.

Thanks for the links guys, I will check them out :)

I live out of my little 1.5 qt slow cooker (12 volt!)

I have learned to cook alomst anything from meat to potatoes to soup to mac n cheese (NOT easy!).

I invent my own recipes but you likely do not like hobo food.

Brian

I'd give hobo food a go Brian :D

I understand that, but it defeats the purpose of minimal prep time and effort. (At least that's MY purpose in using the crock pot.)

With baked beans, that you parboil them at the beginning of a six-hour cooking process hardly matters, time- or effortwise. Presoak beans, no effort; parboil them, hardly any.

Stew, though, is highly reliable. Things-in-a-sauce recipes also.

Crock-pot Chicken and Dumplin's

2 to 4 cans cream of chicken soup (depends on the size of your crockpot)
chicken breasts - enough to feed your family
Bisquick

Turn the crockpot on low. Add the soup and whisk it around a bit.
Add the same number of cans of hot water and mix it up well. Remember to leave room in the crockpot for the dumplings.
Add ground pepper to taste. Add the chicken. Cover and leave.

When you return home, mix up dumplings according to the recipe on the side of the Bisquick box. Drop globs of this into the crockpot. They will expand quite a bit. When they firm up a bit, they're done - about 5 minutes.

This is a good quick dinner on a cold day.

Having recently purchased a new slow cooker, I have one major piece of advice ... buy the bigger one.

Why do you say that wolf?

Experience.

What you want to make does not fit in the little one, but you try anyway, and then it boils over onto your counter, and you have to spend an hour trying to scour the burnt mess off the inside of the heating element part.

Ohhhh, ok.

I have a huge one and everything I make looks woeful in the bottom, and doesnt taste as good as when I make a huge big batch and it comes half way up the sides.

ALWAYS make a huge-big-batch. Freeze the leftovers in package-sizes that make sense to your household. Home-made TV dinners are SO much nicer ...

The only crock pot recipe I can ever remember off the top of my head:

Crock Pot Chicken Curry

1-2 lbs. chicken, chopped
1 16-oz. jar of mild salsa
1/2 to 1 TBS curry powder, as preferred
1 8-oz. container sour cream

Mix together chicken, salsa, and curry in crock pot. Cook on High 4-5 hours or Low 8-10 hours. Just before serving, mix a small amount of hot liquid from the crock pot into the sour cream, then add sour cream mixture to the crock pot and stir well. (The first step greatly helps the sour cream combine smoothly.) I personally cut back on the curry and add some garam masala or other Indian spices, but above is how I originally learned it.

Here are the 591 search results for slow cooker on Chow Hound

http://www.chow.com/search?search%5B...ooker&x=47&y=8

I have your recipe in the slow cooker today Clod :D

Thanks Harry!

Damn, that's big!! It just came from the library. I'll have to pick something out to try while Mrs. Dallas is away.

Yeah, I got that one ...For Two at the library first, bought it on amazon later. Most books I've bought have origianlly been from the library first.

So how was it?

I used to just put a whole chicken, carrots, very small creamer potatoes, fresh ground pepper, little kosher salt, white wine, a couple of kinds of mushrooms (dried shitakies do really well in this), fresh rosemary, fresh basil and dried oregano in with enough unsalted chicken broth (water works fine) to reach 1/2-way up the chicken (it makes more as the fat cooks off the chicken.
When you are done, drain the liquid into a large sauce pan and reduce, make gravy out of that an put that on some rice, and the chicken if you like.
The chicken will fall off the bone.
You can also do this with a roast, beef ribs, or rack of ribs... hell, just about anything really.
You don't have to make the gravy if you don't want and can change or leave out the spices as you like.
Use very little salt, add more when you are done to taste.
I don't use celery for long cooking, does not agree with me for some reason, you can if you like.

You can add egg noodles or rice near the end and turn it up if you like.

This was a staple of mine in college.

I have a crock pot big enough for a turkey. It is amazing.

Its only 3pm Clod, not quite time yet. Its been on since 7am though.

I know mine is pretty normal, but it was always a favorite of mine. Really good with ham.

Thanks for that RK. I do corned beef and legs of lamb in the slow cooker all the time.

The kids gobble it up as its so tender.

I just got done making shredded beef in my crock pot and plan on making it many times this coming year.

1 pound of stew meat
1 can of French Onion in beef broth
Thick hamburger buns

Dump both in the crock pot and cook for five to six hours on high or 10-12 on low (assuming the heating is the same), then take the stew beef out and shred it with two forks then either serve or put it back in the juice to soak for a few minutes longer. Put the shredded beef on the thick hamburger buns (it will soak through the cheap ones instantly) and enjoy. You can mix with BBQ sauce as well if you want.

Best shredded beef I've had in my life.

MMMMMMMMM Hobo food