Hawaiian BBQ Chicken

The crazy cold weather is no secret to most of the nation.  We are experiencing colder weather than we have had in 20 years here in Kentucky.  I didn't take all this frigid cold into consideration when I made up the meal plan for this week.  Instead I just focused on what nights we would be out late for ball games.  That meant that Monday and Tuesday would be slow cooker nights.

Kind of ironic that on a day when the high temperature was only forecast to be 4F (with a wind chill of -20F), that I had planned to cook HAWAIIAN BBQ CHICKEN.

All day I'm looking out the frosty windows.  And smelling some Hawaiian cooking BBQ chicken in my kitchen.  

It smelled DELICIOUS! 

From original site(found through Pinterest, of course!)--

Ingredients:

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

a bottle of Hawaiian style BBQ sauce

a can of pineapple chunks

rice

Make:  Place the chicken in crock, then cover with sauce and pineapples.  Cook on low 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken in the crock and serve over rice.

What I did:  I already had some drumsticks in the freezer so I used them to save a little money.  The original recipe site uses BBQ sauce purchased from Target (Archer Farms Hawaiian style BBQ sauce).  For me, going to Target requires driving 35 miles out of my way so I checked at the place I was at (Wal-Mart).  No Hawaiian style sauce.  Dilemma.  I chose honey BBQ sauce and added in the 100% juice from the pineapple chunks!  I also opted to cook mine in a 9 x 13 baking dish simply because the added warmth from the oven was welcome in this cold!

I'm not usually a fan of sweet entrees.  I like my meat savory.  But this chicken?  It's so yummy!  We served ours with whole grain rotini.  Mainly because my husband turns his nose up at any kind of rice other than saffron.  I think it would be great no matter what it's served with!

Super Simple Pot Roast

Generally, pot roast is pretty simple to begin with, but I found this recipe that has only five ingredients and tastes amazing!

Ingredients:

-Any size beef roast sized to fit your crock pot (or in my case, I used my Clay Cooker)

-1/2 cup of warm water

and...

a package of brown gravy mix, ranch dressing mix, and Italian dressing mix.  I grabbed the zesty Italian, but regular will be fine.

Place the roast in the crock pot.  

In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients then rub them on the roast.  Add 1/2 cup of warm water.

Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove from crock, let it rest, then EAT IT!

So good.  So simple.  I found that adding a bit of the juice from cooking made it even better.  The next day I threw some in a tortilla with banana peppers and Monterey Jack cheese.  Mmm... mmm...  Just writing this post, I'm getting hungry.  Might need to make a run to the grocery!

Project 52 - #4

I'm doing it!  I'm doing it!  Working on these 52 goals is going great!

Yeah, I know I'm only 4 days into the New Year.

DO NOT rain on my parade.  I've made it this far and that's saying something!  I am so glad I discovered this blog through my Pinterest.  We are such a busy family that having supper practically cook itself is a real help for me.

I should note that I'm having to use my larger slow cooker for this meal because I broke the bottom out of the crock on my 5 qt. cooker.  Not excited about it, but it was about 12 years old.  Guess it's time to buy a new one!

I'm not a big fan of chicken.  I don't think there is anything quite as gross as having to handle raw chicken.  The possibility of  getting salmonella is also not fun.  I'm always scared I won't cook it enough and everyone will get sick.  This usually results in my overcooking the chicken.  Slow cooker chicken takes a little of the fear away from me.  I mean, it must be done if it's cooked for 6 hours, right?

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken and Veggies
Recipe from 365 Days of Slow Cooking


What y'all need:
-- 4 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed (I used 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs)
-- 4 large red potatoes, cut into small wedges (I used 6 small potatoes 'cause the husband bought a big bag of smaller potatoes instead of the larger ones)
-- 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
-- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
-- 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (I cheated and used refrigerated lemon juice)
-- 1 tablespoon of minced garlic (I didn't measure mine, I just minced up 3 cloves of garlic)
-- 2 teaspoons of dried oregano
-- Salt and pepper


Cook it up:

1. Mince up some garlic, then add that and the olive oil, lemon juice and oregano to a small bowl and mix well.  Set aside so the flavors can meet each other!
2. Slice up that carrot, cut up the potatoes.  Place them in the bottom of your crock.  Dash with salt and pepper.
3. Wash off that chicken!  I used boneless, skinless thighs, but I still had a bit of fat trimming to do.  Put the chicken on top of the potatoes/carrots.  Add a bit of salt and pepper.
4. Take your olive oil mix and spoon it over the chicken.
5. Cover and cook 4-6 hours on LOW, or until potatoes are tender.  

Since I used a larger crock I cooked on LOW for about 5.5 hours, added 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of Worcestershire, then cranked it up to HIGH for about an hour.  I probably could have added a little more water, but I didn't want to drown it.  I would have added chicken stock instead of Worcestershire/water if I'd had any.  Isn't that one of those things you are ALWAYS supposed to have in your cabinet?  Oops!

As with everything else, I'm forgetful and forgot to take a photo of the food still in the crock before I began dishing it up.  I remembered about three bites in and scrambled to grab a couple of shots.  

My husband and I both agreed that we would probably have to fix this yummy dish again.  My son ate his plate then went back for seconds... twice.  (He cleaned out the crock!)  Daughter #1 curled up her nose before it was done cooking and didn't even give it a chance.  She did eat a couple of bites, but then said she just couldn't eat it.  Such a drama queen... She's picky about everything though.  This recipe will definitely get cooked again.