Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot

I stumbled on this blog post within days of buying a couple whole chickens on sale:

Source: eatathomecooks.com via Tamara on Pinterest

First, for those that know me, you know I pretty much only cook boneless, skinless meats.. usually from frozen... so it was a big step to buy the chickens in the first place, but this looked way too easy.

The blogpost above is just simple instructions... (here's a direct link to the post: http://eatathomecooks.com/2010/04/whole-chicken-in-the-slow-cooker.html) She also offers suggestions on seasonings and recipes for the left overs.

(Forgot to take picture til I had already started serving it up)



Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Place the cleaned chicken breast side up in the crockpot. Cook on high for 6-8 hours.

I added some Mrs Dash for seasoning and just a little bit of salt. I also added 2.5 cups of water so that I could make some broth at the same time for soup.

It was an easy way to cook a chicken.. I thought it was nice and moist and pretty good.

One issue I had with this was the meat just falls off the bone (which is good), making it impossible to get the chicken out of the crockpot for serving. I ended up just pulling chunks off while it remained in the crockpot.

This method is super easy, so very likely I'll do it again once in a while.

Baked Butter Chicken

I ADORE butter chicken, but it's a rare treat, only about 2 times a year we go out for butter chicken at the local restaurant. It's just too calorie rich of a dish for me to splurge on it too often.

I came across this recipe in a What's Cooking magazine (Fall 2011), and immediately ripped it out and put it on my fridge. Today we finally tried it.

Not the loveliest of photos... it's a good thing I don't plate things in a restaurant ;).


Baked Butter Chicken

1/2 cup Miracle Whip Dressing
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 Tbsp Catalina Dressing
1 tsp garam masala (I used tandoori masala)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
8 small boneless skinless chicken breasts (2lbs)
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro (I omitted)

Heat oven to 350 F. Mix first 6 ingredients until well blended. Pour over chicken in 13 x 9 baking dish. Turn chicken to coat evenly. Cover and bake for 40 minutes, or until chicken is done. Serve the chicken with sauce overtop and a sprinkling of cilantro.


It had wonderful flavour! It did lack the creamy richness, so I don't think it could fully replace going to our favourite Indian restaurant, but it was delicious in it's own way. We will be making this again! Conveniently, it takes about the same amount of time to cook as the rice. The photos with cilantro in the magazine look so much nicer, but both my husband and I dislike cilantro, and think it overpowers the flavour in most dishes.

The kids didn't give me a chance to try my naan bread recipe out this time... but I still plan to do that in the near future. Maybe for the Tikka Masala recipe I've been eyeing up.

Cream Cheese Crock Pot Chicken

I saw this recipe on Pinterest, and knew it was perfect for me. First, I always forget to take my meats out to thaw, second, chicken and balack beans are 2 of my favorite ingredients in a dish. The simple dump it in and turn it on instructions are also great for me these days... no chopping, or any other prepping.

Source: thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Cream Cheese Crock Pot Chicken
4 frozen chicken breasts
brick of cream cheese
can of black beans, drained
can of corn, drained
can of diced tomatoes w/ green chilis (mine was diced tomatoes with red peppers)

Put chicken in bottom of pot, and dump everything else on top!
Cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring every 2 hours or so. I shredded my chicken at 6 hours, and let it stay on warm until dinnertime. (Doesn't look that appetizing in the pot.... must say)



Great served with rice! We enjoyed this recipe, i ended up adding about 3/4 cup of salsa to give it a bit more flavour (could potentially replace the diced tomatoes with the equivalent in salsa next time), and it was yummy.

With the leftovers, I mixed in a bit of cheeze whiz and more salsa and we dipped multigrain tortilla chips in it. Then with another batch of the left overs we put it in our grilled cheese sandwiches, like a panini (I think this was my favourite way of all 3 to eat it!)

Broccoli Salad

Broccoli Salad

1 head of broccoli, chopped to bite size pieces
2-3 green onions, chopped
couple handfuls of craisins
handful sunflower seeds

Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise (I use miracle whip)
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Combine all the ingredients, mix up dressing separately, pour over broccoli mixture and mix all together. Refrigerate for a couple hours before serving.

Love this salad in the summer. I never measure the ingredients and it's very flexible on additions. I know some people that use grapes instead of craisins, others that add bacon pieces, and even others that add peppers. This just reflects how I make it, and the things I like in it. I've added cauliflower and celery on occaision as well on occasion. Always a big seller at BBQ's and potlucks.

Meal Plan Sept 26 - Oct 2

Here is my meal plan for this week.... 2 new recipes, and a couple older ones that I plan to share. Hoping I can stay on track. Kids are both snotty today, so I suspect that I won't have some pre-school time to do prep, but hopefully I can still get it done. I might rearrange a bit, as right now the weather on Friday is supposed to be hot, so I might not want soup that day.

Monday - Spaghetti, meat sauce, peas
Tuesday - Baked butter chicken**, rice, naan bread
Wednesday - Whole chicken**, potatoes, veggies
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Matzo Ball Soup*
Saturday - Pork chops, potatoes, salad
Sunday - Waffles and fruit

*recipe from my collection that I will share
**new recipe to try, and share

Will be sharing as we make them hopefully as well. I do have a few other recipes to share in the mean time.

Barbecue Spareribs - Crockpot

This is another recipe that I do in bulk (3 or 4x) and freeze. It's from the book Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer (LOVE this book)



5 lbs beef or pork spare ribs
1.5 cups ketchup
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup pineapple

Brown the spareribs in a skillet. Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Place ribs in a freezer bag and after sauce has cooled, pour over ribs in bag. Freeze.

When you want to cook them for that day, you can either dump the whole bag (thawed first) in your slow cooker on low for 7-8 hours, or you can bake it in the oven in a large dish, covered, at 350 degrees for 1.5-2 hours.



These ribs are delicious. I've never been a rib person, but these are pretty darn good! We serve them with rice, or with potatoes, and veggies. Toddler approves them as well!

I generally buy ribs when I see them on a really good sale or marked down, and whip these up for the freezer, since it's quick, easy and with stuff I have on hand most of the time. I am LOVING freezer cooking, so you'll probably be seeing a lot more of it on here. Tonnes of new freezer recipes I've found on Pinterest as well!


I think we're finally starting to settle into our "new" normal since baby's arrival, and I think I could maintain a meal plan again, so I plan to do one up for the month of October, and hopefully get back into blogging.