Crockpot: Orange Chicken

My husband loves almost every recipe that I make. He loves them so much that recently he has began getting upset after a particularly good meal because he doesn't know when he is going to have it again. :-D So I've decided that now at least once a month I will cook something old in with all the new. This month, however, I decided that I wanted to do a whole month of recipes we've ate before... but I just couldn't take it so I did add in 3 new ones. So, you will get a couple of recipes that I have posted about before refreshed in your memory, as well as pictures to go along with them to entice you to try them.
I have been making this dish for about a year and a half now. It is really easy and one of the reasons I like it so much is it is done in the crockpot. This is also a low-cal recipe which makes it extra nice. It's a fantastic dish, so you should definitely give it a try. This dish is from Fix It and Forget It Lightly by Phyllis Pelman Good. I use my rice cooker to make rice while I am mixing up the mandarin sauce so it all goes together so nicely.

ORANGE CHICKEN LEG QUARTERS
170 calories per serving.

4 chicken drumsticks, skin removed*
4 chicken thighs, skin removed
1 c. strips of green and red bell peppers (I just use green)
1/2 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. prepared orange juice
1/2 c. ketchup
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. molasses
1 T. prepared mustard
1/2 t. garlic salt
11-oz can mandarin oranges
2 t. cornstarch
1 c. frozen peas
2 green onions, sliced

1. Place chicken in slow cooker. Top with pepper strips.
2. Combine broth, juice, ketchup, soy sauce, molasses, mustard, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken.
3. Cover. Cook on low 5-6 hours.
4. Remove chicken and vegetables from slow cooker into a ovensafe pan. Heat broiler to high and broil for 4 minutes. Keep warm. (The broiling part is optional, Emi and I just like our chicken's outside to be a bit crispy.)
5. Measure out 1 cup of cooking sauce. Put in saucepan and bring to boil.
6. Drain oranges, reserving 1 Tbsp. juice. Stir cornstarch into reserved juice. Add to boiling sauce in pan.
7. Add peas to sauce and cook, stirring 2-3 minutes until sauce thickens and peas are warm. Stir in oranges.
8. Arrange chicken pieces on platter of cooked white rice, fried cellophane noodles, or lo mein noodles. Pour orange sauce over chicken and rice or noodles. Top with sliced green onions.

Flautas

You will have to excuse me for my lack of updating and commenting lately. I just recently started a new job and I will need a little while to get used to the change. Speaking of jobs... I wouldn't usually do this, but I really dislike the place that I am currently working, mostly because I just graduated from a school and I'm not even doing what I went there for. If any of the people that read this site have any connections with Medical Transcription, I'd really appreciate any help that I can get. I have been trying to find a job in that field (since I went to school for it) but it is tough right now because of a lot of graduates and companies aren't hiring because of the economy. Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
Anyway! Back to food. When I saw Real Mom Kitchen's recipe for Chicken Flautas, I knew I needed to give it a try. I hit one little snag in that my deep fryer is too small for the tortillas. I remembered seeing on For the love of cooking that she baked her taquitos in the oven so I combined these forces :-D and came out with an awesome meal!
Immediately following my husband's first bite, he explained to me that he didn't expect to like these, but that he ended up LOVING them and told me I could make them anytime! :-D

FLAUTAS
Please click on the above links to check out the original recipes
3 chicken breasts
1 Tbsp. Fajitas Seasoning
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 small can chopped green chiles
10 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese (whatever you like, I used cheddar)
toppings of your choice to dip them in such as salsa, guacamole, etc. (I used the green enchilada sauce mixed with sour cream. Next time I'd like to dip them in this.)

Place your chicken in a crock pot with the fajita seasoning and garlic salt and cook on low for at least 6 hours. About 1 hour before you want to eat, remove chicken from the crock pot. Shred the chicken and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Then mix in shredded cheese.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put flour tortillas for 1-2 minutes in the microwave to soften. Place a bit shredded chicken on the side of the tortilla then roll. Place, seam side down, on a baking sheet that's been coated with cooking spray. Finish rolling the rest of the flautas, then spray each of them with cooking spray and bake for 5-6 minutes then turn over and cook for an additional 5-6 minutes or until crispy and golden brown.

I served this with sour cream rice. This ended up being REALLY good! I changed it slightly to make it a little more tasty. I will definately make it again!

SOUR CREAM RICE
2 cups rice, cooked
1 tsp salt
1/2 T. garlic powder
2 cups sour cream
1 cup grated monterey jack cheese or any soft white cheese
3 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, no seeds or 1/2 cup chopped fresh chili pepper, no seeds

While cooking rice, season with salt and garlic powder. Mix cooked rice, sour cream and green chiles. Mix grated cheeses together and reserve 1 cup for topping. Stir in cheeses with rice/sour cream mixture. Pour rice mixture into a lightly greased casserole dish. Top with reserved 1 cup grated cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.

Chicken Cacciatore

This was a good meal and Emi said it reminded him of something that his mom used to cook at home. His only complaint was that I didn't add enough salt, but that is what he usually says. He can add more salt while my arteries don't shrivel up because I don't use so much salt. I skipped the step where it told me to brown the outsides of the chicken and it still turned out great. The recipe calls for crushed tomatoes, but I couldn't find any so I used 2 cans of italian diced tomatoes. It gave it an excellent flavor. I used 2 cans because I actually had 4 pounds of chicken legs. I also only used green bell peppers since the red ones are so expensive. I didn't use instant rice, but I used my good ol' rice cooker to make regular rice instead. Overall, very easy and the house smelled delicious all day!
Sorry (again!) no picture. My excuse this time is that I was babysitting a friend's children, a 7 month old and a 3 year old to be exact, so I can't say my brain was completely normal by dinner time. Check out the link for a picture.
Haha! Really I think my brain has gone but I can't blame it on the babysitting. It looks like when I made the food in the morning - I completely left out the Italian Dressing, so if you try this let me know how it is with the Italian Dressing added!

Here is the unaltered recipe:

Chicken Cacciatore
1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
3 lb. chicken thighs and drumsticks
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms (about 10 medium), sliced (about 2 cups)
1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped onions (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup each: red and green pepper strips
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz.) crushed tomatoes
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
3 cups instant white rice, uncooked

DIRECTIONS
1. HEAT dressing in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken, in batches; cook 2 to 3 min. on each side or until browned on both sides.
2. PLACE mushrooms, onions, peppers and garlic in slow cooker; top with the chicken. Combine tomatoes, salt and thyme; pour over ingredients in slow cooker. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours (or on HIGH for 5 hours).
3. COOK rice as directed on package. Serve chicken mixture over the rice.

Kraft Kitchens Tips: Taking the lid off your slow cooker for even just a minute reduces the heat and extends the cooking time. Lift the lid only if instructed to do so in the recipe.

Crockpot: Sweet & Spicy Chicken Tacos

We had these for dinner last night when some friends came over. These were really easy to make and they tasted so good! Have I mentioned before that I LOVE my crockpot? These were a hit and everyone loved their sweet and spicy flavor, even Emi! Next time, I think I will make Enchiladas with the chicken. You should definitely try this!

Funny note: This picture is of Emi's plate and he LOVES pickles. He eats EVERYTHING with pickles.

Sweet & Spicy Slow-Cooker Chicken
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
1 (14 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Approximately 1/4 c. White Cooking Wine**

Coat the inside of your crockpot with non-stick cooking spray. Place all ingredients in the crockpot. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours, or until chicken shreds very easily with a fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Chicken will absorb liquid after it is shredded.) Serve in tacos or however your little heart desires.

Since I am serving this as Chicken Tacos you would need the usual things you would put on a taco. Lettuce, Cheese, Tomatoes, Sour Cream, Avocado, Onions... We also made some Mexican rice (courtesy of Rice-a-roni) and put that in there as well. Just use whatever you like.

*I put my chicken breasts in the crockpot frozen because they seem to come out more tender that way.

**If you use frozen chicken breasts, they seem to require more liquid. I like to use White Cooking Wine because it adds a nice flavor. Or you could just use some water.

I also made some Pico de Gallo to go with this. My friend Jessica makes an awesome Pico de Gallo recipe, and while this isn't her recipe, I am hoping that it will be just as good.

Pico de Gallo
1 large tomato, diced
3 tablespoons red onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime

Mix ingredients together, cover and refrigerate overnight.

*If you use a food proccessor this recipe is VERY easy.

The pico de gallo wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but everyone did seem to really like it. I think next time I will add more salt and leave out the cumin altogether. Or maybe I will consult Jessica on what she does. If you do use a food processor, if you like your tomatoes more chunky - be sure to cut them up yourself. :-D

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

We just had some friends pop in from Las Vegas unexpectedly last night so I moved one of our dinners to tonight. This was pretty good, but also pretty salty. I also think I am not a fan of shredded chicken in this type of dish with noodles. It just reminds me too much of a tuna casserole and Emi even asked me if there was tuna in it. Weird. I think if I were to make it again, I would possibly cube the chicken, but I don't know if that would work out because it is SO tender coming out of the crock pot. I have never shredded chicken so easily!

Also, I was a little weirded out by the small amount of liquid in the crockpot (even with my addition of the cooking wine), so I added a little bit of water about 3 hours into cooking because I was afraid the chicken would burn.

Another thing that I had also never done before is start with frozen chicken and I was VERY worried about this, but it turned out great! and that is probably why the chicken was so very tender.

I would probably make this again since Emi and our guests really liked it, but... I don't know. :-D Maybe as a last resort type thing. At least I learned about the frozen chicken trick and I really do hate defrosting chicken.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff
Here is my edited version.

INGREDIENTS
4 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/8 cup margarine
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
4 ounces sliced mushrooms

DIRECTIONS
Put frozen chicken, margarine, white wine, and dressing mix in slow cooker. Mix together and cook on low for 6 hours.
Add cream cheese and soup, mix together and shred chicken. Add mushrooms. Cook on high for another 1/2 hour or until heated through and warm.

BBQ Ribs

This is one of the easiest dinners you'll ever put together.

BBQ Ribs
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Sweet Baby Ray's Honey or Original BBQ sauce (or your preferred BBQ sauce.)

1. Rub salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder into ribs.
2. Place in crock pot and smother with BBQ sauce. (Fold ribs in half if you have to.)
Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. (I usually cook mine for 9 hours)

You can use bone-in or boneless, pork or beef, ribs.

I usually serve mine with baked or mashed potatoes and another vegetable of choice.

Next Tried and True Recipe: Ranch-Style Stuffed Potatoes.

The Ultimate Beef Stroganoff

I got this from here. I think this is my favorite recipe that I have tried so far from My Kitchen Cafe. I just barely ate it and my stomach is SO full and I only ate a small serving. I probably have enough meat and sauce left for two more meals and if you know my husband, you know that is a miracle! Yum! I had one reservation about making this and that was the apple juice, when I read that I thought to myself how gross that must be, but it turned out great and there didn't even seem to be a hint of apple in it. I don't think I would change anything about this recipe. I served my beef stroganoff over fettuccine noodles.

The Ultimate Beef Stroganoff

Put in crock pot:
2-3 pounds stew meat
1 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
1 onion, sliced

Mix in a bowl and pour over meat:
¼ tsp. garlic salt
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ cups beef broth or stock (made up from cubes or granules)
1 tablespoon ketchup

Cook in crockpot on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours. When cooked make a simple roux by whisking 1/3 cup flour with enough apple juice (about 5-6 tablespoons) to make a thick but still pourable flour mixture. Whisk the roux into the crockpot and add 4 ounces sliced mushrooms.

Cook on high for 15-30 minutes. Then stir in ½ cup sour cream. Serve over pasta, rice or baked potatoes.

Baked Pork Chops

I made these last night for the first time. You will notice as it gets closer and closer to payday that my recipes get less and less fun. It means that I ran out of my ingredients that I bought for the two weeks until we get paid again. :-D But while this recipe may be a little boring, I assure you it was really good! It was very moist and tender. You will also start to notice that my husband is a sucker for BBQ, and since I don't know how to work our grill, I have to find ways to make BBQ inside.

This recipe kind of surprised me though. I thought it would taste very similar to the Oven Baked BBQ Chicken, but this was less BBQ and more tomato-ie. Apparently Emi was raving about this to our friend Cody last night as well as the Chunky Potato Soup I made a couple of days ago.

I got this from Family Oven. A new site I just found. They seem to be kind of like the google of the recipe world. I put in some ingredients I had and this popped out.

Baked Pork Chops

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 1/2 lbs pork chops, cut about 1 1/4-inch thick (Mine were bone-in pork chops.)

Directions
1. Combine mustard, flour, sugar and salt.
2. Add vinegar, ketchup and water and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour over chops in a baking dish covered with heavy aluminum foil.
4. Cover the top tightly with foil as well and bake at 350° for 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

As usual, I topped this off with a baked potato and corn. I am looking forward to trying this out in the crockpot.

My pork cooked for about an hour and 15 minutes. I made 4 bone-in pork pieces.

--UPDATE--

I've now made this in the crockpot and it had quite the different flavor from when I made it in the oven. It was REALLY good and my husband loved it. Here are the instructions.

1. Salt and Pepper pork chops to taste.
2. Place them in the crockpot.
3. Pour mixed ingredients over them.
4. Cook on low for 6-7 hours. (I cooked mine for 8 hours and they were a bit overdone.)

Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken

I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com only it was meant for wings. My husband and I aren't a big fan of wings because there is so little meat and so much annoying trouble to eat at all. I think this is one of my husband's favorite meals and he requests it almost weekly.

Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

8-10 chicken drumsticks
3 T. butter
1 T. onion powder
5 T. brown sugar
2 T. worchestershire sauce
1 c. ketchup
1/2 c. water
2 T. prepared mustard

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add onion powder, brown sugar, and worchestershire sauce.
3. In a small bowl (or I like to use my 2 c. measuring cup), mix together ketchup and water. Pour into sauce pan.
4. Add prepared mustard to saucepan.
5. Stir with a wire whisk and let simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Place chicken in a baking dish covered with heavy aluminum foil. Pour sauce over chicken.
7. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour.

At about 50 minutes, I usually turn the chicken over so that it can get browned on both sides. This is not necessary as it will be cooked though, its just how we like it. I usually tie this recipe off with baked potatoes and a vegetable of choice. It's nice because the chicken and the potatoes can cook at the same time!

If you are cooking for less, you can go to the link above and use their serving calculator to recalculate the ingredients. The ingredients come out kind of funny like 1 T. and 1/2 t. butter, but at least you aren't making as much. :-D

You can also cook this recipe in the crockpot. Cook it on low for 6 hours. This is a good option if you're not going to have time in the evening, but it tastes best baked.