Slow Cooker Caramelized Chicken
My takeaway from this recipe? Sure ain’t pretty, and fairly sure mine didn’t “caramelize”, but it sure was delicious!
The pictures of this recipe from Skinny Ms. (see link at the bottom) look beautiful, so not sure what I did wrong to keep it from caramelizing. However, the flavors are so great that it was a keeper recipe anyway. It’s sweet and salty and layered, with a little kick from the cayenne. (Well, “little” depending on how much you put in…I’m a baby.)
It also is super fast and easy. The only down side is that cleaning my crockpot was insanely difficult afterward—I have a really old crockpot and it doesn’t have a removable piece. I’ve never used liners but might have to see if they make one for mine, because cleaning that was ridiculous. READ THE POST
My Own Personal Best Chili
Let’s be honest, chili is just an excuse to eat corn chips.
When the weather is cold, I always start getting the urge to make chili. Here’s the thing I realized this year, though. I’m much more into the *idea* of chili than in chili as its own thing.
I end up making a huge batch and then have gobs of chili leftovers, which I have to eat for a solid week to get through (yes, I realize I could freeze it, but I don’t like the texture when it’s thawed).
So once I year I make a big pot, a tradition I can’t seem to break. My recipe isn’t necessarily earth-shattering, but it’s delicious and mellow and hearty and comforting…it’s what I consider the best chili ever. READ THE POST
Easy Crockpot Beer Chicken
I rarely go in for crockpot cooking. Everyone waxes poetic about how easy it is, how much it saves your life, and how it’s basically the best thing since sliced bread. But I guess I just don’t get it.
I mean, I don’t hate crockpots. But I just haven’t had amazing luck with them. I mean, everything’s so…soggy. But every so often I run across a recipe that makes me want to give it another shot. I’d had this crockpot beer chicken recipe bookmarked for a while, and overall I really like it.
I do think it would be a little better with a darker beer (I tend toward stouts and darker beers like Negra Modelo), but I used something sitting in my fridge that I wasn’t going to be as likely to drink.
You could try my 10-second shredded chicken hack with this too!
The recipe didn’t call for any veggies, but I added them anyway. If you have the time, it would probably be better to add the zucchini and squash to the slow cooker more like a half-hour before you’re ready to serve, since then they’ll still retain some crunch—as it is, they were practically transparent and fairly mushy. I didn’t mind but I’d probably change that next time.
You can add whatever veggies you have around, it’s a super versatile recipe. I also cooked up some farro to use as a base for the recipe. It didn’t call for it, but it seemed a shame to waste all that tasty sauce. You can use anything you have on-hand—rice, quinoa, pasta, whatever.READ THE POST
Easy & Delicious Crockpot Balsamic Beef
Prepare yourselves, folks. My family came and visited me for a solid week, so we cooked and baked up a storm…so you’ll be inundated with recipes in the next couple weeks. We’ll start with this absolute gem, a flavorful and easy main dish that’s perfect for big groups (provided you make enough of course!). Behold, crockpot balsamic beef!
I’ll let you in on a secret…I’ve never liked roast. I find it weird and kind of blah usually. I do like my mom’s beer roast once in a while and I love barbecue beef, but otherwise it’s just not my thing.
When my nephew Reid was a little bubba, he’s famous for saying, “There’s two things in life I hate: Satan, and roast!” I feel ya, buddy…
I’ll make an exception for this crockpot balsamic beef, however. It was moist and chock full o’ flavor, and was way easier than I’d expected. In fact, it was probably the easiest, least time-consuming dish we made all week!READ THE POST
Crockpot Thai Peanut Chicken
It’s no secret that I love Thai food. Like, have-it-every-Saturday-night, they-know-my-takeout-order-by-my-voice kind of love.
But the thing about Thai food is that cooking it is dang hard. True, authentic Thai food has like 20 or 30 ingredients in it, many of them kind of hard to find or somewhat expensive at your regular grocery store. I’d made a couple stir fries, but was completely intimidated by the thought of doing real Thai cooking.
And to be honest, this isn’t authentic Thai. But it has several of the flavor elements, and it seemed like a good starting place.
The crockpot Thai peanut chicken recipe was fairly simple and was pretty good fresh. The leftovers weren’t as exciting, but overall a good first try.
Easy Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken
I’m not a huge fan of crockpots. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great for chili, potato soup, and rotel queso dip, but for actual dinner entrees I’ve never understood the appeal. But my dinner diet of prepared ravioli and sauteed kale needed a little shake-up.
The key was finding a good crockpot recipe to test that sounded good and didn’t utilize ingredients like cream-based can soups and cream cheese—those just aren’t things I like to put in my body when I can avoid it. Since I love Asian food, this recipe was intriguing and didn’t call for all sorts of crazy ingredients.