Let’s face it, you can’t make Chateaubriand every night.
Some nights, just heating up a can of soup seems like too much trouble.
But what if you planned a meal that morning, or even the night before? Something that would be ready when you walked in the door from work.
So have you talked to your crock pot lately? If it’s been sitting in the pantry or in a cabinet for several weeks or months, it’s probably feeling lonely and unloved. Bring it out, make it a regular member of your dinner plans. It will make your life easier.
Several local cooks offered up their favorite crock pot recipes, the ones they turn to when time is tight and bellies are growling.
“I love cooking with a crock pot, so it was hard to choose a recipe!” says Margaret McNeil, a former Chattanoogan now living in Memphis. “If I have to pick one, I’d say my favorite is French Dip Sandwiches. The meat is so flavorful, I often serve it as an entree rather than a sandwich.”
6-Ingredient Crock Pot Pulled Pork
1 tablespoon olive oil
5- to 6-pound bone-in pork picnic shoulder, skin removed
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
10 garlic cloves, skin on
3 to 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock, plus more for drizzling
In a large skillet over high, heat the oil. Season the pork with the salt and pepper, then add the pork to the skillet and sear on all sides until very well browned, with a nice outer crust, about 15 minutes in all. After 10 minutes, add the garlic cloves, turning them every once in a while so that they brown on all sides as well.
Transfer the pork, fatty side up, to a 7- to 8-quart slow cooker. Return the skillet to high heat. Add 1 cup of broth and bring to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pan to release any stuck bits. When the skillet bottom looks clean, pour the liquid over the pork, then add another 2 cups of broth to the slow cooker.
Cook for 5 1/2 to 6 hours on high or 9 to 10 hours on low, or until the pork starts to fall apart when prodded with a fork. It should reach at least 170 degrees.
Let the pork rest for 20 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the garlic cloves, then squeeze them out of the papers into the liquid. Transfer the pork to a large bowl or large cutting board, then use 2 forks to pull apart the meat intro shreds. Moisten the meat with the juices in the slow cooker (use as much or as little as you like). Mix well to moisten and flavor the meat with the juices.
Now, what to do with this pork? Pile it high on buns for a pulled pork sandwich (and if you need more flavor, a squirt of any kind of barbecue sauce – Texas-style, Memphis-style, North-Carolina style, your choice – will tie it all together). Or go Asian by mixing in a bit of hoisin sauce and serve in lettuce wraps with some fresh ginger, mint and shredded carrot. It also would be great added to a stir-fry. Or do the taco or enchilada thing, or add it to a lasagna or some manicotti.
Start to finish: 6 1/2 hours (30 minutes active). Servings: 10.
French Dip Sandwiches
1 (3 to 4 pound) top chuck roast
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
4 whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups water
French or hoagie rolls
Remove and discard all visible fat from roast. Place roast in a crock pot. Combine soy sauce, bouillon cube and spices; pour over roast. Add water. Cover and cook on low heat 10 to 12 hours or until meat is very tender.
Remove meat from broth; shred with forks and keep warm. Discard bay leaf. Strain broth; skim off fat. Pour broth into small cups for dipping. Serve warm on desired bread.
Variation: If desired, put cheese on the bread before adding the meat. Put sandwiches on a baking pan and heat in a 350-degree oven for about 5 minutes, just until the cheese starts to melt. Makes 8 servings.
Ginny Gaines of Signal Mountain offers up a pork chop recipe “mainly because you don’t normally find pork chop recipes for crock pots.”
“The chops are beautifully tender and have a delicious flavor that is unique,” she says. “They are so tender you can cut them with a fork.”
Pork Chops and Gravy
6 1-inch thick lean pork chops
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder to taste
12 ounces chicken broth
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
Combine flour, mustard, salt and garlic powder in a shallow dish, then dredge chops in the mixture and set aside.
Combine remaining flour mixture and chicken broth in crock pot.
Pour oil into a large skillet; cook chops in oil just until browned on both sides. Blot with paper towels and drop into crock pot with broth mixture.
Cook on high 2 1/2 hrs. I usually start on high for around 45 minutes, then turn on low and let it cook 3 or 4 hours.
Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
Elsie Keith of LaFayette, Ga., came up with two recipes, both methods for making beef stew and both from her late sister.
“I mainly use the crock pot for busy days when I don’t have time to watch meat or vegetables, but want an easy, hot meal,” she says.
Beef Stew for Crock Pot No. 1
1 pound of stew beef
1 can of low-sodium chicken or low-sodium beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Vegetables, your choice
Egg noodles, optional
Season the meat with salt, roll in flour and brown in a small amount of oil. Transfer to crock pot, then add the can of broth that you prefer. Cook on high or low, whichever is best suited for your timetable. If the liquid is not thick enough, you can thicken it with cornstarch.
You can add vegetables to this or simply eat it over egg noodles. Cornbread is good with this stew.
In the second recipe, she swaps the chicken or beef broth for cream of mushroom soup. “My husband suggested the cream of mushroom soup years ago and I have made it that way ever since,” she says.
Beef Stew for Crock Pot No. 2
1 pound of stew beef
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of water
Brown the meat in a small amount of oil. Do not roll the meat in flour.
Add the soup and cook on high or low, whichever is your time able.
Add carrots, potatoes, small onion and about two handfuls of frozen green peas, but those are optional. Whatever vegetables one likes can be added.
This recipe goes well with cornbread, and the leftovers can be reheated for another meal.
Sally Seig of Chattanooga has a vegetable-only recipe that she says is “so easy and delicious and never has a kernel left in the pot. You can use either white or yellow corn or a mixture. Doesn’t matter.”
Creamy Cheesy Corn
1 can (15-ounce) cream-style corn
2 cans (15 ounces each) whole-kernel corn
8 ounces cream cheese
Combine all ingredients in the crockpot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or on high for 21/2 to 3 hours.
Beggar’s Chowder
1 tablespoon dried thyme (or 2 sprigs fresh)
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 skinless, bone-in turkey thighs, trimmed of visible fat (or 6 chicken thighs)
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 1/2 cups diced yellow onion
2 14.75-ounce cans creamed-style sweet corn
10.5-ounce can condensed chicken broth, undiluted
1 pound cleaned, stemmed white mushrooms, halved or quartered
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1/2 cup chopped cilantro or parsley
Combine flour, garlic salt, pepper, thyme, paprika and tomato paste in small (1-quart) mixing bowl. Using the back of a wooden spoon, work the mixture to form a smooth paste. Rub the paste onto all sides of the turkey thighs.
Spray the stoneware insert with nonstick spray. Lay the turkey thighs on the bottom and cover with the diced red and green peppers, the onion, the creamed corn and the undiluted chicken broth. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours, until the turkey is fork-tender.
Remove the turkey from the pot and set aside until cool enough to handle. While the turkey cools, add the mushrooms to the liquid in the pot, cover and continue to cook for 30 minutes more.
While the mushrooms are cooking, remove the turkey meat from the bones and cut into bite-sized pieces. When the mushrooms are tender, return the turkey to the chowder, add the whipping cream and the cilantro or parsley and cook until just heated through, about 15 minutes. Adjust seasonings if necessary, and serve. Makes 8 servings.
– Adapted from the 2006 Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipe Contest’s grand prize-winning entry by Mary Bergfeld of Eugene, Ore.