Crock pots!

Improvolone

Since I (and everyone) is trying to save money where they can, I loaded up on chicken because my local market was having an obscene sale. I of course frozen that chicken. Now I have a lot of frozen chicken and have no freaking clue where to go from here.
I'm pretty sure I want to use my crock pot; ease of use, doesn't heat up the entire place, and since I have a 1.5 year old running around not using the oven is a very nice and safe thing.

I'm all for using a recipe but since I don't really know much about cooking I'd like to really understand why what I'm doing is working. Can I just put some frozen chicken spices and a little water in the crock pot for a day and expect it to be possibly tasty and safe? Is there some golden ratio of liquid to stuff I should be using? Rice and beans need to be a bigger staple for me, can they go in there too or do they really need to be cooked separately?

RUNN1NGMAN

I have heard that putting frozen chicken directly into a crock pot to cook is bad news. I think it's difficult to get the interior to a safe temperature before the outsides turn to rubber. Just defrost the chicken in the fridge for a day before you cook it.

Durandal Infinity

make sure the chicken (I assume breasts) are separated. Hit them with room temp water first. Put them in a plastic bag and put them in a sink where they can sit in room temp water for a couple hours. Defrosted in prob 2 hours. From there google crock pot chicken recipes. For a super easy one consider pulled chicken sandwiches.

Kistra

I love my crockpot.

1) cooking rice and grains in the crockpot makes them very mushy (good for a 1.5 year old?) Canned beans or dried beans soaked overnight do wonderfully in the crockpot.

2) frozen meat cooked in the crockpot has an odd texture, I only do it if I am going to shred it afterwards.

My favorite recipe:

Dice some potatoes.
Put some chicken on top of them.
Pour a large jar of salsa over the top.
Cook.
Shred the chicken with two forks, mix it all together and add cheese on top ~30min before serving.

Also trader joes has some really yummy sauces that all do well in the crockpot.

Improvolone

So non-dried beans won't get weird after being in a crock pot for a day? Good to know!

matt has a problem

They'll just be really, really, really soft.

Improvolone

I know that over cooking vegetables will make them nasty tasteless nutritionless piles of much, aside from hard stuff (veggies, potatoes), should I avoid putting veggies in my crock pot?
I usually cook with a lot of frozen vegetables, cook them fairly fast on the stove, and they are still pretty crisp and delicious.
I imagine a pea would be destroyed in a crock pot.

matt has a problem

Peas are actually one of the few that do well in a crock pot, they work great when making a stew. The skin on the outside saves them. If you want to do other vegetables, broccoli, green beans etc, just put them in with about an hour left to go.

Improvolone

I think this crock pot might save me from my stupid boring diet.

Figgy

I wanted to post the video of that old man's MMO blog, specifically the entry where he talks about how his crock pot allows him to make dinner for his wife and still play LOTRO for hours on end. I think he took his site down though.

Instead, here are some youtube videos with recipes: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crock+pot&search_type=&aq=f

matt has a problem

Also, if you're doing a chicken with beans/rice dish, try using chicken stock instead of water.

Cimmerii

Chicken Broth is always more delicious then water.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Chicken-Taco-Soup/Detail.aspx is super tasty, but I don't like the beer taste so I just substitute Chicken broth.

Improvolone

I've stayed away from broths because of the absurd sodium involved.

Durandal Infinity

low sodium broth FTW

devoir

Improvolone wrote: »

I know that over cooking vegetables will make them nasty tasteless nutritionless piles of much, aside from hard stuff (veggies, potatoes), should I avoid putting veggies in my crock pot?
I usually cook with a lot of frozen vegetables, cook them fairly fast on the stove, and they are still pretty crisp and delicious.
I imagine a pea would be destroyed in a crock pot.

If you have to put them in either a) put them in closer to the end of cooking or b) ensure that you don't ignore the liquid in the crockpot. What will happen is a lot of the nutrients will leech out into the water content. This is fine for a stew, and if you're prepping it properly it won't be a problem from a taste perspective. The actual vegetable matter is still good for you, just less so than if you ignore the liquid.