Food and Beverage Blog

One of the things I most love about my crockpots is that you can make breakfast, lunch, dinner and even dessert in them.

I’d like to share a few dessert recipes with you. This first recipe is a chocolate cake that uses a boxed cake mix. I find them on sale and then buy them for later use.

1 box of chocolate cake mix
1 small box of chocolate sugar free pudding
4 eggs
1 cup water
¾ cup oil
12 ounce container of low fat or fat free sour cream

Mix all ingredients together and pour into the crockpot. Cook on low about 6 hours. Allow to cool about 2 hours before removing from crockpot.

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Chicken, is one of the most popular poultry item, consumed in every household. You can cook this in a hassle free manner by using a crockpot. The moist interior of this slow cooker lets the meat cook thoroughly and retains all its delicious flavors. Crockpot is a good appliance when you are planning to cook a leisurely meal for your family. You can start your crockpot chicken recipe overnight or early in the morning as it takes a long time (between 6 to 10 hours) to make.

However if you want to simmer that perfect crockpot dish, you have to keep in mind few techniques and tips that are very important. Every appliance has its own characteristic and you need to understand this before using it. This will help your meals turn out to be exactly how you planned it. So, let us discuss these tips for cooking the best crockpot chicken.

Firstly, you should not cook skinless portions of chicken in the crockpot. The skin will help retain the heat and juices inside the chicken while it is being cooked. If the skin is removed then the chicken will become dry and hard. Secondly, you should let the ingredients simmer in the pot for the required amount of time. Lifting off the lid time and again during the process will make the heat and moisture escape. This sets back the cooking time by about 20-30 minutes. Also, since the crockpot uses a low setting to cook, the loss in heat could spoil the dish.

The temperature that you keep the dish at is of utmost importance. The low temperature setting varies between 170 to 200 degrees F and the high setting around 300 degrees F. Whenever you are cooking a crockpot chicken make sure that the heating level goes at least up to 170 degrees, as at this point, any harmful bacteria that is there in the meat will be killed and the dish will be safe for you to eat.

It is ideal to use the leg and thigh portions for cooking a crockpot chicken recipe. These portions come cheap and are very low on any fat. It will serve best as the fat brings about an unpleasant texture in the whole thing. You also need to realize the importance of layering. The layering in a crockpot recipe is the pattern in which you add the ingredients to the pot. Since the vegetables take longer to cook than the chicken, they should be added first. This is to ensure that the vegetables are completely immersed in the liquid, which in turn helps it to cook better. So, when you are making French stew with chicken, add the vegetables first and then the meat pieces.

Beef casserole is such an easy meal to make in the slow cooker and it is one of the most classic crockpot recipes of all time. You can use ground beef to make crock pot beef stews or casseroles or stewing beef. Tough beef tenderizes when you slow cook it so you can use a cheap cut of beef if you want to, and rest assured that it will come out succulent and juicy.

This recipe has macaroni in it and it is best to make the macaroni separately and add it to the crockpot fifteen minutes before the end of the cooking time. You can cook pasta in the slow cooker but it is just simpler to cook it on the stove and then combine everything. This recipe serves three or four people.

What you will need: 1 lb ground beef, 1/4 cup flour, 2 tablespoons red wine, 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules, 1 chopped onion, 1 teaspoon salt, 6 oz macaroni, 1 cup sour cream, 4 oz canned mushrooms, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce,

1 1/4 cups hot water,

How to make it:

Brown the onion and ground beef in a skillet, and then drain off the fat. Transfer it to the slow cooker. Stir in the garlic powder, salt, flour and Worcestershire sauce. Add the wine, bouillon granules and wine and stir well.

Cover the crock pot and cook the beef casserole for two and a half hours on low. Cook the macaroni and add it to the casserole with the sour cream and mushrooms. Cook on high for fifteen minutes and serve.