Best Slow Cooker Recipes

[LiJo]

This is a chicken stew, definitely not chicken soup!

Strictly from memories of my "I'm going to be a good wife if it kills me" days when I was first married.

Back then we only had the medium-size crock pot. (Since then, we've had a mongo-sized one for pot luck dinners for church, and we have a cute one but it only makes one meal for two people, and 50/50 on whether it will boil over the sides.) Also, there's just two of us, so we try to make one eat-tonight meal and one leftover meal. I don't remember if this gave extras for lunch at all.

Half a cup of dried egg noodles or pasta. (Put in first. That's really the thickening agent to make it a stew. If you don't add any more pasta at the end, there is no pasta when this is done. It completely dissolves.)

Six skinless chicken thighs. (Now they have boneless-skinless, which gives more room.)
Cut up to "stew-size."

Also cut up to stew-size the following:
3 stalks of celery
3 medium size carrots
1 large onion
Optional:
1 bell pepper
1-2 tomatoes.
mushrooms -- however much you like AND fits.
potatoes, but this includes pasta for a starch.

Add 2-3 large cloves of garlic, making sure that goes to the bottom of the pot, (so it cooks well.) Add 1-2 more cloves if you really like garlic in your food.

Throw it all in the crock pot as you're done slicing and/or dicing.

Add Mrs. Dash seasons to taste. (Back in the olden days, they had no Mrs. Dash, so I made it up depending on what dried herbs we had in the cupboard.) If you've got no Mrs. Dash, add whatever flavors you like. Chicken is bland on its own, so don't go stingey.

Add one cup of water.

Set it to automatic, so it heats as needed, but doesn't cook too hard through the day. If you're home, stir once every other hour. If you work, make sure you get the top ones to the bottom the second you get home, or they'll be very dry.

1-2 hours before eating it, add another half cup to a cup of water, depending on how much stew broth you have by then. (If you see none, add a cup. If the stew broth is way at the bottom and barely visible, add half a cup. The pasta/thicken agent uses up the juice and really condenses the flavor, so you'll want to get another broth going with whatever is left.) Stir thoroughly.

1 hour before eating, add enough egg noodles or pasta to make you happy. (Read directions on package, if you aren't knowledgeable about serving portions.) That will be the noodles in your stew. Stir every 15 minutes to make sure the noodles get the moisture and actually cook.

A must try!!! Thanks for the recipe!!

 

[Omni]

I've picked up tiny 3qt(L) slow cooker and my mom has passed on her big old 5qt(L) slow cooker when she found out I was interested and since hers was just lying around.

Thus I've been poking around trying to find delish, quick and healthy recipes that dont call for beans...
I've found in my search that most recipes call for a cream soup of some sort or ALL THE BEANS!!!
Its like two polar opposite ends, either fatty, cheesy and or creamy, or beans, lentils and covered in tomato sauce.

If you've got a winner of a recipe please pass it on, I cant wait to try it out!!

My own slow-cook Irish Lamb Stew recipe.

Serves about 4

Ingredients

2lbs of good, lean lamb, and some lamb bones
300g of good quality mushrooms of choice, chopped, sliced, whatever
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 medium sized, strong white onions, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium parsnips, chopped
4 - 6 large potatoes, diced (you want this to have about three quarters as much potato, as lamb)
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 small celery stick, quartered
6 - 8 tbsp good red wine (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon)
2 tbsp white wine vinegar, or tart white wine
250 ml Guinness
2 shots of Baileys
500ml of good vegetable stock
A few knobs of butter
2 heaped tsp smoked paprika
two sprigs of thyme
two sprigs of rosemary
A bay leaf
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
50g creamed cheese (or blue cheese if you're brave)

Method:

Saute the onion, garlic, carrot, parsnip, potatoes and mushrooms until the onion begins to go golden brown, then chuck it, along with everything else (except the cheese), into a slow cooker, stir through, and cook on low for about three or four hours, adding small amounts of water when necessary, if it gets too thick and dry. (You'll know it's ready when the potatoes are soft).

When it's ready, remove the bones and bay leaf, stir in the cheese, then serve with crusty bread. I like spreading salty, fatty, heart-attack inducing amounts of butter on it then making little folded sandwiches with the lamb and veg.

Yumm.