Easy BBQ Pulled Pork - Crockpot

Do you ever go digging around deep in your freezer, and way in the back you find a hunk of frozen meat you should probably use up soon?  Well I found a very nicely sealed pork butt (I believe they come in a pack of three at Costco) and it had been in the freezer for an undisclosed amount of time. It was a long enough time that I had totally forgotten how I had cooked the first two). Not to let a good thing go to waste, I went searching online for the best way to use this cut of meat, and decided to try out the best looking recipe I could find for you.  Needless to say it was easy, cooked all day in the crock pot, and pulled apart quite easily -  all saucy and yummy  and ready to pile up on fluffy slider buns.

BBQ pulled pork in the crock pot - YUM

You only need of few common ingredients that you probably already have on hand. I found this recipe here.

Ingredients:
1 (4 lb) pork butt
2 cups of chopped celery
1 onion chopped (or half bag frozen onions) 
1 cup of Ketchup
1 cup of BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder (optional - did not use)
1 tsp of seasoned salt and pepper to taste 

Start dumping things into a crock pot: 2 cups of chopped celery and 1 chopped onion

 Next add a cup of ketchup and a cup of BBQ sauce (your favorite)

Next add in 1/2 cup of water, the garlic powder, chili powder, seasoned salt and black pepper to taste.

It always feels better if you put a few fresh ingredients in

Stir that around until you get an official looking "sauce"

Hey!  That's looking promising

Place the thawed pork butt in the crock pot and push some of the sauce over it.

Cook on low in the crock pot all day 7-8 hours until you can pull the meat apart with a fork.

I jabbed it with a fork there at the top and could see it was ready for shredding.

It should shred easily and this cut of meat has very little fat, but I pulled the pork out on the plate and skimmed off any undesirables from the sauce before putting the meat back into the pot and shredding it.

Smokey, tangy, juicy BBQ pork heaven.

It shreds very easily and the sauce gets incorporated throughout all of the meat as soon as you start stirring.  Do a little taste test here.  If it needs more seasoned salt, or a little extra straight BBQ sauce, this would be the time to do it. 

Next, pile up some BBQ meat on a soft little slider bun. The beauty of sliders is that you can have more than one! Any party that has tiny sandwiches is a win win in my book.

BBQ pork sliders!  Easy party food!

After that the work is all done.  Keep the crock pot on low to keep the meat warm, and let the guests serve themselves. This works great for a large gathering, and this recipe easily doubles if you are serving a bigger crowd.

BBQ pork sliders - makes a fun meal

This also works great on a regular week night just feeding the family.  Throw things in the crock pot in the morning, and return to deliciousness at dinner time.

I like my meat to slider ratio - equal parts meat and soft bun

Everybody seems to love these little babies.  It also makes great left overs (if you have any, that is). Store the meat in a plastic container and save a couple of extra slider buns and take it to work for a fun lunch. 

 
Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Casserole - (5 ingredients)

Well it feels like everyone is heading back to school and getting adjusted to their new fall schedules. If you are anything like me, you are always on the lookout for a few new recipes you that can throw in the crock pot (last minute) in the morning and come back to a home-cooked meal at the end of a busy day. Well look no further because I found an easy, 5-ingredient winner! Behold the slow cooker (crock pot) Chicken Enchilada Casserole.

Easy chicken enchiladas in the crock pot

 
Printable recipe found on my site here

You will only need 5 ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breasts (thawed, or frozen)
1 large (28 oz) can of red enchilada sauce (we did mild)
3 cups of shredded cheese divided in half
1 can sliced olives or buy a regular can and cut up your own
10 corn tortillas cut into strips 

(by the way I found this recipe here) and will be testing more recipes for you very soon.

Plop your chicken breasts into the crock pot sprayed with a little cooking spray. You can have them thawed, or like me plunk them in completely frozen.

You only need about 3 Costco breasts, because they are so big.

Dump in the entire can of red enchilada sauce.

So nice and easy when you are in a rush in the morning getting out the door

That's it for now!  The rest you will add an hour before serving.  Set on slow cook for 4-8 hours (I would recommend closer to 8 hours for the frozen breasts). 

Now you're back home from a busy day of running around.  Your house will smell amazing by the way, and you'll want to shred the chicken with two forks right in the sauce.  Also I tend to scoop out each breast, remove any fat that bubbled up during the cooking process and sort of skim the sauce for any fat chunks.

This slow cooked chicken is super tender and shreds so easily

You just want a nice sauce and lovely shredded chicken before proceeding.

Yummy!

Cut the 10 corn tortillas (we did white corn, but you can also do yellow corn).  

 

These are the 5 inch corn tortillas.

Add the strips to the pot with 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese (we did a cheddar/jack mix) and half the sliced olives.

The tortilla strips save you the time of rolling individual enchiladas the old fashioned way

Stir around gently until fully combined. Add a little seasoning salt here to taste if you wish, then pat the mixture down until it resembles an oval casserole in the bottom of the crock pot. 

Press down slightly to make a casserole shape in the bottom of the pot

Top with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese and the rest of the sliced olives.

Cover with the lid and cook for 1 more hour until cheese is all golden and melty, and the enchilada sauce is bubbling up from underneath.

Crock pot enchiladas, I think I love you!

Gratuitous close up shot of bubbling sauce through the cheese.

Somebody grab a fork

All that's left to now is scoop it up on a plate!  

Cheesy, awesome, get in my belly!

Serve with chips, lettuce, olives, sour cream, salsa, and some fruit.

This was an instant family favorite!

Delicious, hot and gooey, and tons of flavor and a real crowd pleaser.

I say crowd pleaser because i made three extra containers for the leftovers (they make great lunches for work or school the next day) but alas, I went back and they were arleady all gone!  Apparently I need to make this again really soon.. and so should YOU!

Enjoy.

Upside Down Chicken Pot Pie

Need an easy family meal everyone will love?  Well I have one that I wanted to pass it along. Not to mention it has a snappy name that just might make your kids want to eat it! It started when a friend posted a picture on Facebook of a chicken n' dumpling recipe.  It looked delicious, only I've never been a fan of how slimy biscuit dough can get when you cook it in a hot liquid. I mean, come on now, the BEST part of a biscuit is it's golden flaky brown crust, am I right?  So if you're gonna have carbs, you might as well do them up right. So I did some modifications of my own and came up with: Upside Down Chicken Pot Pie.

The best part of this meal is that most of it can cook all day in a crock pot and be all smelling fantastic and waiting for you to come waltzing in your door after your busy day.  Pop in some refrigerated biscuits in the oven (or from scratch if you are so inclined), and by the time the table is set, dinner is ready.  Ingredients you will need for your recipe are as follows:

4 Chicken breasts (thawed - frozen would work too with longer cooking time)
1 diced onion (or bag of frozen chopped onions)
2 celery stalks chopped
2-3 carrots cut in rounds
1 15 oz can corn
1 large (23 oz) family sized can of cream of chicken soup
1 32 oz box chicken broth (I used Rachael Ray)
Salt, pepper, and dried parsley to taste

(full printable recipe at the end of the post)


Pour the large cream of chicken soup in chopped onion, celery, carrots and the can of corn in the bottom of the crock pot.
 

You can tailor the veggies to your liking.  Add frozen peas the last hour of cooking if you wish.

Next, pour in about half the box of Rachel Ray chicken stock and stir everything around.  (Note: I did not use the whole box for four chicken breasts.  If you have more chicken to add (or a larger family), you can add as much or as little stock liquid as you would like for the consistency you want.  The end result is the sauce should be about the thickness of a stew, not a soup)

 Drop in the chicken breasts and make sure they are covered in the "sauce"

Adding the chicken in.  I pushed them down after this picture was taken.

Cook on low in the crock pot for six hours.  After six hours, pull chicken out of the pot and chop up into bite sized chunks on a plate.

Add the chopped chicken back into the pot, stir, and let all the flavors meld and incorporate. Add salt, pepper, or dried parsley at this time.

Now bake up a quick pan of your favorite biscuits until they are fluffy and golden brown.

By now your house should smell like heaven.

While the biscuits are still warm, split them open on a plate and top with a pat of butter.

Mmmm melted butter on a hot bun.  Hello comfort food.

After that, lovingly spoon over a heapin' helpin' of the chicken pot pie mixture.  Serve with fruit, a green salad, and you've got an easy winner winner chicken dinner.

Upside Down Chicken Pot Pie

I'm not gonna lie here people. This was so so SO good. The kids ate it up.  It made for great left overs too.  I stored the extra pot pie filling by itself in microwave-safe container, and wrapped the biscuits separately.  I sent hubby to work with an "upside down chicken pot pie" kit and he could heat and assemble at work at will.

I was trying to figure out the differences between chicken n dumplings, chicken n' biscuits, and my new and improved upside down chicken pot pie.  In my research to make the first two, I kept reading comments about the dumplings being "raw" or soggy in the middle. In the case of chicken n biscuits, (in which you cook the biscuit dough on top of the pot pie sauce), the number one complaint was soggy biscuit bottoms.  Well have soggy bottoms no more!

Upside down chicken pot pie... it's a win win for flavor town!

I think we've found the perfect solution on how to add those delicious, home-style chicken pot pie flavors, with those fully cooked golden buttery flaky biscuits that every one loves.  All we had to do was flip everything upside down!!  Full printable recipe can be found by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Easy Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce

I know some of you probably have a fancy 100% from scratch spaghetti meat sauce, but this next recipe is an old family favorite (from my mom Cathy) that absolutely everybody loves.  From little kids, aunts and uncles, neighbors wandering by... everyone.  Hearty and easy enough for a weeknight, and tasty enough for any important weekend company to boot.  It makes a ton and extras are great to freeze and use for other dishes (lasagna, chicken Parmesan, etc).  Technically speaking we are going to doctor up a store bought sauce (gasp, the scandal), but we are going to add some of our own ingredients too, and that will give it a much fuller flavor.

Our family's favorite spaghetti

It cooks low and slow in the crock pot all day and makes the house smell fabulous. Serve with homemade french bread and a green salad and you have one of the best dinners known to man. So here is what you will need: (Free printable recipe at the end of the post)

2 lbs lean ground beef
1 onion chopped (or 1/2 bag of frozen chopped onions)
1 large (4lb 3 oz) jar of Prego spaghetti sauce
1 regular sized (24oz) jar of Prego Sauce (they recently made jar sizes smaller)
2 cans of Italian stewed tomatoes 
1 small can of tomato paste
2-4 freshed chopped tomatoes (optional)
2 Tablespoons of sugar
salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste


Cook up your 2 lbs of ground beef with 1 chopped onion (or 1/2 a bag of frozen chopped onions) and drain.

While the meat is cooking down, get out your canned stewed tomatoes and paste.  

Drain the cans then pour into the bottom of a 6 quart crock pot/roaster oven.  Add the tomato paste as well.

Italian stewed tomatoes are huge, so I tend to try and break them up into smaller bite-sized bits before I add anything else.  Once the meat and onions are cooked and drained pour them on top of the tomatoes.

makin' the sauce MEATY

If you have some fresh tomatoes feel free to chop a few up and throw them in there.  We loved using up tomatoes from our garden this summer for this very sauce.

After that dump in your one large plus one regular sized cans of Prego sauce.  Seriously, it can't be another sauce.  This one has the best flavor.  Also they recently reduced the size of the jars (but of course charged the same price), and you want to make as much sauce as possible if you are going to go to all the trouble, right?

Prego... it's in there...

Pour that in and stir around gently to mix everything together.  Add salt, pepper, any other spices you like, and here's a little secret my mom doesn't do, I add a few spoonfuls of white sugar to counteract all the acid in the tomatoes.  Its just mellows it out a tiny bit and doesn't sweeten it like you'd think.

Mmmmm Saucy....

Next it just needs to cook on low for at least 6 hours or so, longer is just fine too, up to 8 hours.  If you have one of those new "too hot crock pots" (see rant here) it might try to boil the snarf out of it.  That's why I love my new temperature controlled roasting oven so much.  Don't let the sauce boil up too much during the day, it will get a bit runny.  Low and slow is the key.  If you do come back and there is too much liquid on the surface I have been known to make a little slurry of cornstarch and warm water in a small bowl and pour it in there the last 30 minutes to tighten it up.  You also want to go ahead and taste it again and add any last minute seasonings before serving.  Speaking of serving, we are not ones to mix our noodles in with our sauce.  We are of the philosophy of putting noodles on the plate then scoop out a generous portion of sauce lovingly on the top and let it flow down over the sides like a hot lava meat mountain. MMmmmmm Yum!

The best spaghetti sauce!  We love it.

Sprinkle a bit of Parmesan cheese over the top and you're good to go.  Serve with some veggies or a salad to round out the meal. Our personal favorite thing to do is make homemade french bread topped with creamy butter, to help sop up any wayward sauce lingering about (recipe coming next, stay tuned).  

So that's it.  Nothing earth shattering here.  Just a quick, easy, and very VERY tasty sauce the whole family loves.  Enjoy!  Printable recipe found here.

Crockpot Korean BBQ Beef Short Ribs

I had this old rival crock pot cookbook, and it had this picture of a Korean BBQ Beef short rib recipe that looked delicious.  It was so yummy looking that it was just taunting me to try it.  So I think to myself, does it use a crock pot?  Hooray. Check.  Do I like Korean BBQ?  Hmmm... Not sure. But I do like Asain flavors like garlic, ginger, and soy sauce, so that's a plus.  Do I like beef short ribs? I don't know, I've never tried them.  So after two years of staring at this picture every time I flipped through the recipes I was finally compelled to try it.  Like right now!  What better time to make it then but under the guise of a "new recipe attempt" for my 31 nights of different dinners in January.

Korean BBQ Beef short ribs

Here is what you will need (full printable recipe at the end)

4 to 4 1/2 lbs beef short ribs
1/4 cup chopped green onions with tops
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup beef broth or water
1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted

First, I went on a quest for beef short ribs.  I had to try several different stores before I even found them (Winco).  They look a little strange as they are square cuts of beef with the bone still in them.  The package I found was only around 3 lbs but since I was not cooking for that many, it worked out ok for us.  The original recipe calls for 4-4 1/2 lbs. Place the beef short ribs in the bottom of the crock pot

This is my first attempt cooking a recipe with these bad boys. It's hip to be square...

By the way, do NOT confuse these with something called Korean short ribs, sometimes called Kalbi or "Flanken" ribs, which are flat and long with the bones still in them.

With a Jedi wave of my hand I say "these are not the ribs you are looking for"....

Now that the fat stubby square short ribs are in the crock pot, it is time to work on the sauce.  Chop up 1/4 cup of green onions (I did a little bit more) and toss them in the bowl.

I saved a few of the tips for a fancy garnish at the end

Add 1/4 cup soy sauce

They also said you could add tamari (fancier soy sauce) but I used regular soy sauce since I had it on hand

Add 1/4 cup beef broth

They said you could also use plain water but I would go with beef broth for the flavor factor

Next add 1 tablespoon of packed brown sugar

sugar sugar... aw honey honey

Then add 2 teaspoons of minced garlic.

Took my little garlic zoom for a spin.  I still love that lil' gadget!

After that add 2 teaspoons of fresh minced ginger (or 1 teaspoon of ground ginger) and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

Spices... they are the "spice" of life.  Deep thoughts.

Okay, stir that around until combined.

Then dump the mixture over your waiting beef short ribs

I was worried this would not be enough flavor or sauce, but the meat cooks down and makes a broth as it slow cooks.

Turn your roasting oven or old crock pot to low or around 200º and cook all day about 7-8 hours on low.  If you have a newfangled too hot crock pot join my revolution and throw it out the window and go get a roasting oven where you can control the temperatures the old fashioned way (see blog about that here).

After 7 or 8 hours on low, the meat should be falling off the bones.  This is a good sign.  You want to pull the meat out of the liquid and set it on a plate.

The meat was so tender it literally slipped off the bones

Let the meat cool slightly and then trim and discard all bones and excess fat.  Cut the rib meat into bite-sized pieces and leave on the plate.

Mmmm meat.  This reminded me a lot of the texture and taste of roast beef.

Let the cooking liquid in the crock pot stand five minutes (the same five minutes you are chopping up the meat into chunks) and allow the fat to rise.  Skim the fat off the liquid and discard.  Now you want to add 2 teaspoons of Asian sesame oil to the liquid.

This will really give the sauce a great flavor

 Add the meat back into the sauce and mix to combine.

Feel free to taste the meat here.  Add more salt, pepper, seasonings to taste.  I also added a few more dashes of soy sauce

Cover and heat the meat and sauce back up for 15-30 minutes until the flavors meld.  During this time make some white rice and toast up your sesame seeds.  You can buy sesame seeds already toasted (in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores) or you can buy plain sesame seeds (located in the spice/baking section of most stores) and toast them yourself.  I had never done it before so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  Put 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds in a dry small frying pan.

Turn the heat on medium and keep an eye on the pan.  Shake or stir them up every once in a while.  They will start to turn a golden brown color.

They can go from golden brown to burnt quickly so once you get a golden color pull them off the heat and let them cool.

After that it's time to assemble your dish.  Put down a scoop or two of white rice.  Top with the lovely meat and sauce mixture.  Top with sesame seeds and you are done.  For an extra fancy presentation, add a few extra diced green onions or some slender onion tops just for show.

My first attempt at Korean BBQ beef short ribs over rice

This turned out really good!  Beef short ribs are a bit of a cheaper cut of meat, making this an affordable family meal, and the Asian seasonings really made this dish a winner.  Hubby rather enjoyed it as well, and was very pleased it had made the 31 nights of different dinners menu.  It also made great leftovers to take to work the next day.  Full printable recipe found here.  Enjoy!