Tag Archives: savory

{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

The coming of fall usually means the end of the more laid back schedule of the summer. It means school schedules, sports schedules, extra curricular schedules, and fun fall events like pumpkin patches and hayrides. It’s a fun time, but sometimes hard for a busy mom to plan for frugal, healthy, meals around all the craziness.

Today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite meals. It’s easy, frugal, and delicious. It’s also incredibly versatile. And, it will make your house smell amazing!

{Easy} Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Chicken

Ingredients
-1 whole chicken, 3-4 lbs.
-1 recipe herb-butter rub (I have included a choice of recipes below)

Easy Herb-Butter
1/2 packet lipton’s recipe secrets, Savory Herb with Garlic*
4 tbsp. butter, softened

Combine all ingredients.

*I have also used Grill Mates garlic, herb, wine dry marinade mix, and Weber Garlic & Herb dry marinade mix.

Fresh Herb-Butter
4 tbsp. butter, softened
1 tbsp. fresh rosemary
1 tbsp. fresh parsley
1 tbsp. fresh basil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper.

Combine all ingredients.

Instructions:

1. In the bottom of slow cooker, place balled up aluminum foil. (This will keep chicken elevated above juices. If you’d like to make more of a one-pot meal, you can cover the bottom with carrots and potatoes for the same purpose).

2. Rinse chicken and pat dry, placing it on top of the aluminum foil balls. DO NOT ADD WATER. This is very important in giving your chicken that rotisserie-style taste and texture. The chicken releases plenty of juices.

3. Cover chicken liberally with herb-butter rub.

4. For best results, cook on high for 3-4 hours, until chicken is cooked thoroughly, exact time will vary based on size of chicken. You can also cook on low 6-8 hours.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine does!

More Tips

Reserve chicken drippings and juice to make your own chicken stock for basically free, and much better than storebought! All you need to do is remove all chicken from bones. Replace all bones and any extra skin back into slow-cooker with the drippings and juice. Add water to fill slow-cooker, and cook on low overnight. If desired, you can add more spices for flavoring, and more vegetables like carrots, peppers, onions, celery, etc. for nutrients and flavor. Allow to cool and then store in freezer-safe containers in the freezer until needed.

Leftover Ideas

One of the things I love most about this meal is that it’s so versatile for leftovers. I love it when I can cook one thing and use it for different meals that my family loves, so that it’s easy on me without feeling like we’re eating leftovers all week. This meal is perfect for that.

-Add some chicken together with pasta, california vegetable blend, and alfredo sauce for a baked chicken alfredo.
-Chicken & dumplings using your leftover chicken and homemade chicken stock
-Chicken pot-pie casserole
-Chicken salad sandwiches

You can even freeze the extra chicken for a quick meal any time.

What are some of your favorite ways to use up leftover chicken?

Chipotle Chicken Enchilada Casserole

7 Replies

Looking for a dish that is sure to keep them coming back for more? I was going to make this one with light cheese fat-free blah blah blah blah but I decided to forget it since it’s all homemade ingredients. Does that count? My tummy says it does.

Time from start to finish: about an hour. So give yourself a little time. 🙂 I wish I had taken more pictures but I kept getting distracted and forgot. This truly is one of the best dishes for a family. It’s a crowd pleaser!

Step One: Cook your chicken. I get my chicken in bulk from Zaycon and dice it up before I freeze it. I highly recommend this time saving trick.

I sprinkled Penzey’s Chipotle seasoning on the chicken. YUM. That’s all I have to say about that.

Now,

Place chicken in a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons cilantro, corn, crushed red pepper, cream cheese, salt and pepper to chicken; toss to combine.
Return pan to medium-high heat. Add 1/2 cup onion; sauté 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 3 garlic cloves or 1 TB of diced garlic; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add onion mixture to chicken mixture; stir to combine. Set aside.
Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups onion, remaining 3 garlic cloves, broth, salsa, 1/4 cup water, 3 chipotle peppers and/or jalapeño in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Carefully pour mixture into a blender or food processor; add 2 tablespoons cilantro. Process until smooth. This is your sauce.

AND THE SAUCE IS THE BOSS. Just sayin’.

Here’s where I wish I had more pictures. 🙁 Now it’s time to cook your corn tortillas. I used coconut oil (just a few tablespoons) and I cook them on each side until they are crispy and yummmmy. In fact, I made an extra one to munch on. It’s like having your own freshly made tortilla chips. Ridiculously good.

Now, the LAYERING can begin. Man, my mouth is watering.

Spray your pan and put some sauce down, Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Layer your tortilla quarters on top. Then, spoon your chicken on top of the chips. Then, more sauce, more tortillas, more chicken. Big pan, one layer. Small pan, more layers. You get the idea.

Once you have your last layer of sauce and chips, just sprinkle cheese and bake. Your family will think you need your own cooking show. 🙂

Here’s the quickie version. Let me know how it turns out!

INGREDIENTS:

Cooking spray
4-6 skinless chicken breasts
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro (you will use this in thirds) Dried cilantro is okay but fresh is much better.
2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/2 cup low-fat cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 chipotle peppers
1.5 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper or more, to taste
2 large chopped onion
3 T minced garlic (I use the kind in a jar when I’m in a hurry.)
2 cup chicken broth
1 cup of your favorite salsa verde
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeño pepper
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
shredded sharp cheddar cheese for topping

Here’s how you do it

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
Cook previously diced chicken with a bit of chipotle seasoning or cumin and a little salt.
Place chicken in a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons cilantro, corn, crushed red pepper, cream cheese, salt and pepper to chicken; toss to combine.
Return pan to medium-high heat. Add 1/2 cup onion; sauté 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 3 garlic cloves or 1 TB of diced garlic; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add onion mixture to chicken mixture; stir to combine. Set aside.
Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups onion, remaining 3 garlic cloves, broth, salsa, 1/4 cup water, 3 chipotle peppers and/or jalapeño in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Carefully pour mixture into a blender or food processor; add 2 tablespoons cilantro. Process until smooth. This is your sauce.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tortillas; cook in coconut oil if you have it, 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove tortillas from pan; repeat procedure with remaining tortillas. Cut tortillas into quarters.
Pour a small amount of your sauce into the bottom of an 9×12 glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover with tortilla quarters over sauce.
Spoon half of chicken mixture over tortillas. Repeat layers, ending with tortillas. Pour remaining salsa mixture over tortillas; sprinkle evenly with cheddar cheese. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Top with remaining cilantro

The flavors of this dish will amaze you—sweet and savory, spicy and refreshing. Our kids all loved it!

Spicy Baked Zucchini Chips {yum}

Crock Pot Chicken Curry Made Simple

68 Replies

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!

2 Replies

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}

86 Replies

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.