Spicy Slow Cooked Chicken

"Do you have anything earth shattering to say about dinner, Brian?"
"It was earth shattering!"

I think he's humoring me. Anyways, it was good! Let's talk about it.

I've had a package of chicken thighs hanging out in my freezer for a while - I was afraid they were reaching the end of the time which they would be tasty right out of the fridge, so I decided to use them in a crock pot dish. The slow cooking takes away the toughness that can come with overfreezing - so, into the crock pot! I'm not just a crock pot cooker, but Mondays are great for these dishes, since I can come home and plop on the couch while dinner finishes cooking.

Spicy Slow Cooked Chicken

1 yellow onion, chopped roughly
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped roughly
1.5 pounds of chicken, trimmed of fat
1/2 cup of chicken broth
Package of Fajita Seasoning*
8-10 white or crimini mushrooms, quartered

Combine all ingredients, except the mushrooms in a crockpot over low heat. Leave over low heat for 7-10 hours. Add the mushrooms and cook for another hour, increasing to high heat if there is excess liquid. Serve with tortillas or over corn chips, garnishing with salsa, cheese and sour cream.

Fajita Seasoning

If you don't have a packet of seasoning, but you do have way too many spices like us, you can use this recipe. Just combine and then shake over the ingredients in the crockpot.

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1.5 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon chicken granules/chicken bouillon
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (less if you don't like spice)
dash cumin
dash red pepper flakes

Crockpot Pulled Pork

When Brian and I moved in together last July, one of the first "new" things I got for our place was a crock pot. I found it for $5 on craiglist, and I think it's been a stellar investment. I've heard that newer crock pots cook faster than older crock pots... which sort of defeats the purpose of a slow cooker? In any case, mine looks like it's from the early 80s with an ugly floral pattern on the outside. It's a little small and a kind of pain to clean, but I luvz it anyways. If I ever want to get a bigger one, I'll look first for a used, old one.

I've mostly used the crockpot for overnight oatmeal (water, steel cut oats, spices, raisins... overnight... low heat... breakfast... yay), but since I've started working, I've also been looking for more meals I can cook throughout the day and have pretty much done when I get home. I've made a good turkey chili, an okay beef burgundy... and today, I tried pulled pork barbeque. That was redonkulously easy. This is not the Eastern NC barbeque that we know and love, though I think we could adapt this if we found a good vinegar sauce. Instead, it's more of a Western NC barbeque... all sweet and tomatoy. Since there are so few ingredients in this, be sure to use a barbeque sauce that you like a lot - what we used today was less spicy and more sweet than Brian and I like - next time, we'll definitely try something else.

This is based on a recipe that called for a 3-4 pound piece of pork, but I've adjusted it down for the size of my crockpot and for how much we could reasonably eat over a few days - this should double easily.

[For those of you without crockpots... I think you could use a dutch oven or heavy pot, cooked over very very low heat or in a low oven for a few hours. No guarantees on that, though!]

Pulled Pork Barbeque
~2 pounds pork top loin, trimmed of excess fat
1/2 onion, chopped roughly
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
9 oz barbeque sauce of choice (1/2 regular-sized bottle)

Combine all the ingredients in the crock pot and put the crock pot on low heat. Walk away for 6-8 hours.

Increase the heat to high for the last hour or so. Remove the meat from the crock pot and place in a bowl. Take two forks and start pulled the pork apart - it should fall apart easily. If it doesn't, put it back in the crock pot for another hour or so. Keep the pulled meat moist and warm in the crock pot while serving.

You can serve this on hamburger buns, but we just had ours with some corn bread and lima beans. Easy peasy.