Slow Cooked Lemon Chicken

We have made this both baked and slow cooked and it's great both ways.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs.), giblets removed
2 tbsp each of basil, parsley, garlic powder, kosher salt, and onion powder
2 whole lemons, quartered
1 pint water

Place chicken in slow cooker and season.  Place quartered lemons around chicken, and 2 inside the cavity.
Add water and cook on low for 9 hours.

You can make gravy with the juices if you wish, we were too hungry this time!

Crockpot Corned Beef & Cabbage

The classic St. Patrick’s Day dinner.  I am not the biggest fan of it but Chris loves it, so we had it.  It actually turned out better than I expected, and we *might* make it more than once a year now - I really liked it!

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com as a guide.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, sliced

4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered

6-8 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

3 cups water

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon pepper

1 -3 lb. corned beef brisket with spice packet

1 medium head cabbage, cut into wedges

Combine water, sugar, vinegar, pepper, bay leaf, and spice packet, stir until well dissolved.

Place onions, potatoes, and carrots in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Add beef and cover with liquid ingredients.  Top with cabbage. 

(Certainly not the most glamorous!)

Cook on low for 8-10 hours (we were close to 10 hours this time).

Make sure to remove the bay leaf before serving!

It was delicious :)

Slow Cooker Pineapple Chicken Thighs

This is a recipe we make fairly often.  We love the Asian flavors as well as easy slow cooker meals.  My version has been adapted from this version on allrecipes.

Ingredients:
1 large package chicken thighs (boneless or bone-in, skinless)
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup lite soy sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon powdered ginger

crushed red pepper to taste
1 -20 ounce can pineapple slices, juice for the sauce and slices reserved.

Combine the soy sauce, honey, ketchup, pineapple juice, garlic, ginger and crushed red pepper.  Whisk well until the ingredients (especially honey!) are completely blended:

Add chicken to crock pot and cover with mixture.  Add some chicken broth if you need more liquid to cover the chicken (at least 3/4 covered).  Save pineapple slices in the refrigerator.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

When you get home from work (or 8 hours have otherwise elapsed), mix the chicken up and add pineapple slices to the top.  Cook white rice and serve!

Pork Loin Roast with Apricot Glaze

Last time Chris went to pick up pork from our awesome local farm, The Blue Jingler Farm, he asked if they ever had tenderloins or roasts, as we usually just got the standard pork chops, sausage, and ground pork.  He bought a bone-in loin roast of approximately 3lbs.  Jack asked for Chris' email address and said he would send us a recipe that they often use and really enjoy.  It was a crockpot recipe and we set this up for a great Sunday night dinner.

We loved this - we couldn't stop saying how good it was!  The sweetness of the apricot combined with the mustard was wonderful.  The pork was delicious and just falling off the bone.
Thanks Jack & Cheryl for this great recipe!!

Ingredients:
3-5 lb. boneless pork shoulder roast or pork loin (We used the pork loin)
16 oz of Apricot Jam 15.75 oz.
¼ - 1 cup of chicken broth, depending on the size of the roast.  (We used a cup.)

2-3 tablespoons of Dijon-style mustard (We used 3 tbsp - Chris loves mustard!)
1 large onion, chopped

Trim the fat from the roast. (Chris prepared this and did not trim the fat!!  We just separated it once cooked.)
If necessary, cut roast to fit into a 3 ½ to 6-quart slow cooker. Place meat in cooker.
Combine preserves, broth, mustard, and onion; pour over meat.
As you can see, we used the big crockpot; I would use the smaller one next time so the meat is more engulfed in the sauce; but this came out great regardless!

Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10-12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5-6.  This time we cooked it for 6 hours on high.

Transfer the meat to a serving platter and cut. Skim fat from the sauce, if need be.

Spoon some of the sauce over the meat.

We served with brown rice as recommended and broccoli.  We will most definitely be making this again; so so good!