Spicy Crock Pot Chicken

This was a delicious recipe I choose for the Australian/New Zealand recipe swap on Recipezaar. It was really easy, except for me cutting my finger while chopping the onion! The meat turned out tender and juicy.

I used 4 large bone-in chicken breasts (I saved 2 for a curry) instead of a whole chicken because that's what I had and I figured it would work just fine. For maximum flavour, marinate overnight.

Whole Chicken Crock Pot Recipe

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 large roasting chicken
1 cup onion, chopped

1. Combine spices in a small bowl.
   
2. Remove giblets from chicken and clean thoroughly. Pat dry with paper towel.
3. Rub spice mixture over chicken. cover with plastic wrap or place in a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight.
4. When ready to cook, chop onion and place in bottom of crock pot.
5. Add chicken.
6. There is no need to add liquid, there is plenty of liquid that will come from the chicken and you can even make gravy from it!
   
7. Cook on low for 4-8 hours (depending on your crock pot).

Creamy Chicken and Crescent Rolls

Yesterday the cough I had became a full-blown cold. I was very sore and didn't feel like moving. I was planning to do the crock pot dinner I was going to do Wednesday. My boyfriend ended up putting it all together and throwing it in the crock put. He's not a cook, a fact he admits himself, and this was a very simple recipe, one he couldn't really mess up!

I was really disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to make the crescent roll recipe I found. I took some pain medicine and it really made a difference. I felt up to making the rolls. One problem...we ran out of milk! I had already put the yeast in the water to proof. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it! I ended up getting rid of it because it was 2 hours before I was able to get some milk and the yeast started to have a fishy smell to it. I found out later I could have added a bit of flour to the yeast, but I didn't know at the time and I had to start fresh. This recipe made A LOT of dough! The recipe said the woman uses bread flour, but I wonder how it would turn out with regular all-purpose flour. I might try that next time since the recipe itself doesn't state the type of flour. I divided it into 12 balls of 165g each. Now I know I'm still in the US and we don't use metric much, but I'm finding that it is much more practical and easy to do division in metric. I rolled out one ball and wrapped the rest in saran wrap and put them in a freezer bag for later. I am able to get 4 rolls out of each ball, I figure two rolls each is a good amount. Unfortuntely, we ended up having these as a snack because I didn't get to make them in time for dinner.

The crescent rolls were a great snack later on because neither one of us ate much of the dinner. The meal was very watered down and we could see the fat on top of it. Also, there wasn't much taste to the potatoes. The chicken tasted good, but the skin was just so fatty. I also think it would taste better if the potatoes were in smaller chunks instead of quarters. They didn't really get much of the taste of the soup in it. I think I might try this again with less water because I can see how it has potential to taste really good.

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

4 chicken thighs
4 red potatoes, quartered
3½ ounces mushrooms
10 ounce condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
2 cups water (I'm going to leave out this next time)
1 tablespoon minced onions
salt
pepper

1. Put ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for about 6 hours or until potatoes are tender and chicken is falling off the bone.
   

Crescent Rolls
½ ounce yeast
½ cup sugar
1 cup warm water
1 cup milk, scalded (heated 2 minutes in microwave)
3 eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon salt
7 cups flour

1. Dissolve the yeast in water with one tablespoon sugar.
2. Let stand for 5-10 minutes or until yeast is dissolved and mixture is frothy.
3. Combine milk, butter, salt, and remaining sugar in a large mixing bowl.
4. Add 2 cups of flour and mix well.
5. Add the yeast mixture and eggs, beat well.
6. Slowly add the rest of the flour until a soft dough forms.
7. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
8. Knead on a lightly floured surface and place in a large, greased bowl.
   
9. Cover and let rise until doubled.
10. Punch down and divide the dough.
    
11. Roll and use a pizza cutter to slice into small triangles.
12. Starting with the large end, roll into crescent shapes.
13. Place rolls on a cookie sheet, cover, and let rise for an additional hour. Be sure to leave plenty of space between the rolls to allow room to rise.
    
14. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°F until golden brown.

Simple Crock Pot Roast Beef

Today I decided to to a roast dinner since I had the day off from work. I was busy all weekend so didn't really cook. I heard that roast beef in the crock pot is supposed to be really juicy and tender, so I thought I'd give it a go. I found a simple recipe on my trusty ol' Recipezaar and got to work.

Easiest Pot Roast Ever

The meat was very tender. I got nervous about the amount of water the recipe called for, especially with the bullion cubes, so I added about an extra cup. I shouldn't have done that and won't do it next time. The only thing Lee and I felt was missing was some garlic or pepper, which we both like in roast beef. I added some garlic powder and ground white pepper. My boyfriend would like for me to use less onion next time, so I'll probably just use half an onion.

The other negative to this dinner was I really was looking forward to making Yorkshire Puddings since I love them and we haven't had them in a while. I forgot to buy eggs, so no puds. :-(

Not So Spicy Chicken and Mashed Potatoes

Today was just not my day cooking wise. I wanted to bake some chocolate chip cookies, but I'm trying to clean my oven and the Easy Off is sitting on it. I was cooking some chicken in the crock pot and I remembered to turn it on, but not plug it in. To top it all off, I forgot to turn on the burner when I was trying to make the mashed potatoes.

It all ended up ok in the end. I got the recipe for South of the Border Chicken from the chicken I cooked yesterday. I figured it would be spicy. Last time I made the mashed potatoes, they were spicy, so I was expecting a spicy meal. I guess we don't always get what we expect.

The meal was good, but last time I made the mashed potatoes, I didn't have any hot sauce, so I put in some red pepper flakes. This time I had some hot sauce, but didn't know how hot it was and didn't put in as much as the recipe called for. They weren't spicy at all. The chicken wasn't even spicy, and it smelled like it would be very hot...Next time I'll add some more pepper to the chicken and hot sauce to the potatoes.

South of the Border Chicken (from Perdue)


1 Oven Stuffer Roaster (I used two bone-in, skin on chicken breasts)
1 tbsp cumin
6 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp Kosher salt

1. Put chicken in the crock pot. If using whole chicken, remove giblets first.
2. Sprinkle cumin, garlic, pepper, and salt over chicken.
   
3. Cook for 8-9 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high (times are for whole chicken)

I think I already posted the recipe for the Mexican Mashed Potatoes.

Hopefully I'll have better luck with the cooking tomorrow. At least my oven is clean now!

Roast Chicken

Since he does the clean up, my boyfriend had asked me if I could cook chickens in aluminum foil to make the clean up easier on him. I didn't think it would work very well because there would be no browning and didn't know how the drippings for gravy would work out either. When we were in England for Christmas, I saw a Delia Smith episode where she cooked her turkey completely wrapped in aluminum foil and still was able to use the drippings for her gravy. I figured if Delia could do it, I could do it!
I spread a bit of butter over the chicken and sprinkled some Bell's Poultry Seasoning over it as well. I put my family's recipe for stuffing inside and cooked it at 350°F. When I figured there was about an hour left, I cut away the top part of the aluminum foil so it could brown. The only problem was I accidentally cooked it upside down the whole time, and since I didn't take off the bottom part of aluminum foil, it never browned at all. Oh well, the meat tasted delicious!

I've heard of people making stuffing in a crock pot and thought I'd give it a go with the extra I mixed up. I had to put about a quart of stock to make it moist enough, but it did end up working, although it wasn't as good as what usually comes out of the bird.

I also served some cranberry sauce and steamed some carrots and green beans.