Crockpots rock

This post is dedicated to my friend, Denise, you know who you are, the one who gave away her crockpot because you thought it only made stew, ahem, loser, ('ew' with some sort of face, was your exact description I believe). Every year when the weather changes, my crockpot becomes my number one cooking appliance. I make soups and yes Denise, stews *YUM*, chicken and beef as well as wonderful bean dishes. I am currently borrowing two different cookbooks from the library filled with crockpot recipes. I am hoping to list one a week on here, that is if I find one that was especially delish and worth sharing! But first, before I share that first recipe, I would like to share with all of you my amazing Thanksgiving experience, thanks to my Crockpot! You know how crazy things get on Thanksgiving, just about when the turkey is done, the potatoes are boiling away, ready to be drained the stuffing needs to be pulled as well as getting the last items on the table. Well, this year, I decided I was going to make things run much smoother! So, what did I turn to? Oh yeah, my crockpot. Here is a breakdown of the day, got up in the morning, late by the way, got my stuffing going, made it up in the pan (and even made my own with day old challah I made, oh super yum, feeling like super thanksgiving woman about now) then dumped the whole lot in a crockpot, set it to low, done. While I was doing that my son was peeling potatoes for mashed potatoes, I finished up the job after the stuffing, set them to cooking meanwhile attending to a variety of little tasks. Potatoes are done, drained them, put them in the Kitchen Aid (oh yeah, another fav) with plenty of butter and rice milk, salt and pepper. They mash away. When done, where do they go? Oh yeah, my second crockpot! Turkey is done cooking in the roaster on the counter, oven is baking fresh rolls and Scott is now pulling the turkey to let it set. He carves, the grandmas make up the gravy and I take the lids off the crockpots, and of course finish setting out last minute items. Oh my, I have never had mashed potatoes as good as those that came out of that crockpot, not only that, but they were HOT! They almost tasted like twice baked, and if I do say so myself (which I am) that was some of the best stuffing! (But you add enough butter to anything....well you know) So, to sum it up, it was quite a wonderful experience using crockpots! I am thinking next year, more crockpots, one for gravy, one for turkey breasts, you think I can cook an apple pie in a crockpot? So, now for the recipe my family really enjoyed a couple of weeks ago from our crockpot:
BBQ Cranberry Chicken
4-6 chicken breasts, uncooked
1 cup your favorite BBQ sauce
16oz cranberry sauce (whole berry kind is best)
Put the chicken in the crockpot, mix the sauces pour over the chicken. Turn on low and cook all day, 6-8 hours. Done. I added wild rice to this mix and peas on the side. Such an all American dinner, it was so YUMMY!
Ok, as a bonus I will give you one more, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, you can have an instant repeat of last Thursday but WAY easier.
Chicken and Stuffin'
4-6 Chicken breasts (of course you could use turkey, I am allergic, so I don't)
1 Box stuffing (or make your own)
1 Can cream of something soup, perhaps chicken or mushroom whatever (I actually used leftover potato corn chowder I had in the fridge from the night before)
So, place the chicken in the crockpot, pour soup over top (not thinned if you are using canned) make up stuffing in a bowl (not cooking it) put it on top of the chicken, turn crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. That's it! DONE! yummy!! Great way to use up that leftover cranberry sauce!
So Denise, keep watching, I will work on adding more to these recipes...until I have converted you into a crockpot lover. Not a crockpot loser. MWAAAAAA MWAAAAA MWAAAAAA (evil laugh, in case you didn't know)