Successful Crockpot and Slow Cooker Recipes
By Jennifer Slaugh, senior staff writer

At 5:15 p.m., everyday, as I drive home from work, I'm thinking to myself, "What on earth am I going to have for dinner? I'm hungry now, so I don't want to prepare something that will take a long time to cook, but I want something that is healthy and filling. What should I do? Is there a solution for me? If only I had thought ahead and put some food in the slow cooker, I would have dinner ready for me RIGHT NOW. Oh, woe is me."

Well, so maybe the thoughts don't go exactly like that, but it would be wonderful to walk in the door after a long day of work and be greeted by the inviting smell of a pot roast or pineapple chicken wafting from my slow cooker.

Although I think of it more often in the winter when I start craving hot meals like beef stews and creamy soups, the slow cooker is a year-round friendly appliance. One of the benefits of using your slow cooker in the summer is that you avoid the heat from a hot oven.

At any time of year, though, a slow cooker can make life a little more convenient because by planning ahead, you save time later. And you stop being tempted by less nutritious dinner options when you have a delicious dinner waiting at home! Here are some tempting recipes that have been tested and enjoyed by family and friends around the country.

Slow cooker tips
(Collected from the
Fix It and Forget It Cookbook)

General Advice

• Slow cookers come in a variety of sizes, from 2- to 8- quarts. The best size for a family of four or five is a 5-6 quart-size.
• Check the quantity of the ingredients to be sure that your dinner will fit in your slow cooker. I have a small slow cooker (2-quart), so I have to scale back a lot of recipes to fit the small size.
• Most folks refer to slow cookers as crock pots, but "Crock-Pot" is actually a trademark of Rival, which dominates the market.
• Fill your cooker no more than 2/3 full and no less than half-full.
• Spraying the inside of the slow cooker with non-stick spray prior to putting in ingredients will help with cleanup.
• One hour on High equals about 2 to 2 ½ hours on Low.
• Don't peek. It takes 15-20 minutes for the cooker to regain lost steam and return to the right temperature.
• Milk products such as cream, milk, and sour cream can curdle and separate when cooked for a long period. Add them during the last 10 minutes if cooking on High, or during the last 20-30 minutes if cooking on Low.
• As your dish nears the end of its cooking time, it's time to add the finishing touches. If there seems to be too much liquid, remove the lid and turn the pot up to high, allowing some of the water to cook out. If you'd like to thicken or enrich the sauce, now is the time to stir in cream, sour cream, shredded cheese, or a slurry of cornstarch and cool liquid. Brighten up the flavors with salt and pepper, lemon juice or vinegar, and maybe a handful of fresh chopped parsley, basil or cilantro.
• You can adapt many conventional recipes for the slow cooker! Any oven or stovetop recipe that has some moisture in it-from water, broth, sauce, canned soup, etc., should work beautifully in your slow cooker. As a rule, you should cut all liquid amounts in half when adjusting for the slow cooker. The low heat setting is approximately 200°F (95°C) and high heat is about 300°F (150°C). For every hour you'd cook something in the oven or on the stove, allow 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. (When in doubt, turn it on low and leave it all day or overnight.)

Vegetables

• Fresh vegetables take longer to cook than meats, because, in a slow cooker, liquid simmers rather than boils.
• When cooking meats and vegetables together, especially when cooking on Low, place the vegetables on the bottom where they will be kept moist.
• Try to have vegetable and meat pieces all cut to about the same size and thickness.

Meats

• Less tender, less expensive cuts of meat are better suited for slow cooking than expensive cuts of meat. Because the meat is cooked in liquid for hours, less tender meats turn out tender and juicy.
• Always defrost meat or poultry before putting it into the slow cooker.
• When using raw meat, begin by cooking it for 1-2 hours on High to avoid cooking it too slowly.
• There is some debate over whether or not you need to brown meat before cooking it in a slow cooker. There are advantages to it, but it's not necessary. Tossing meat in flour and searing it with a little oil in a hot skillet for a few minutes will give it an appetizing color and a more complex flavor than simply tossing it raw into the crock, but either way, the meat will still cook. One type of meat that you should always brown in a skillet before adding it to the crock, though, is ground beef (or, for that matter, any ground meat). If you don't brown it first, it will clump together, remain an unappealing color and add lots of grease to the finished product.

Herbs and Spices

• You may want to revise herb amounts when using a slow cooker. Whole herbs and spices increase their flavoring power, while ground spices tend to lose some flavor.
• When adapting range-top recipes to slow cooking, reduce the amount of onion you normally use because the onion flavor gets stronger during slow cooking.

Rice & Pasta

• In recipes calling for rice, don't use minute or quick-cooking rice. If cooked rice is called for, stir in raw rice with the other ingredients. Add 1 cup extra liquid per cup of raw rice. Use long grain converted rice for best results in all-day cooking.
• Cooked pasta and rice should be added during the last 1-1 ½ hours of cooking time to prevent them from disintegrating.
• If a recipe calls for cooked noodles, macaroni, etc., cook them before adding to the cooker. Don't overcook; instead, cook just till slightly tender.

Slow Cooker Safety

Advice about Slow Cooker safety from the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service:

Q: Is A Slow Cooker Safe?
A: Yes, the direct heat from the pot, lengthy cooking and steam created within the tightly-covered container combine to destroy bacteria and make the slow cooker a safe process for cooking foods.

Safe Beginnings
Begin with a clean cooker, clean utensils and a clean work area. Wash hands before and during food preparation.

Keep perishable foods refrigerated until preparation time. If you cut up meat and vegetables in advance, store them separately in the refrigerator. The slow cooker may take several hours to reach a safe, bacteria-killing temperature. Constant refrigeration assures that bacteria, which multiply rapidly at room temperature, won't get a "head start" during the first few hours of cooking.

Thaw and Cut Up Ingredients
Always defrost meat or poultry before putting it into a slow cooker. Choose to make foods with a high moisture content such as chili, soup, stew or spaghetti sauce.
Cut food into chunks or small pieces to ensure thorough cooking. Do not use the slow cooker for large pieces like a roast or whole chicken because the food will cook so slowly it could remain in the bacterial "danger zone" too long.

Use the Right Amount of Food
Fill cooker no less than half full and no more than two-thirds full. Vegetables cook slower than meat and poultry in a slow cooker so if using them, put vegetables in first, at the bottom and around sides of the utensil. Then add meat and cover the food with liquid such as broth, water or barbecue sauce. Keep the lid in place, removing only to stir the food or check for doneness.

Settings
Most cookers have two or more settings. Foods take different times to cook depending upon the setting used. Certainly, foods will cook faster on high than on low. However, for all-day cooking or for less-tender cuts, you may want to use the low setting.

If possible, turn the cooker on the highest setting for the first hour of cooking time and then to low or the setting called for in your recipe. However, it's safe to cook foods on low the entire time -- if you're leaving for work, for example, and preparation time is limited.

While food is cooking and once it's done, food will stay safe as long as the cooker is operating.

Power Out
If you are not at home during the entire slow-cooking process and the power goes out, throw away the food even if it looks done.

If you are at home, finish cooking the ingredients immediately by some other means: on a gas stove, on the outdoor grill or at a house where the power is on.

When you are at home, and if the food was completely cooked before the power went out, the food should remain safe up to two hours in the cooker with the power off.

Handling Leftovers
Store leftovers in shallow covered containers and refrigerate within two hours after cooking is finished. Reheating leftovers in a slow cooker is not recommended. However, cooked food can be brought to steaming on the stove top or in a microwave oven and then put into a preheated slow cooker to keep hot for serving.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov

Cookbook Recommendations:

Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes (Better Homes & Gardens (Paperback)) by Chuck Smothermon, Better Homes and Gardens, Carrie Holcomb, Better Homes and Gardens Books
$19.95

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting With Your Slow Cooker by Dawn J. Ranck, Phyllis Pellman Good
$16.95

Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Cookbook
by Betty Crocker
$22.95