Slow Cooker Chicken and Sweet Potato Southwestern Stew

I was playing in the garden yesterday and realized a bit before 2pm that I had forgotten about dinner, and scrambled to throw something in the slow cooker. This is a completely made-up clean-out-the-pantry meal. Wednesday is usually our leftover night, but I kind of ate all the leftovers in the house for lunch. oops.

The Ingredients.


4 frozen chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 2 inch chunks
1 (15-ounce) can baked beans
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 (4-ounce) can fire roasted diced chile (a last minute brainstorm!)
1/2 cup pineapple juice (leftover from the Easter Ham)

The Directions.

Use a 4 quart slow cooker. Put the chicken into your stoneware, and drop the sweet potato chunks on top. Add all the contents of the baked beans, tomato paste, and diced chile. Pour on the pineapple juice. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 6-8. Your stew is done when the chicken is cooked through and the the sweet potatoes are fork-tender.

The Vedict.

This is gross. Really gross. I think it's the tomato paste. I took a few bites to be a good sport, but could tell about 2 hours into it that this wasn't going to be a very good dinner. I thought maybe with some shredded cheese it could be palatable, but it just wasn't. The house smelled like burnt tomato stew, even though the tomato paste mixed with the pineapple juice and bean and chile liquid and there was plenty of moisture. It was just not good.

really bad.
really really really bad.

We ended up having McDonalds. I drove through in my slippers.

other memorable flops:

coconut chicken curry
fruit leather
bacon wrapped scallops
hard boiled eggs
roasted pumpkin seeds

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Slow Cooker Baked Bean Soup Recipe

Oh I loved this soup. It tastes just like you'd imagine a can of blended pork and beans to taste, except better.
The soup was a bit spicy for the kids, although they did eat it. Read "the verdict" below to see how I would adjust for next time.

The Ingredients.
serves 6
1 (15-ounce) can white kidney beans, or pinto beans (if you are going to use dry, pre-soak 2/3 cup overnight, and then cook until beans are soft)--no need to drain canned beans
1 cup finely diced onion (I used 2 minis)
1 cup diced carrot
3 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
1 tablespoon gluten free soy sauce
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 (14.5-ounce) can fire roasted tomatoes (and juice!)
2 cups water
salt to taste before serving

The Directions.

Use a 5-6 quart slow cooker. Put beans into pot, and top with onion and carrot. Add all seasonings and spices. Pour in the entire can of tomatoes, and add water. Stir.
Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. If your beans were dry, you might need to go as long as 10 hours, depending on altitude and humidity.
Before serving, pulse a bit with a hand-held stick blender to blend some of the beans. This will thicken your broth and provide a richer flavor. If you don't have a stick blender, scoop out about 1 cup of liquid and pulse CAREFULLY! in a traditional blender, and stir back into the crock.


The Verdict.
I really, really liked this soup. Adam thought it could use some bacon.
There's a slight kick from the chili powder, but it's not overpowering. If I was making it again for my kids, I'd cut back on the onion and the chili powder. My kids ate it, but they would have eaten more if it was a bit milder. I served it with Pamela's drop biscuits. The leftovers freeze well, but you will probably need to add a bit of broth or water to thin it out again.

more bean soup:

16-bean soup
refried bean soup
white chili
black bean soup
morrocan lentil
split pea soup

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Erin Chase, from $5 on Rachael Ray tomorrow, April 21

Good Morning!!

I just wanted to give you a heads up that Erin, from $5 Dinners will be on the Rachael Ray show tomorrow, April 21. I haven't met Erin face-to-face, but she and I have chatted on the phone a few times and through email and instant message.

You can read about her experience with the taping, here.

What I LOVE about reading her RR story, is it started the same way mine did. She emailed the show. I can't even count the number of times I've written in to talk shows-----I do it all the time, and I did it monthly while I was trying to get Totally Together published. It's just something I do. I feel it's better to do something proactive (not the face scrub. although I have tried it----it sort of worked, but then gave me a rash) then wait for stuff to fall in my lap.

But the Rachael Ray show is the only one, ever, who has ever responded.

So! set your dvrs and support Erin. And then go do something that will push you towards whatever goal you're currently working on. (towards whatever goal of which you're currently working?) boy, that sounds pretentious.

In other news,
I completed all my copyedit edits. The book just got FedExed off (which, OH MY is expensive. $68? really? I couldn't believe it.)

and Tiffany, from Eat at Home, interviewed me along with 4 other busy food bloggers about thier go-to family meals.

Have a super wonderful day! I'm spending it doing nothing. :-0

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What I've Been Up To

I'm here! I'm alive!

I've gotten a few emails asking if I'm okay.
I am, and the idea that there are REAL people out there who worry and care about me is totally freaky and extraordinarily neat (yes, neat. I thought for a full 4 seconds on what adjective to use here, and I chose neat. all on my own. I need to stop watching Silver Spoons reruns on Nick at Night).

I'm working on the slow cooker manuscript---I've got the copy edits back and I'm working my way through them----it's due back in a few days, so I'm feeling kind of scatter-brained. It's a little disheartening to get a pile of papers back with red writing scrawled everywhere, but I've been told that it's all good, and most of the red stuff is not for me, but for the graphics people.

We have a finalized name, now, too! Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: The Big Book of Everday Slow Cooking. I like the name a lot. This is my living room. And since I like keeping it real and all, there's the laundry that I should have put away, but instead I'm hoping magical elves will come do it for me. I'm not following my own list of chores.

~sigh~

The slow cookers are nestled under the kitchen countertop, and they are currently empty. I have not planned anything for dinner. which means I've again not followed my own advice.

~~double sigh~~



We're probably going to have leftover baked bean soup that I made the other day but haven't gotten around to posting.

~~~triple sigh~~~

it tasted pretty good, though. I made it vegetarian. It could have used some bacon, probably.

or maybe Adam will pick up Taco Bell. Adam?

I'm still weighing heavily on this sadness.

and that's about it.

Thank you so much YET AGAIN for all of your complete and utter awesomeness.

and patience.

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Slow Cooker 20 to 40 Clove Garlic Chicken

This is a reader recipe sent in by Veronica.

Thank you so much, Veronica-----this is a fantastic recipe. She usually uses about 20 cloves of garlic, and I tried to go up to 40 cloves, but ended up only having 33 in the house to use. I used two packages of drumsticks for the chicken, but you could easily throw a whole bird in or use 3-4 pounds of your favorite chicken parts.

The Ingredients.
serves 6


3-4 pounds chicken
1 large onion (or 2 bitties, like I used), sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
20-40 garlic cloves, peeled, but intact

The Directions.

I used a 6 quart oval slow cooker. Place onion slices on the bottom of the stoneware insert. In a large mixing bowl, toss chicken parts with olive oil, salt, paprika, pepper, and all of the garlic cloves. Pour into slow cooker, on top of the onion.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The longer you cook chicken-on-the-bone, the more tender it will be. If you use drumsticks, the ones on the side will brown and may stick to the sides of the crock, burning a bit. If this bothers you, you can rearrange them with tongs an hour before serving.
I cooked our chicken on low for 7 hours, then kept it on warm for another 2.

Veronica serves her chicken with a salad, mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans. I served it with quinoa and asparagus.

The Verdict.

This is wonderful! The onion and garlic had a mild, nutty garlic flavor that was a bit sweet. Some of the larger cloves of garlic that were still intact were kind of strong---they itched my nose. The kids ate the chicken (no onions or garlic for them) dipped in bbq sauce. Adam and I each ate 3 drumsticks that night, and I used the leftovers to make some amazing fried rice last night.

Thank you so much, Veronica!

more chicken, bawk-bawk-bawk:

Vietnamese Roasted Chicken
Adobo Chicken
Whole Roasted
Rotisserie Roasted
Lemon and Herb Roasted

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Poor Man's Chili Slow Cooker Recipe

Happy Friday!

I made the very best "free" dinner the other night. I planned on going out to get some fresh chicken for the crock, but my little one climbed into her bed at 9:45 am and fell asleep. Until 12:30. No fever or anything, I guess she was just tired.
So I had to use what I had on hand to make dinner----the afternoon was packed full of activities, including a dance class that ends at 5:30pm. I had to get the slow cooker plugged in or we were going to end up eating lovely bowls of Rice Chex for dinner.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

This chili is similar to the Clean Out the Pantry Chili I made last July, because I just started opening cans and tossing stuff in.
But this is different.
The biggest difference is the spices I used and that my kids ate it this time. I also tried using jarred pasta sauce for the base, since I didn't have any canned tomatoes in the house. It worked!

The Ingredients.
serves 6.

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained
1 (24-ounce) jar prepared pasta sauce
1 cup baby tomatoes (optional, they pop after slow cooking!)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon corriander
1 teaspoon tumeric (not really a "poor" spice, it's a substitute for saffron, but I had it in the cupboard. If you don't have any, you can try a mixture of curry and cardamom, or just omit it all together)
1 cinnamon stick

The Directions.

I used a 6 quart slow cooker. Drain the beans and corn, and put the can contents into your crock. Top with tomatoes, if using, and the pasta sauce. Stir in spices, and add cinnamon stick. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for about 4. If the tomatoes haven't popped on their own, gently poke them with a wooden spoon to pop before serving.

The Verdict.

This was a very filling, and lovely chili without a hint of spice----just a great medley of flavor. The cinnamon provided enough of a "sweet" component to convince the kids that I had put brown sugar in their servings. I didn't correct them.
I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day over a baked potato.

more chili!:

Presidential Chili
traditional chili
white chili
clean out the pantry chili
chili and cheese afternoon snack

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