Crock Pot Creamy Mushroom Chicken

I found this recipe while browsing pinterest. It was originally called "Angel Chicken" but for the life of me I can't figure out why, while there is nothing quite angelic about it, it is packed with flavor and my family loved it.

Crock Pot Creamy Mushroom Chicken

 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/2 pounds)

1 8oz. package of baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup butter

1 0.7-oz. pkg. Italian dry salad dressing mix
1 10-3/4-oz. can condensed mushroom soup (I olny had cream of chicken)
1/2 cup dry white wine (i subbed this with water)

1/2 of an 8-oz. tub cream cheese spread with chives and onion

Hot cooked rice 

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add dry italian dressing mix, mushroom soup, wine, and cream cheese. Stir occasionally until cream cheese is melted and sauce is creamy.

Place sliced mushrooms on the bottom of the slow cooker and top with chicken breasts. Pour sauce over the chicken and cook on low for 5 hours. Serve over white rice.

Slow Cooker Pork Roast

I adapted The Food Nanny's Beef Roast to our families liking since we are not big beef eaters. It's the yummiest pork roast I have made so far in my crock pot! 

Slow Cooker Pork Roast

1 (4-pound) pork shoulder or butt roast ( I had a 3 lb. in the freezer)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire

sauce

1 (10.75-ounce) can condensed

cream of mushroom soup

1 (1-ounce) packet onion soup mix

1 cup beef broth

5 large carrots, peeled and cut

into 1-inch pieces (optional)

6 red potatoes or medium

russets, scrubbed and

quartered (optional)

8 to 12 servings

1. Place the roast in a slow cooker. Sprinkle with the garlic salt and pepper.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire

sauce, mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and broth; pour over the roast.

3. Add the carrots and/or potatoes to the slow cooker if it is large enough to

hold them.

4. Cook on high heat 5 to 6 hours or on low heat for 10 to 12 hours.

If you choose not to add the carrots or potatoes to the slow cooker

White Bean Chicken Chili

Hooray for new crock pot recipes!! I found this recipe this morning while browsing one of the blogs I follow, Chef Mommy. Can't wait for it to cool down so I can make this. Enjoy! If you happen to read this and have a favorite slowcooker recipe, do please share! Thank you!

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon oil
2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1-2 cans (4 ounces each) chopped green chilies (I'm a wimp and only used 1 can)
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup whipping cream

cilantro, chopped (to garnish)
paprika, (to garnish)

Directions:

1. Season the chicken with half the salt and half the pepper.

2. Then, in a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil for 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the chicken mixture to your slow-cooker. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings to slow-cooker as well. Cook on low for 4 hours.

4. After 4 hours, shred the chicken with a fork and stir in sour cream and whipping cream, let cook for another 15 minutes on low.

5. Garnish with fresh cilantro and a sprinkle of paprika, if desired. Serve immediately. This is especially good served with tortilla chips.

Makes about 6 servings.

BBQ'd Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

I am smelling the smokey BBQ'd goodness of these from my crock pot as I type this. I can't wait for dinner!!!
Update: Yummyness factor is pretty serious here folks, this one is a definite keeper!
Recipe and picture from a great blog Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice


Barbecue Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
(Sauce adapted from Steven Raichlen via Serious Eats)

2 cups Ketchup
1/4 cup Cider Vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
3/4 cup packed Brown Sugar + 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon Molasses (didn't have)
1 tablespoon Yellow Mustard
1 tablespoon Chile Powder
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce (I used Franks Red Hot Sauce)
1 large onion, thinly sliced in half moons
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in half (I used 7 small chicken thighs)
1 + 1/2 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4-5 hamburger buns or soft rolls

1. In a medium mixing bowl whisk, ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire, brown sugar, molasses, mustard, chile powder, salt, pepper and Tabasco together until well combined.

2. Pour into crock pot, add onions and chicken breasts. Cook on low 4 hours or high 2 hours.
Remove chicken to a large plate or cutting board and cool to the touch. Keep barbecue sauce warm in crock pot. When chicken is cool enough to handle shred it by pulling it apart by hand. Return to crock pot and mix with sauce or add to a medium bowl and mix in additional sauce.

3. Serve on toasted buns with cheddar cheese.

Easy version: Use a rotiserrie chicken. Simmer the barbecue sauce in a saucepan for about 20 minutes while you 'shred' the chicken. Add the shredded chicken to the sauce, heat through and serve.

Cream Cheese Chicken

Making this one tonight. I think I'll serve it with some garlic rice. We'll see how it goes, I'll return and report (and hopefully have a pic if I don't forget) While your surfing you can check out another great cooking blog here.
Oh yeah, you may see some recipe repeats... what can I say, she makes good food so I steal her secrets!! Thanks for all the great recipes Lettie :)

Cream Cheese Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 package dry Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup water


Cook these ingredients for 4 hours on low in your crock pot.
Then add:

8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 can Cream of Chicken soup


Cook one more hour on low or until sauce is bubbly. If sauce is too thick add more water!
Serve over Rice, Mashed Potatoes, or Noodles

Christmas Tamales

So this is the second year I have made tamales and I have have a couple of dozen people who are looking forward to them for the continuing years to come. So I guess you could say that it's become a new tradition for me.
They can be a bit time consuming in the assembly but they are super easy to prepare.
I have only done chicken and pork tamales before, but the greatest thing with tamales is that you can really put any meat and sauce into them.

I don't really have a real recipe for them either...just whats in my head!

So the ingredients you need are:

This will make about 4 or 5 dozen tamales

1 pkg of tamale husks
1 10 lb. bag of prepared masa (can be bought at any Hispanic market year round)

For chicken tamales: ~6 or 7 lbs of chicken (I used skin on bone on breast which you can get really cheap when on sale... 99 cents at SB)
1 large can of Las Palmas green enchilada sauce
2 small cans chili verde salsa

For pork tamales: ~ 1 roast or 6 or 7 lbs of pork meat
1 large can of Las Palmas red enchilada sauce
1 1/2 small cans of Las Palmas colorado chili sauce

So first off - way ahead of time (the day before preferably) stick just the meat in a crock pot and season to taste (I use chili powder, cumin, garlic salt, seasoned salt, pepper...and whatever else I feel like throwing in there) and a small amount of water, maybe a cup full or so. Cook it on low for about 10 hrs ( I let mine go all night) Seriously people, you want the meat falling off the bone. It makes the shredding and deboning and skinning so much more pleasant.



After the meat is cooked you'll need to shred it all and take out the skin and bones if needed. Return shredded meat to the pot and refrigerate until needed. You want to do this ahead of time, believe me you DO NOT want to stick your fingers down into boiling hot meat. You don't need to add the sauces until you are ready to assemble them.

Also the night before, soak your pkg of husks in water ( I just plug up my kitchen sink) and just let 'em have a good and long bath. In the morning roll a towel out and place the husks on it and roll it burrito style to take the excess water out, but to still keep them moist.

When you are ready to go all out and make these tasty little buggers, you might want to cover the table with clean trash bags which make clean up a snap.

Take your meat and plug it in on low for about a half hour so it gets just barely warm. Add your sauces to the crock pot and make it nice and soupy. If you think it needs more sauce add some more. You want the sauce to be VERY saucy so the sauce will seep into the masa....mmmm I am getting excited already!

So for the final assembly, lay a moist husk, smooth side up on the table, and spoon in a big ole dollop of masa on the upper 3/4's of the husk. You want to leave enough clean space on the bottom of the husk for when you fold it up. So spread the masa not too thin but not to thick on the entire rest of the husk. Now add your meat mix on top...my man likes his very meaty...so don't be skimpy, nothing is worse then a dry tamale!!

To fold the husk, just take one side and fold it over the other side and pull the bottom up to seal it. So easy right??
So once you have gone tamale crazy, you can either cook them right away or freeze them until you are ready to serve them. You will need some sort of stockpot with a steamer insert to steam the tamales in. They are very inexpensive, I saw one at Walmart for less than 20$.

Just fill the pot with water up to the fill line (make sure that water doesn't immerse the tamales when it boils or else you will have soggy tamales) and turn up the heat on high and let them boil for about 45 min. (Make sure to watch the water level so you don't let the water evaporate and burn your pan) To check and see if they are done, just peel back a little of the husk and you can see that they are firm inside but they won't look 100% done. Turn off the flame and now you have to let them sit for about 20 minutes to fully set up and "harden".

Wala!! You have just successfully made tamales and you have accumulated all of the bragging rights that go with it.

Tamales keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks and you can just microwave to reheat OR they also freeze wonderfully and to reheat them you can thaw them (which may take overnight)
and lay them single file in a shallow pan in the oven. Place another shallow pan on the bottom tray filled with water - this prevents the tamales from drying out while reheating.

Have fun!! Please leave me any comments and questions, I forgot take any pictures when I made them this last time.