Slow Cooker Hearty Chili

I am always looking for easy potluck recipes.  This one is inexpensive and fairly mild.  For Clyde and my tastes we would do medium salsa and add some pepper flakes - but then we like things spicy.  This is really a very mild chili - even New Englanders liked it and I joke that they can't stand anything spicier than black pepper.

Slow Cooker Hearty Chili
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
4-5 cans (15 ounces each) red kidney beans, drained
1 can 16 ounces tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups mild salsa (I use the thick and chunky kinds)
1 cup frozen corn
2 Tablespoon chili powder
1/2 Tablespoon Fajita Seasoning

Brown the ground beef.  I add the chili powder and fajita Seasoning to the ground beef and bloom the flavors (I also add the pepper flakes here if they are going to be added.)  Add the meat to the slow cooker and all the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker, stirring to blend well.  Cover with the lid.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours or high 3-4 hours.  Stir just before serving.  Top with cheese and serve with fresh tortillas or crunchy tortilla chips.

This will serve 12 nicely.

Note:  I have a friend that topped her leftovers with cornbread batter and baked it as she would her cornbread.  There was nothing left.  

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Wraps

This is on my Betty Crocker Calendar that is hanging in my kitchen. I needed something to feed the military Sunday and it looked like it would fit the bill.  Clyde got a few bites and said it was a keeper.  He suggested I should post it - so here it is.

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Wraps
2 pounds skinless chicken thighs
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buffalo wing sauce (the mildest you can find from a 12 ounce jar)
3/4 cup ranch dressing  - separated
8 flour tortillas
3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce

In a 1 1/2 quart slow cooker, place chicken and sprinkle with salt.  Cover and set on low.  Cook 6-7 hours - stirring to break up about 1/2 way through.  With a slotted spoon, remove chicken from slow cooker and place on cutting board.  Remove the liquid from the cooker (and save for soup stock!  This is pure chicken broth!).  In the slow cooker, mix the buffalo wing sauce and 1/4 cup of the ranch dressing.  With 2 forks, shred the chicken.  Return the chicken to the slow cooker and mix with the sauce, keeping it all warm on the low or warm setting of your slow cooker.

To serve: spread each tortilla with some of the remaining ranch dressing.  Top with 1/4 - 1/3 cup of the buffalo chicken mix and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of shredded lettuce.  Roll the tortilla - burrito style and secure with a toothpick.  

Note:  I had to reheat the mixture so by the time I got to it - it was pretty soupy.  I used the extra ranch as a dipping sauce instead of spreading it on the tortilla.  I also used the grande sized tortillas and doubled the recipe so it would fit in my slow cooker.  I made 14 very large wraps and one very small one.

Slow Cooker Swiss Steak Supper

This is a recipe that I found on the Betty Crocker site.  It is simple and very good.  A great meal to come home to on a Sunday.

Slow Cooker Swiss Steak Supper
1 1/2 lb boneless beef steak (about 1 inch thick)
1/2 teaspoon peppered seasoned salt (I just used salt and pepper)
8 small red potatoes, cut into fourths
1 1/2 cups ready to eat baby-cut carrots
1 medium onion, quartered (or sliced if you don't need to remove it)
2 jars or cans of beef gravy (about 12 ounces each)

Cut beef into 6 serving pieces.  Spray 12-inch skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle beef with seasoned salt.  Cook meat in skillet 6-8 minutes, turning once, until brown.

In a 4 to 5 quart slow cooker, layer potatoes, carrots, beef and onion.  In a bowl, pour out gravy and beat it until it is smooth; pour over the mixture in the slow cooker.

Cover; cook on low heat setting for 8-9 hours.  Serve.

Ropa Vieja

This was the main dish that Trisha Freel brought on Sunday. It was so good that I had to share it. This can go by two things - little ropes or little rags. It is basically shredded beef and boy is it tasty. This version is not overly spicy for those in my family that cannot handle 'hot' foods. I loved it and wanted to save some for Clyde but by the time he finished up his meetings there was none left. This feeds a lot of people, so plan on leftovers. Trish said it freezes well and she actually puts some up so that she has leftovers at a future date. This would make great filling for Tamales!

Ropa Vieja
1 large boneless chuck roast
2 can condensed beef consomme
2 cans beef broth
1 onion, quartered
1 teaspoon oregano (Mexican if you can find it)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Place meat in a slow cooker with liquid and onion. Sprinkle spices on top of meat. Cover and cook on low for a minimum of 8-10 hours - until meat is tender and will shred easily.

Remove from the cooker and shred the meat with forks. Reserve the cooking juices and mash the onion.

Sauce: {Begin about 1/2 hour before the meat will be done}
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1 large pepper, sliced thinly (use a bell pepper or an Italian cooking pepper}
Olive oil
Minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon oregano (Mexican if you can find it)
1/2 Adobo seasoning
Salt to taste
1-2 packets Badia Sazon Tropical (found in the Spanish aisle of your super market. Adds flavor and color to the dish)
1-2 can diced tomatoes
1-2 can tomato sauce
Saute onion in olive oil in a large dutch oven. When onions become tender, add green pepper and minced garlic. When garlic is fragrant at the spices. When you can smell the spices (1-2 minutes, add the tomatoes. When the meat is shredded, add it to the sauce and let it simmer.

Add one can of tomato sauce and 1-1 1/2 cups of the leftover juices from the meat. Stir together. Depending on how juicy you like the sauce, just keep adding tomato sauce and cooking juice until you get the desired texture you want for dish. This is great served over rice or on a bun so keep that in mind. Over rice it can be more like gravy, on a bun, you might want it a little thicker. I kept it warm in the slow cooker.

Note: For Clyde and me, we will not be adding the second onion (the one in the sauce). The first onion basically disintegrated so it wasn't even noticed in the sauce. However if you minced the onion so that there were not big chunks, no one would see the onion but the flavor would be there. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Chili

I won first place in the ward Chili Cook-off with this recipe. I have never tasted it and neither has Clyde. At the cook-off no one knew it was mine until it was all over so it was like I won because I as the Bishop's wife. That would be embarassing since I have won 2 years in a row. I am pulling myself out of the running this year. It is a simple recipe and makes a potful! I have made it a couple of times since to feed the military and for a linger-longer and still haven't tasted it.

Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Chili
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablspoons chili powder
2 Tablespoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 pounds stew meat, cut into bite sized pieces
5 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans Ro-Tel tomatoes
4 Tablespoons dried minced onion
1/2 cup water
In a 12 inch dry skillet drop the chili powder and the cumin in and cook until fragrant. Add the vegetable oil and cubed meat. Brown the meat for 5-6 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper. In a 6 quart slow cooker, pour in the beef mixture, the beans, Ro-tel tomatoes, onion and water. Cover and cook on low for 8-12 hours or on high for 5-6 hours. Stir well just before serving.

Note: I have made this a couple of times with different kinds of beef. I had a leftover roast in my freezer, so I cubed it and one time I had some steaks that were going to get freezer burned if I didn't do something with them, so I made them up into this. That was 'the guys' favorite version!
I often get the ingredients together the night before and put it on to cook the next morning, early.

Eight Bean Slow Cooker Dinner

This is my dinner that I take to all of the potluck/linger longer dinners at Church. I actually get requests for it. It feeds a bunch of people and it tastes good. It is kind of expensive but then it feeds 20 people as a Main Dish and goes even farther as a side dish, so if you look at it that way you are feeding 20 people a great dish for about $15. Not bad! This keeps well and freezes beautfully. I have never brought any home from a linger longer - in fact I rarely get any because it is gone by the time I get into line.

Eight Bean Slow Cooker Dinner
1/2 - 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1/4 pound pepperoni, sliced thin and halved (I use the pepperoni minis and use the whole package)
1/2 -1 link of smoked Kielbasa, sliced thin
1/2 cup spicy barbecue sauce
1-16 ounce can pork and beans, undrained
1-16 ounce kidney beans, undrained
1-16 ounce chili beans with meat, undrained
1-16 ounce can Canellini (white kidney) beans, drained
1-16 ounce can butter beans, drained
1 cup frozen Lima beans
1-16 ounce black beans, drained
1-16 ounce pinto beans, drained
1 can tomato soup, undiluted
3 ounces tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Brown the Italian sausage and drain well. Combine all of the ingredients into a large Slow cooker and mix well so that everything is combined well. Cook on low for 3-8 hours or on high for 1-3 hours. Everything is cooked so you are just heating through and combining flavors. It does get pretty soupy the longer you cook it but it just becomes an 8 bean spicy chili then.

Note: When Carianne's kitchen was being remodeled last Christmas, there was no way to brown sausage or bacon, so we bought cooked bacon and cooked breakfast sausage instead of the Italian Sausage. It was just as tasty as ever. So if you are extremely pressed for time or you don't have a way to brown meats, then just get the pre-cooked meats. It will cost a few cents more but it is works.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup, Lite Version

6 small red potatoes, cut into 8ths
1 medium stalk celery, coarsely chopped, (1/2 cup)
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
1 small onion, finely minced (1/4 cup)
5 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 pepper
2 1/2 cups cooked chicken or turkey (cut or torn into bite size pieces)
1 cup frozen sweet peas
1/4 cream or low-fat 1/2 & 1/2 or milk
In a 5 quart pot, pour in about 2 Tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and cook the potatoes, celery, carrots and onion for about 5-6 minutes or until the onion is softened. Pour broth, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper into vegetables. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and soup is slightly thickened. Mash the vegetables until they are still large lumps but the soup is thickening. Add the remaining ingredients. Cover and cook 5-6 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until chicken and peas are heated through. Ladle into soup bowl. Top with a biscuit if desired.

Alternate Method: To cook in a crockpot forgo the olive oil and just dump the vegetables, stock, and seasonings into a crockpot. Cook on high for 5-6 hours. One hour before serving, mash the vegetables. Add the peas, chicken and milk and enjoy.

Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Sandwiches

When Dutch was blessed, I found this recipe on the Kraft foods website and then I lost it. I was going through my recipes today and I finally uncovered it again. Before I lose it again - here it is. It was really good! We doubled the recipe and literally ate it all day long. We made our sandwiches out of dinner rolls - hence our sandwiches were more 'sliders' than real full fledged sandwiches. However you decide to make yours - this is a great filling.

Slow Cooker BBQ Sandwiches
1 boneless 2 pound pork shoulder (we used pork loin - unflavored)
3 onions, separated, into rings
1/2 cup Barbecue Sauce
8 kaiser rolls, split
8 slices of cheese (optional but wonderful!)
Place the meat in the slow cooker; top with the onions and cover with the sauce. Cover with the lid. Cook on low for 8-10 hours (we found we needed all 10 hours) or on high for 5-6 hours.

Remove meat from the slow cooker. Cut off and discard any excess fat. Chop meat into small pieces or shred with a fork. Return the meat to the slow cooker, stir until it is evenly coated with the sauce.

Fill the rolls with the meat mixture and cheese just before serving.

Note: Clyde and I have become extremely sensitive to onions so we took the onions and chopped them separately from the rest of the sauce. People could add them to the meat if they wanted it but they didn't have to have a lot of onion if they didn't. The onions, however are needed for their sweet juicy flavor they impart to this dish (I have tried it without and it is not as good.) Also if you get a flavored pork loin - put the onions and some other vegetables on bottom of your slow cooker - especially if it has garlic on the flavoring. You will end up with a very bitter - burnt tasting filling otherwise. (That was from sad experience too).