Crock Pot Cooking-Making Life Easier
Busy back to school schedules can make it difficult to organize family suppers. But with just a bit of planning and using helpful tools in the kitchen, it IS possible. One of my favorite tools for getting an easy home cooked meal on the table is my crock pot. I honestly don’t know what I would do without it. If you own a crock pot I’m sure you know what I mean.
Some of the reasons I love my crock pot so much:
- A crock pot is flexible for those of us who are busy and need some ease with preparing our evening meal. You can chop the veggies and assemble your meal at night, then when you get up the next morning just pop it in the crock pot. Set it on low and when you come home, you have a hot and delicious meal waiting on you.
- Clean up is super easy. Really you ask? Yes, when you use crock pot liners. You just put the liner in before you add the ingredients for your meal, then toss the liner in the trash when your done. A really good brand I’ve found is the Kitchen Collection brand.
- A crock pot is great for making a lot of food. It makes a meal for my family of 4, with enough leftovers for lunch the next day for 2 people. That makes it easy on me time-wise as well as economical. I can make a meal in my crock pot for around $10.00. That’s a great savings when it can feed up to 6 people!
What really takes the cake though is that you can cook almost ANY thing in a crock pot. Yes, from soup to dessert and everything in between.
Did you know September is National Chicken Month? Despite what you may hear, no artificial or added hormones are used in the production of any poultry in the United States. Regulations of the Food & Drug Administration prohibit the use of such hormones. Any brand of chicken can be labeled “Raised without hormones”. However, any package of chicken with that type of label must also have a statement that no hormones are used in the production of any poultry. Learn more about Indiana’s Farmers HERE.
In celebration of National Chicken Month, I’d love to share one of my families favorite chicken dishes I cook up in the crock pot with you. This wonderful recipe is tasty and falling off the bone tender.
Place several crumbled aluminum foil balls in the bottom of the crock pot before you add the chicken. It keeps the chicken out of the juices that form, so it comes out seasoned nicely on all sides.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 tsp rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 large roasting chicken, or 5-6 leg and thigh quarters.
- 1 medium onion, quartered
Directions
- In a small bowl, thoroughly mix all the spices.
- Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
- Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, making sure it evenly covers all of the chicken.
- Add Onion to the bottom of the crock pot, along with several crumbled balls of aluminum foil to keep the chicken up out of the juices.
- Put the chicken in the slow cooker. No liquid is needed as the cooking process will produce its own juices.
- Cook on High for 1 hour, then Low for 6 hours.
- Serve immediately, or remove the meat from the bones, and package in freezer bags or containers to freeze for future use.
Notes
Don't forget to make gravy from the delicious broth your chicken produced while cooking. Try my easy recipe
Thank you Indiana Family of Farmers for making this post possible.
april
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Sounds and looks yummy. Will give it a try. Thanks for sharing.