Any Crazy Crock Pot Lovin Chicken People out there? Post Recipes/Pics!

[JP101010]

OnceAroundtheBlock: Thanks for the clam chowder recipe..

I have a recipe for crock pot lasagna around here somewhere. I got a new crock pot for xmas cause I broke mine a few days before xmas on the edge of my metal kitchen sink when washing it. :/ it was old anyways and I have been thinking of getting a new one soon.

My condolences for the loss of your beloved crock pot , may you find strength in upgrading to new and improved one

never thought about making lasagna in a crock... would you precook the lasagna sheet noodles or throw em in hard.. i have never put uncooked noodles in the crock pot because someone told me the starch(thats in the water after boiling) ends up in with your other foods... and i am not brave enough to waste all my ingredients to find out... although the chickens sure love it if my recipe concoctions fail because it means buffet time for them

 

[arabianequine]

If I remember right they were just the uncooked noodles. I made it once and the sides got to done. Make sure you have plenty of liquid and keep it on low. Do not cook for too long! I may try it again someday.

If you want the recipe I can find it, just let me know!

I want to make Chilli for the first thing I make in my new crock pot though

Good luck!

OnceAroundtheBlock: Thanks for the clam chowder recipe..


My condolences for the loss of your beloved crock pot , may you find strength in upgrading to new and improved one

never thought about making lasagna in a crock... would you precook the lasagna sheet noodles or throw em in hard.. i have never put uncooked noodles in the crock pot because someone told me the starch(thats in the water after boiling) ends up in with your other foods... and i am not brave enough to waste all my ingredients to find out... although the chickens sure love it if my recipe concoctions fail because it means buffet time for them

 

[kuntrygirl]

What is the best crock pot to buy?

 

[kuntrygirl]

I like to cook pork roasts in my crock pot. I just place the roast in the crock pot with no water, put it on low, and let it cook all night.

The meat won't burn without any water in it?

 

[h4ppy-chris]

nope it dont burn its yum

 

[JP101010]

What is the best crock pot to buy?

I think the Crock Pot brand is the best and if you buy new i am pretty sure you can register it with the paperwork in the box and they have a helpline and what not... mostly you need to have these 3 features :
removable ceramic crock (for washing purposes)
Make sure that it cooks from the sides and bottom ( old ones only cooked from the bottom- no good)
more than one setting ( mine has high 4 hr 8 hr or low 4 hr or 8hr) some newer ones have a warm setting but i dont see the need for it.

 

[JP101010]

The meat won't burn without any water in it?

I thought the same thing when i first started to rock the crock..
alot of it depends on which meat- higher the fat content the more juices there will be during cooking even without adding liquid

If your meals with meat are coming out to soupy from added too much liquid (which will not evaporate) you can add some flour at the end and make gravy .


a recipe that someone posted in the start of this thread involved: one box stove top under a roaster mini hen (cornish) or whatever they are called (I dont know because i cant cook carcasses) and thats it.. no water no wet ingredients needed for the stuffing because when the body is cooked it releases all the fat and juices which plump and cook the stuffing... I would love to do this recipe but with chicken breast but i was told it wont work the same

 

[arabianequine]

Maybe you can do this recipe but add your own chicken stock part way through or every so often?

I thought the same thing when i first started to rock the crock..
alot of it depends on which meat- higher the fat content the more juices there will be during cooking even without adding liquid

If your meals with meat are coming out to soupy from added too much liquid (which will not evaporate) you can add some flour at the end and make gravy .


a recipe that someone posted in the start of this thread involved: one box stove top under a roaster mini hen (cornish) or whatever they are called (I dont know because i cant cook carcasses) and thats it.. no water no wet ingredients needed for the stuffing because when the body is cooked it releases all the fat and juices which plump and cook the stuffing... I would love to do this recipe but with chicken breast but i was told it wont work the same

 

[kuntrygirl]

What is the best crock pot to buy?

I think the Crock Pot brand is the best and if you buy new i am pretty sure you can register it with the paperwork in the box and they have a helpline and what not... mostly you need to have these 3 features :
removable ceramic crock (for washing purposes) 
Make sure that it cooks from the sides and bottom ( old ones only cooked from the bottom- no good)
more than one setting ( mine has high 4 hr 8 hr or low 4 hr or 8hr) some newer ones have a warm setting but i dont see the need for it.

Great information. I will print this out and take it to the store with me. Thank you!

 

[AinaWGSD]

I think the Crock Pot brand is the best and if you buy new i am pretty sure you can register it with the paperwork in the box and they have a helpline and what not... mostly you need to have these 3 features :
removable ceramic crock (for washing purposes)
Make sure that it cooks from the sides and bottom ( old ones only cooked from the bottom- no good)
more than one setting ( mine has high 4 hr 8 hr or low 4 hr or 8hr) some newer ones have a warm setting but i dont see the need for it.

I have two crock pot brand slow cookers, and my ancient rival cooker. Technically I have 3 crock pots, but one of them does not have a removable ceramic crock and I promptly cut the power cord off as soon as I got a new crock pot that was the same size (I am planning on turning it into a planter for the kitchen). The crock pot brand cookers are ceramic, while my rival is pretty much a non-stick coated metal pan that sits on a hot plate. I have no personal experience with any of the other brands out there, but the Crock Pot brand and the Rival brand are both really good.

Definitely make sure that whatever you get has a removable crock! That is the number one most important feature. Non-removable crocks are a major pain in the butt to clean because they can not be submerged in water and will make you not want to use your slow cooker. That's why my slow cooker with non-removable crock is now going to be a planter. And why my boss's slow cooker with non-removable crock is now sitting on the counter at work where we use it to heat water for thawing frozen medications and warming fluids.

More than one setting is important too, so that you can adjust the cooking time and temperature. My old Rival slow cooker has 5 settings, with number 1 being pretty much a just warm and number 5 being high enough to bring the whole thing to a boil almost as quickly as the stove top. My newest crock pot only has a high and low setting. My big crock pot slow cooker has heat and time settings (high 4hrs, high 8hrs, low 8hrs, low 10hrs) and after it reaches the set time it switches to warm. It's a nice concept, but I find it a little annoying and have overcooked several meals because it just sat on warm for too long before we got home to eat. I also don't like it because the settings are achieved by buttons rather than a dial. A lot of times we want to cook something that may only take 6 hours but we will be gone for 10-11 hours, with the rival and small crock pot that have dial controls we can plug them in to an electric timer (like the kind you would use for Christmas lights or lamps when you go on vacation) to turn on later in the day so the meal will just be done when we get home. Because of the button controls, we actually have to be there to push the button when the power comes on in the outlet.

For most recipes I agree that you want a crock that will cook from both the bottom and the sides. But I also find that my rival, which cooks only from the bottom, does very well with a lot of recipes we cook in it. I find that the rival is better for meat dishes, although I suspect that has more to do with the amount of temperature control we have than with which direction the heat is coming from. It probably also has a lot to do with the 10 years of experience cooking with the rival vs the mere 1 year of experience cooking with the crock pot...still working the cooking times out on that one. My big crock pot also has a small vent in the lid, right under the handle on the top, which I find very annoying because it lets too much moisture escape (I'm sure they put it there so that they wouldn't have to provide places for excess steam to escape around the edge of the lid) and I find that it leads to some of the things I cook in there drying out. It also means that small particles of food can get trapped between the handle and the glass when we wash the lid in the dishwasher.

If you can only get one crock pot, I would go for something 4qt or larger. My Rival and my big Crock Pot are both 5qt (I think, the writing on the Rival that told me what size it was has long since worn off and I'm sure the box was tossed 11 years ago after we opened it) and I find that to be a good size for family meals. My small crock pot is 2.5qt and I find it to be extremely useful for side dishes, party drinks and larger batches of dips. I could live without it, but it was useful enough for me to deal with the non-removable crock occasionally for 10 years. A little bitty crock pot would be fun, but is really only useful for dips and stuff like that which we don't need that often (and when we do, I find that putting a 1 or 1/2 cup glass ramekin or custard dish in a 2.5qt crock pot works beautifully). If you can, I would highly recommend getting more than one crock pot. I feel like I really need the two 5qt crock pots because we cook dinner in the crock pot at least twice a week most weeks, and sometimes three times a week, so having more than one means I don't have to panic when one isn't clean by bedtime. And I have found that the different pots are better at one recipe or another than the other ones.