Buffalo Chicken, Oh My!

I actually made this recipe quite a while ago and somehow the picture was lost to the sands of time. Actually, what happened is that my camera battery died, no photos were getting dates on them, and according to my computer I made these on January 1, 1980, when I'm fairly sure I was actually doing something more like watching Sesame Street and getting potty trained, rather than making buffalo chicken potato medallions for dinner with my boyfriend. As proof, I present a picture of myself on July 5, 1980. I am rocking the stylin' striped turtleneck.

But, now back to business. These things are freaking delicious. I found them over at Cara's Cravings, which is a very reliable source of deliciousness. They could easily be an appetizer, but we had them for dinner with some salad.

The first step is to make her buffalo chicken. Now, this was part of the big draw, because I'm always pumped to find some way to use my crock pot, which I still haven't really fully integrated into my cooking life (and definitely haven't fully integrated into my block, because I'm only batting about 50-50 with that thing).

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken:
4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks- mine were still partly frozen
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced, or, 3 tsp chopped garlic
1 red bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup Franks buffalo wing sauce (you can use some other sauce, but Franks is pretty classic.
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

Toss it all in there, and cook on low until the chicken is cooked. Mine only took about 4 hours- although that may be a function of the size of my crockpot. Once it's done, shred the chicken with a fork. This stuff was DELICIOUS. Also, I like the fact that it has tons of flavor, but no added fat. After making the recipe I'll show you here, I also used this in a creamy buffalo chicken pasta, a buffalo chicken pizza, and the rest is in the freezer, waiting to be enjoyed once I recover from my buffalo chicken overdose.

Buffalo Sweet Potato Medallions:
1 large sweet potato
crockpot buffalo chicken
crumbled Gorgonzola
olive oil/cooking spray
salt/pepper

Now, these are super easy. Take a big sweet potato (we were having them for dinner, so I picked the fattest sweet potato I can find. the girth of the potato will directly control the portion size, so for appetizers, pick a skinnier potato). Slice it into about 1/4 inch slices. Toss them in olive oil, or coat with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast on a tinfoil covered cookie sheet at 425 for 25-30 min, until a little browned, flipping halfway through.

Top each cooked slice with buffalo chicken mixture, and then with Gorgonzola sprinkles. Put the sheet under the broiler to let the cheese melt (about 5 min, depending on your broiler).

Serve either as an appetizer or with a light salad to make it into a main meal. These taste way more decadent than they actually are, give them a try!

Apricot Walnut Crockpot Chicken

I feel like in some ways I should call this "never give up" chicken, because I hate to admit it, but I almost did.

I am trying to learn to use my crock-pot, and there is a lot of variation in how well this goes (I nearly had a Thai-beef-curry induced meltdown a few weeks ago). I saw this recipe, which seemed easy and good, made some tweaks, and gave it a shot.

--11 oz jar of apricot preserves- it took me a while to find one without high fructose corn syrup, and surprisingly the grocery store brand is the one that won out

--1 T dijon mustard

--2 T soy sauce

--2 tsp ginger

--1/4 to 1/2 t red chili flakes, OR 2 tsp chili sauce (like Sriracha)

--6 chicken breast pieces or (thighs would work)

--1/4-1/2 cup walnut pieces

 Throw it all in there, and turn it on. I put it on low, and theoretically it should have taken 5-6 hours, but it took more like 4.5, probably because my chicken pieces were pretty puny.

Now, this is the point where I almost gave up.

My chicken did not look delicious like the chicken in the picture on the blog I read, it looked like flat chicken pieces in thin brown soup. Chicken floating in thin brown soup (chunky soup, because of the walnuts!) actually looks pretty gross. BUT, Charlotte reminded me that I am not one to back down from a challenge, and that cooking on a budget does not allow for throwing away large quantities of chicken, and I continued on. I took all the sauce, put it in a saucepan, and simmered it for a while until it was reduced into something thicker and more appetizing (see below).

It actually turned out! One note is, this was really sweet (I should have known something involving an entire jar of jam would be sweet), I think kids would like it as it is, but if I make it again, I'll double the chili sauce and soy sauce to jazz it up a little. Enjoy!

ps. I'd like to make a shout out to my sister-in-law Carmen, the Christmas-Elf who supplied me with some new and exciting plates to make my blogging photos more exciting... yay!

Slow Cooked Asian-style Shredded Beef

Ok, so this recipe deviates from the usual in 2 ways,
1. it involves beef!
2. it involves a crock-pot/slow-cooker!

It is, by the way, also delicious. I found it because I've been meaning to get more into the idea of slow cooking (previously seen here in the super easy chicken chili). One issue I've been having is that a lot of recipes cook for 4-6 or maybe 8 hours. Unfortunately, whatever kind of job it is that allows you to leave for work, get there, work, and get back in 6 hours, is not the job I have. So, I was searching for long-slow-cooked meals, and came up with this, from over at 'A Year of Slow Cooking').

Basically, I made some modifications- some of them are because I'm a slow-cooker newbie and didn't trust the idea that you could cook it all day with relatively little liquid in there and not end up with a burnt disaster when you got home. Here is my version...

The stuff:
2-2.5 pounds boneless beef*
1/4 cup low sodium free soy sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
6 tablespoons ketchup (or, one giant squirt, if you're me)**
4-6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons Chinese 5-spice powder (I used allspice)
3 teaspoons pre-minced garlic from a jar***
2-3 teaspoons crushed ginger, also from a jar***
3/4c water (this was added when I panicked about the volume of liquid)

optional: juice of one orange (also added when I realized I didn't have enough honey, and was still panicking about liquid. I do think it added something, and diluted the strong flavor of the allspice and hoisin)
optional: a bunch of scallions- half chopped and added during cooking, half chopped and added half hour before serving
optional: red pepper flakes

*caveat, I know jack about buying beef, so I'm not even sure what kind I bought (I picked based on whether it was on the Ralphs Club Special), but mine was possible a bit too fatty for my taste, so, go lean if you can- there is plenty of sauce to make it moist.
*ALSO- I froze my meat over night, so it would take longer to cook.
**FYI 2 tablespoons=1/8 cup, if that helps make measuring less boring
*** feel free to use fresh, but I was being lazy

Stir up all the sauce ingredients, pour over meat. Sprinkle on scallions and red pepper flakes. Set on low, and leave it be!

So, I arrived home, having gone to work, worked at work, worked out, and battled the L.A. traffic in 2 directions, so about 10 hours after I left. Let me tell you, it smelled pretty good! The meat immediately was shreddable and very tender and moist, there was also a LOT of sauce. I turned it on warm, and probably ended up eating it 12 hours after I started it so it completely met my uber-slow-cooker needs.

There are a couple of ways to serve this- first, you can put it over rice, I used brown rice. You can also incorporate cole-slaw mix or shredded cabbage in a couple ways- either by stirring it in and cooking it for the last little bit, or by serving the meat on top of the fresh cabbage which would be a low-carb version. I did a halfway version, serving it on top of a combo of brown rice and uncooked cabbage, and I liked it that way. By adding the extra liquid I made it a little more saucy, and immediately after taking this picture ended up having to transfer it to a bowl to avoid disaster (technically, I moved it to the bowl after one minor sauce disaster by me and one by my co-diner).

Anyhow, this was good- the flavor is good, the sauce was yummy, I liked the cabbage/rice combo, and I would totally make it again!

Slow Cooked Chicken Chili

So, I got a crock pot. (aka 'slow cooker' if you want to use the term everyone seems to be trying to use to pretend like these things aren't the same appliances that reminds everyone of the 70s). I'm excited, because I like soups and stews and the kinds of thing you can make in one, and the idea of having dinner waiting for me when I get home is awesome. So, I've been trying a few things (and created a few definitely non-bloggable things along the way), but here's my first official recipe (drumroll please)...

This recipe came from Savory Spicy Sweet, which was also the source of the awesome Balsamic Lentils, and apparently she got it from Pink Parsley. Here it is, with my modifications:

2 chicken breasts, completely frozen
2 cans white beans (drained, rinsed)
1 can black beans (drained, rinsed)
1 can chopped tomatoes (juice and all)
1 small chopped onion
2c salsa (I used medium, if I were you I'd use spicy since it was diluted)
2tsp cumin
1sp salt
1tsp red pepper (more/less depending on salsa)
1 red pepper, chopped

Put chicken, beans, tomatoes, spices, onion all in the slow cooker- I was doing this on a Sunday afternoon, so wanted it done in about 4 hours- so, I cooked it on high. If you wanted it longer, just cook it on low as the other recipes do (for what its worth, I'm sure this would be fine cooked slowly on the stove, but in that case you might want to do things like not use totally rock solid frozen chicken).

When about an hour is left, take the chicken out, shred it, and then put it back in. When you do, add the peppers. Also, do a seasoning check.

Serve with cheese, avocado, tortilla chips, whatever floats your boat. As you can see in the picture, I had mine with some beer bread, which I am now obsessed with. In addition, the original recipe had pepperjack cheese in it, which I think might be good, but I didn't have any, and I kind of liked that one of the benefits of the slow-cooking approach here is that there was no added fat.

It was delicious! I highly recommend it!