I have to admit, I’ve never been a big crockpot user….in fact, if I hadn’t got married and received one as a gift, I probably wouldn’t even own a crockpot. However, after several requests from our Glutenfreeda.com subscribers and the need for instant gratification after a long day skiing, I decided to dust off our crockpot and put it to work.

After playing around with our crockpot, I discovered that slow cooking is great for a variety of reasons. One, it’s fairly effortless. Just throw in your meats and vegetables along with some liquid and let it go. At the end of the day you have your meal all ready to go! Second, it will make your house smell great. What can be better than coming home from work (or play) and walking into a house filled with the enticing aroma of a home-cooked meal!

Before you break out that crockpot, we’d like to offer some helpful tips to make your slow-cooking experience even better:

To Brown or not to Brown?:

There is some debate as to whether browning your meats before adding them to your slow-cooker is necessary. There are some advantages to browning first but it is not critical, unless you are cooking any ground meat. We did find that browning meat first in a little oil will give it a more appetizing color and adds more flavor in the long run. If you are slow cooking chicken you can place the chicken on a baking sheet or broiler pan after it has slow cooked and put it under the broiler to brown the skin (as in our Asian Crockpot Chicken) before serving.

Don’t add too much liquid:

Slow cookers work on low heat with their lids on, so as a result they loose hardly any liquid during the cooking process. In fact, most often you will notice that you have more liquid at the end of the cooking process. This is because almost all food, especially meats and vegetables, contain water. As they cook, they release water. Usually, this water is released as steam and evaporated during the cooking process but since the lid is on the crockpot there is no where for the liquid to go, so it drips back onto the food. The point to all of this is that if you are adapting a stovetop or oven recipe to a crockpot recipe then decrease the amount of liquid.

Seasonings & Spices:

Use whole spices sparingly in your crockpot. Whole spices such as cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, allspice, and peppercorns intensify as they cook in a crockpot. Either limit the amount of whole spices or add them towards the end of the cooking time. Ground spices on the other hand tend to lose their flavor if allowed to simmer over a long period of time. It’s better to add this type of seasoning towards the end of the cooking time (about the last two hours).

Speed up your slow cooker:

If you are really in a hurry we suggest choosing another cooking method. However, you can reduce the cooking time by half by increasing the heat from "low" to "high" on your slow cooker without jeopardizing the results. Food will not burn in a slow cooker because it retains moisture so well and the heat is distributed evenly around the sides an bottom of the pot. If you have a recipe that calls for 10 hours of cooking time, you can safely cook it for 5 hours on the "high" setting and still achieve similar results.

Our favorite crockpot dishes are the obvious — chili, pot roast and even spaghetti sauce, however there are other great dishes that can be easily prepared in your crockpot. This month we looked outside the "pot" and developed some great tasting, not so traditional crockpot dishes. We invite you to dust off your crockpot and get ready to rediscover delicious slow cooking!

Crockpot Beef Bourguignon

Crockpot Beef Bourguignon

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 whole clove
• 2 large garlic cloves, smashed
• 4 thick slices of gf bacon, diced
• 2 lbs. stewing beef, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, large mushrooms halved
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Place the wine, tomato paste, olive oil, onion, thyme, bay leaf, whole clove, garlic and stewing beef in a large zip-lock bag. Turn to coat and evenly distribute contents. Refrigerate overnight.

Drain the meat, reserving the marinade. In a large skillet, sauté the bacon until crisped; transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Brown the meat in the bacon fat. Transfer the beef, bacon, celery, and carrots to the slow cooker. Pour the reserved marinade over the contents of the slow cooker. Add the salt and freshly ground black pepper and stir to incorporate. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. During the last hour of cooking add the mushrooms to the pot, cover and continue to cook until the mushrooms are tender. Adjust seasonings to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve.

Asian Crockpot Chicken

Asian Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, about 3 lbs., cut into 8 pieces
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1-1/2 Tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1/2 cup green onions, diced
• 1/2 cup gf soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sake
• 1/2 cup water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup honey

Place the chicken pieces in a slow cooker. Add the garlic, ginger, green onions, gf soy sauce, sake and water. Stir to combine. Cover the pot and cook on low until the chicken is tender, about 3-5 hours. Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and transfer to a foil lined baking sheet. Brush the chicken with honey. Broil the chicken until golden on top. Turn the chicken pieces over, brush with more honey and continue to broil until browned on both sides. Adjust the seasonings of the sauce in the crockpot with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Spoon the sauce over chicken and serve.

- Glutenfreeda

ADVERTISEMENT