Tag Archives: main dish

Crock Pot Chicken Curry Made Simple

In our house, we love music. My husband was a professional musician for the first seventeen years of our marriage. We still spend a lot of time listening to and playing music. What does that have to do with curry? Well, we match our meal to our music, that’s what! So guess what we listen to when we’re eating curry?

Indian music!

If you’re looking for something to eat with your Indian music, give this yummy slow cooker recipe a try. I’m totally in love with my crock pot, by the way. Crock pots are a busy moms best friend. Mine is an 8 quart cooker and is great for our large family. If you haven’t tried curry in your crock pot, give this a try. By 3pm, your house will smell amazing and you’ll be inspired, no doubt, to turn up the music.

Enjoy!

Put carrots and frozen chicken into the bottom of the crock pot.

In your food processor, add onion, garlic, bell peppers and jalapeño. Start with the veggies—until you get a mixture that looks like this:

Now, go ahead and add all that other stuff.

Blend it all together—it will look like a thick soup. That’s okay. You’re going to love it.

Serve over quinoa or basmati rice. {yum.}

Here’s the short version:

Ingredients

4-6 boneless chicken breast, cut into bit-sized pieces
5-8 large carrots (more carrots = less chicken = $ savings)
1 whole onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 bell peppers, seeded and quartered (less if you’re not a bell pepper person)
1 small can of tomato paste
1-2 cans of coconut milk
2 tsp sea salt
3 T sugar
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 T red curry paste
1 jalapeño

Make it simple

Place chicken breasts (could be frozen) and carrots in bottom of lightly greased pot
Blend vegetables in food processor
Add remaining ingredients to food processor and blend well
Pour mixture over chicken and carrots
Cook on low for 6 hours
Serve over quinoa or basmati rice, cooked in chicken broth

Serves 8

Happy Curry-ing! Let me know how it turns out.

Voila! Chicken Marsala!

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So, by now you all know that I love food. Love it. It wasn’t always that way—I was the oldest of six sisters, and I grew up making food in “vats” … pretty much how I do it now. 😉

In 1997, I was introduced to Chicken Marsala at a wonderful little Italian restaurant in NW Portland, Oregon. I was hooked—because it was so good—AND because the chef winked and told me, “You can do this at home and save $60.” Sign me up for THAT.

Since then, we’ve been working on our own variation of this wonderful dish.

Here it is. Enjoy!

Hard to tell, but this is a Rubbermaid bin. I dredge things in it. It’s perfect for dredging. I like that word. Dredge. The pretty bowl won out for the picture below though:

Go ahead and drag your lovely chicken pieces through this yummy flour mixture. You can do it.

Now, cook them in some coconut oil or butter. Yum. Yeah. That’s right. Just brown them on both sides. By now it’s going to start smelling really good in your kitchen.

Take your chicken out and set it aside. In the same skillet, start to sauté your mushrooms. Double-yum.

Pour in the sherry and marsala. You don’t need the sherry. But it sure tastes great if you have it. I got so excited about taking a picture of this that I added the chicken back before adding the wine. Normally, I make my sauce and then add the chicken back in. It’s easier to whisk a sauce when you’re not bumping into big chicken pieces.

After you’ve added your wine and made a lovely sauce, lean over your skillet. Doesn’t that smell great?

Okay. Add the chicken back in. Turn the heat down to low. Cover and let simmer for about ten minutes.

I like to serve this with roasted red potatoes and steamed veggies. {yum.} Come to think of it, I’ll post how I do that pretty soon. I’m a roasted red potato fanatic.

Here’s the skinny on this delicious dish:

Ingredients

4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (I double this recipe every time.)
4 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup Marsla wine
1/4 cup cooking sherry
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp dried oregano

How to make it:

In a bowl, mix together flour, garlic salt, pepper, thyme and oregano.
Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.
Take a large skillet add coconut oil and heat over medium heat
Place the chicken and lightly brown on both sides.
Take chicken out and set aside.
Add mushrooms to same skillet, add 1 T more coconut oil, sauté
Pour wine and sherry and cover skillet. Whisk until creamy. If you need to, you can thicken with flour.
Put chicken back in.
Simmer chicken 10 min and turn over.
Cook for another 5 min or until no longer pink

Easy, peasy!

Three cheers for CHICKEN MARSALA!

Fast, Healthy, YUMMY – {15 Bean Soup}

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All ingredients except the optional ham hock and pork shoulder.

I’m a soupie. Is that a word? Well nevermind. It should be.

I’m finally getting around to posting my favorite bean soup recipe.

Why?

Because I was late yesterday, that’s why. You know, school, dishes, laundry, toddler—broken down car. These things can make a girl go half-crazy in the dinner making department.

{enter pressure cooker}

“Welcome, highly-favored kitchen appliance!”

Electric pressure cookers save time and money!

I.love.my.pressure.cooker. Period. And it got me out of a jam last night. At 4:4o I arrived home from the mechanic shop, tired and frustrated. {yes, you heard me right.} I looked in my pantry. BEHOLD! A bag of beans. Fifteen different kinds of beans to be exact. Dinner! By 4:55 I had all the ingredients in my pressure cooker and by 6:15 we were eating yummy, healthy soup.

YES it works in a crock pot too. Just put this same recipe in your slow cooker and give it 6-8 hours on low.

The magic is found in the spices so here you are:

15 Bean Soup

9 cups chicken broth
15 bean soup mix (1 lb) – this mix is in most grocery stores. It’s about $3.20/bag.
1 large onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
4 stalks diced celery
2 bay leaves
2 tsp diced garlic (from a jar is fine)
1 T thyme and rosemary
1.5 T parsely
1 tsp ham base if you don’t have a ham hock, or leave it out. It’s good with or without.
Black pepper to taste
Alternative:
If you’re in the mood for a more meaty bean soup, add about a pound of pork shoulder, diced into bite-sized pieces. I didn’t use it this time. When using ham base, I LOVE Penzey’s. Here’s a picture … a little goes a long way!

Directions:

Place all this stuff in your pressure cooker. Set it to “soup” and set your timer for 35 minutes. When it’s done, allow the pressure to go down on it’s own. This will add about 15 more minutes to your total time.

When you’re ready to serve, take out the ham hock and the bay leaves. Voila! No more waiting all day for your beans to cook. Pressure cooking is a busy moms best friend. Give it a try!

Healthy, Yummy, Split-Pea Soup

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Mmmmm. Split-pea soup. It’s one of my favorite ways to make our Christmas ham last through the new year.

Normally, I use my crock pot. But this year, I used my pressure cooker—just to see how it would turn out. I warned my family in advance that it might not be amazing but I decided to give it a try anyway. Hey, what are they gonna do? They’re stuck with my kitchen adventuring ways!

Wouldn’t you know it? It turns out that using my pressure cooker turned out the creamiest, yummiest split-pea soup I’ve ever made. I was able to serve it straight out of the pot, without adding anything to thicken it.

If you like this yummy soup, give this recipe a try. And let me know how it turns out! I’ll also post the slow cooker version at the bottom for those of you who like slow cookers.

Split Pea Soup {pressure cooker version}

Serves 6-9

6 cups of water or broth (I used ham broth, but you can use chicken broth, too.)
Ham bone if you have it
2 1/4 cups split peas, rinsed
2 cups chopped celery
1 whole onion, chopped

Delicious and nutritious!

4 cloves of garlic, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 tablespoons organic, no-salt seasoning (from Costco if you have it)
pepper
2 bay leaves

—ham— as much as you like. But do not add until the soup is finished in the pressure cooker.

Instructions:

Put all in ingredients except ham into pressure cooker. Set timer for 15 minutes. Allow pressure to come down on it’s own. This will take another 15 minutes or so.

When pressure is released, remove bay leaves and stir. Add ham if you are so inclined. (I am always inclined this way if I have ham in the house!)
Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with corn bread or salad. Enjoy!

{slow cooker version}

as above, except: cook on low for 6-8 hours
Remove bay leaves
Add ham

Stir. To thicken, I usually add a mixture of milk and flour that I’ve prepared in my salad dressing shaker). I don’t honestly know how much I use. I would guess it’s about 1/2 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of flour mixed very well. You can also thicken with instant potato flakes, or cornstarch and water. Be sure to mix the cornstarch well, one part starch to two parts COLD water.

Enjoy!

heidi

Zuppa Toscana Soup {A Lighter Version}

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I love soup. Seriously. LOVE. So when Old Man Winter knocks on my door, I head to the kitchen to heat things up!

It’s a “thing” I have, this obsession of good soups. Happily, my husband shares my love of soup. In fact, he is the driving force behind most of my obsessive behavior. 😉

Years ago, my husband and I discovered this delicious winter soup when we were invited out to Olive Garden with friends. Jay looked at me over his soup spoon with this sort of “If you will make this soup for me I will think you are even more amazing than I already do” look in his eyes … and with incentive like that, I had to figure out how to make my own version. I figured it would save us some money too while allowing us to stay snuggly warm at home with our soup.

I worked hard to lose about 30 pounds two years ago, so I’ve lightened this up just a bit to cut out calories and fat … but really … you can’t skimp on things like bacon and sausage and still keep the wonderful flavor of this yummy winter soup. Mostly what I did to cut calories was skip the butter and use regular 2% milk with half and half instead of heavy cream.

I like to get bacon at the local butcher shop if I remember. 🙂 This is the key for me. (The remembering part, that is.) Tonight we were lucky to have peppered bacon from our local butcher. ‘nuf said. YUM.

I use about this much bacon when I make my sausage, kale and potato yumminess.

Bacon is one of my love languages. I don’t know why BACON is not in “that” Love Languages book. Anyway.

This is about enough for a batch of soup that feeds my tribe of ten.

I cut it into bite size pieces and cook it while the water is heating up in the stock pot.

Cook up some Italian sausage. I did two pounds for my purposes. (I feed 10 and I want leftovers for lunch the next day). Two pounds is perfect. Drain off the grease and set it aside.

While your sausage is cooking … rinse and tear a bunch of kale into bite-size pieces. Set it aside. You won’t need to add it until the very end.

BONUS… this stuff is really good for you

5 quarts of chicken stock

Saute onions and garlic before adding potatoes

I made this last night in the MIDDLE of all the Un-decorating FALL and finding Christmas decoration madness. AND did I mention I am potty training our almost two-year-old.

My pictures reflect this. Do NOT use the pot I’m using for your soup. When I’m thinking, I do everything in my stock pot. But whatever. This still worked. It just made my life a teensy bit harder than it had to be.

Add red pepper flakes and your cooked bacon and sauté the potatoes until they are just a little on the brown side. YUM. Man, this smells good.

When they look and smell irresistable, you’re ready to pour the chicken stock in.

Add your cooked italian sausage.

Add 2 cups half and half and 1 cup 2% milk.
Heavy cream in you would rather be naughty than nice. 🙂

Add your kale and cream at the end and simmer, adjusting flavors as you go. (You know, a sip for you, a sip for your friends, a sip for your husband, etc.)

Here’s the recipe, all summed up and pretty for you “print in out and post it” people..

Sausage, Kale and Potato Soup

1 bunch of kale, rinsed and torn into bite sized pieces
bacon, cut up and cooked (about as much as you see in the photo above)
3 large russet potatoes (about enough for six cups), peeled with some skin left on
2 pounds Italian sausage
1 T red pepper flakes
5 quarts chicken stock (remember I feed a tribe!)
2 onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups half & half
1 cup 2% milk
pepper to taste

Put chicken broth on stove to simmer.
Cook bacon. Drain and set aside.
Cook sausage. While sausage is cooking, rinse and prepare kale. Set aside.
Drain sausage. Set aside. Drain grease but leave the pan as is, you’ll love the flavor it will give the onions.
Saute onions and garlic in same pan you just cooked bacon and sausage in.
When onions are slightly browned and soft, add red pepper flakes, bacon and potatoes.
Cook until potatoes are slightly browned.
Add chicken stock. DO NOT BOIL. It makes the potatoes mushy. And nobody wants that.
When potatoes are soft (not mushy), add the cream, milk and kale.

Simmer, adjusting flavors as you go.
Serve with warm, rustic garlic bread… you’ll be glad you did.

Gather ’round the dinner table and enjoy!

Crock Pot Cooking Makes Life Better: Chalupa!

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We LOVE Mexican food around here! Happily, one of my favorite Mexican recipes is also a slow cooker recipe! Chalupa is an awesome meal—it freezes well, is awesome in a bowl with tortilla chips on the bottom and cheese on top with sour cream. It can be made ahead and re-heated. What I like to do is make it up and then freeze half of it. Great meal after a long day. Enjoy!

Put ingredients into the crock pot in this order:

1 pound pinto beans
1 large pork shoulder roast
7 cups water
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small can of dice jalapeños (if you like it spicy)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chili powder or chipotle seasoning
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons oregano (mexican oregano if you have it)
pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in slow cooker or dutch oven. Cover and simmer (on low) at least 5 hours, or until the roast falls apart and the beans are done. Uncover and cook about 1/2 hour, until it is as thick as you like it.

I serve this over chips, or with rice or quinoa. It’s a GREAT recipe that is sure to please your whole family!

And in case you’re curious, (affiliate link ahead) I’m a Rival Crock-Pot fan!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

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I am a huge fan of using my CrockPot! I just love easy-peasy yummy meals that will feed a crowd – mostly ’cause that’s what I’ve got at my house: A crowd.

This is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Heidi’s Crockin’ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

*make ahead in your slow cooker

Ingredients:

Shoulder Pork Roast (a loin roast is fine but it will take longer)
Whole cloves if you have them
Salt
Pepper
¼ cup chili powder
½ cup water
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
Hoagie rolls or hamburger buns

Let your slow cooker do the work for you! Start this recipe in the morning or cook it overnight!
Directions:

Poke small holes in roast with a knife and insert whole cloves into the roast. Do this as many times as you like.

Place water and chili powder in the slow cooker and add the clove-studded roast. Add salt and pepper. Cover.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours. When done, the meat should shred very easily.. Take the roast out of the slow cooker. Remove the cloves and discard. Cut away any fat. Shred the remaining meat and place into large bowl.

Dump BBQ sauce into the bowl and add some leftover broth (fat skimmed off) from the slow cooker to the meat until it the shredded pork is the desired consistency.

Serve on hoagie rolls or hamburger buns.

This is an excellent recipe to make ahead. When you’re ready to serve, simply add a little water and reheat. Freezes well too!

xoxo,
Heidi

Heidi St. John

Speaking the Truth in Love