Rebecca's Caribbean Chicken

This recipe comes courtesy of our friend Rebecca. I am submitting it as she gave it to me; the only change I make is that I usually use fresh pineapple in lieu of canned, and crush some up to create the juice.

Caribbean Chicken

3 large chicken breasts, cut in large chucks
Salt
Pepper
8 oz. can pineapple chunks
Pam
1 tsp. garlic
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
½ tsp. coconut extract
Pinch red pepper
¼ cup packed brown sugar

1. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Drain the pineapple juice over this and marinade in the fridge while preparing the remaining ingredients.
2. Brown the pineapple chunks in a skillet with Pam. Remove to a side plate.
3. Mix garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, coconut extract and red pepper together.
4. Lightly brown the chicken in the pineapple juice. If you cook it all the way, it will be too dry in the end. Add the soy sauce mix and sprinkle with sugar. Turn the heat to medium or med-low, and reduce until the liquid mixture is thick and gooey. This will cook the chicken the rest of the way.
5. Serve with rice. Zatarain’s Caribbean Rice is a terrific companion.

Chicken Cauliflower Curry

Since I want my son to know how much I love him by keeping his diet rich in cruciferous vegetables, I acquiesced to his recent demand for cauliflower. I like the taste of the stuff, though not so much the usual gas that goes along with it, but love is love, so what can you do? I also love my crock pot and coconut milk, and my husband thinks it's not a meal unless there's meat, so let's see what happens when I throw all that together. Today's concoction follows some less than encouraging commentary from my friends online about the merits of crocking cauliflower :)

I added the following ingredients to the crock pot in this order:

1 onion, diced.
5 potatoes, peeled 1-2 inch cubes
1 cauliflower, washed and broken into florets
6 frozen chicken thighs

mixed together in a small bowl,

1 can coconut milk
2 tbs yellow curry powder
1 tbs garam masala
1 tsp salt
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp dried thai basil

and poured it over the rest. Cooked on low for 8 hours.
We served this over steamed white rice. It was okay, not the most exciting thing I've ever made, and seemed a bit bland. Based on this experience, I am not adverse to crockpot cauliflower....

Chicken and Corn Stew

I'm always looking for new ways with the crock pot, and found this recipe for "Anson County Chicken Stew." I assembled the ingredients in the crockpot the night before and refrigerated it overnight so DH would only have to turn it on in the morning. We used frozen chicken thighs instead of cooked chicken. After work, I removed bones and chicken skins and broke up the meat. It was thin, so I made a roux with about 3tbs butter and 1/2c flour to thicken it, added a bag of frozen stir fry mix, and let it go for another couple hours. I found it a bit salty (probably due to the canned soup), but it was good, and easy. We served it with crusty wheat bread. Next time, I plan to add potatoes to add bulk and absorb some of the salt.

Ingredients
5 frozen chicken thighs
1 (16 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (16 ounce) can creamed corn
1 small onion, finely diced
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
salt and pepper, as needed
2-3 bay leaves
1 pinch basil
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons butter

Directions
Place all ingredients into crock pot.
Cook on "low" setting for 6-10 hours.

Pulled Pork BBQ, part 2

This assumes you've already made the Dry Rub posted below.  This is adapted from Tyler Florence's Oven-Roasted Pulled Pork Sandwiches, but rather than baking the roast in the oven at 300F for 6+ hours, i use my crockpot.

Crockpot Pulled Pork

1 recipe BBQ Dry Rub

1 (5-7#) pork roast, preferably shoulder or Boston butt

1. Rub the spice blend all over the pork & marinate for as long as you have time for, as little as 1 hour or up to overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.
   
2. Brown roast on all sides, either on outdoor grill, or in a large skillet on the stove.
3. Place roast in large crockpot, & cook on low for 8-14 hours, or on high 4-7 hours.  Basically, cook the pork until it's falling apart & an instand-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 170F.  In my experience, it is not possible to overcook the roast this way.
4. Remove the roast from crockpot & pour accumulated juices into a measuring cup to allow fat to separate from drippings (reserve for sauce).
5. While roast is still warm, take 2 forks & "pull" the meat to form shreds, steadying the meat with 1 fork & pulling it away with the other.