Top 5 Ways to Cook with Your Slow Sooker
A slow cooker is a great way to prepare delicious slow-cooked meals with minimal effort. With the best slow cooker recipes, you can set the slow cooker on low before heading to work and your meal is ready when you return. In this article, you will find 5 quick and easy ideas for how to cook with your slow cooker. Find a super-simple pulled pork slow cooker recipe to feed a crowd, hearty slow cooker beef stew and several three ingredient slow cooker recipes.
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Three Ingredient Crockpot Soup
Pulled pork is a classic dish for picnics and family dinners. With the help of the slow cooker, you can make easily make a large amount of meat to serve on burger buns or rolls. For the easiest pulled pork slow cooker recipe, simply combine two cups of your favorite BBQ sauce and 4 pounds of pork butt in your slow cooker. Make sure meat is coated on all sides, cover and cook on high for 5 ½ hours. Alternatively, use this pulled pork slow cooker recipe to create your own BBQ sauce with tomatoes, molasses and spices.
White chili, made with chicken instead of beef, is a delicious, healthy and economical dish to make in the slow cooker. For the cheapest slow cooker chili, use dry beans as they are perfectly suited to slow-simmering in the slow cooker. Cover a pound of northern beans and chopped onion with chicken broth and simmer in the slow cooker for 3 hours on low heat. Once soft, add chicken, chopped vegetables and herbs and simmer for another hour. For a spicy green chili, see this slow cooker white chicken chili.
Hearty slow cooker beef stew is another easy way to feed the family with minimal effort and great taste. Simply cover a pound of stew beef and chopped vegetables (carrot, onion and potato) with beef broth (water and beef bouillon cubes) and cook on low for 6-8 hours. You can also add garlic and/or herbs such as bay leaves, thyme, or rosemary. Experiment with what works best for your favorite hearty slow cooker beef stew, or see this slow cooker beef stew recipe.
Three Ingredient Crockpot Soup
Some of the best slow cooker recipes only have three ingredients! Soups are a great example of three ingredient slow cooker recipes. Why buy canned tomato soup when you can make your own in the slow cooker? Simply take a pound or two of fresh chopped tomatoes, 1 chopped onion and combine with a pint of chicken or vegetable stock. Simmer for 2-3 hours on low heat. Then puree with a hand blender or blend in batches. You can leave out the onion and/or add fresh chopped basil while cooking. If you like a creamy tomato soup, simply stir in some milk before serving. For more three ingredient slow cooker recipes, give French Onion soup a try.
Slow-cooking chicken in the slow cooker with most slow cooker chicken recipes has the added benefit of creating delicious, homemade chicken broth. Anyone who makes broth will tell you that store-bought broth just cannot compare to homemade. You can use the chicken for a number of slow cooker chicken recipes, while freezing the broth in 1 cup batches for future use. To cook chicken and make broth, Cut a 3 ½ lb. chicken into pieces (including giblets) and cover with water in slow cooker (about 4-5 cups). Add celery, garlic, onion, carrot, and fresh parsley. Season with salt and pepper and cook on low overnight or for 10-12 hours. Skim fat off the top of the broth, remove chicken and separate broth into 1 cup batches.
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