Category Archives: Slow cooker

Chicken tortilla soup

I love this recipe and have been making it for over 10 years. It seems like a lot of ingredients, but don’t let that scare you, I promise it is easy! The most time-consuming (and tedious) task is picking the cilantro leaves.
Hominy is similar to corn, and can usually be found in the international goods aisle of the grocery store, with other canned vegetables. I could not find it today at Whole Foods so I just added more regular corn.

I’ve always made it according to the recipe (aka on the stove), but this time I decided to try it in the slow cooker, which saves a step of having to cook the chicken separately. I’ve included directions below both for the stove-top and the slow cooker.

Getting my ingredients ready

You can easily make this vegetarian by omitting the chicken and substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Chicken tortilla soup
Source: Allrecipes.com circa 2001
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano

Onion and garlic saute

1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 can (10.5 ounces) chicken broth 
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
1 cup white hominy
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chile peppers
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite size pieces (raw chicken if using slow cooker)

A bowl full of goodness

Optional toppings: crushed tortilla chips, sliced avocado, shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream, chopped green onion

Directions (stove-top)
1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5-10 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, hominy, chiles, black beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, sour cream, and chopped green onion.

Directions (slow cooker)
1. In a medium fry pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft.
2. Place all ingredients, except cilantro and optional toppings, in slow cooker.
3. Cook on high for 1 hour, then turn to low for 4-5 hours.
4. Remove chicken, shred it, and place back in slow cooker. Cook on low for 1 hour more, then stir in cilantro.
5. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, sour cream, and chopped green onion.

Poblano corn chowder

Last summer we got so many poblano peppers that I needed to find something to do with them. I found this recipe, fell in love with it, and was excited to make it again when we got poblano peppers from the farm. Unfortunately I’m still waiting for those peppers! I didn’t think I could wait until next summer, especially since it’s a nice hearty soup for winter, so I made it anyway.

To enhance the flavor, I roasted the chopped chiles and thawed frozen corn before adding them to the slow cooker.

  • Toss the chiles and thawed corn with 1 Tablespoon olive oil and toss to coat.
  • Place in a single layer in a roasting pan and bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Poblano corn chowder

Slow cooker goodness

Source: Adapted from Key Ingredient
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients
4 cups chicken broth
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 cans (about 14.5 ounces each) cream-style corn
1 large potato, diced small (about 2 cups)
2 large poblano chiles, seeded and diced (about 2 cups)
1 package (10 ounces) frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 links of chorizo sausage (about 1/2 pound), casing removed and crumbled
1 cup cream (light, heavy, or soy)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions
1. Stir the broth, sugar, canned corn, potato, chiles, thawed corn, and sausage in a 6-quart slow cooker. Place chicken breasts in slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour, then turn down to low for 4-5 hours (or until chicken is cooked through).
3. Remove chicken breasts, shred, and return to slow cooker. Stir in the cream and cilantro. Enjoy!

Pulled pork

I don’t cook meat very often, but when I do pulled pork in my slow cooker is one of my favorites! I also wanted to make something that make a lot of leftovers (I heart leftovers) for lunches this week. The same recipe works great for pulled chicken. The recipe is not very precise as you can vary the amount of meat, onions, and garlic to your taste. This week I used a 2-pound boneless pork loin, 1 onion, and 1 bulb of garlic.

Pulled pork
Serves: 4-6, but depends how much pork you use
Source: me

Ingredients
Pork (I usually use pork loin)
Onions, sliced
Garlic, minced
1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer (I usually use a medium-dark beer, like Sam Adams)
1 (28-ounce) bottle of barbecue sauce (I usually use Sweet Baby Ray’s or make my own)

Directions
1. Place pork, onions, garlic, and beer in slow cooker. Cook on low for about 6 hours (I usually cook on high for the first hour and then low for 5 hours).

2. Remove pork and discard liquid, reserving onions and garlic if desired. Shred pork.

3. Place shredded pork back in slow cooker and mix with barbecue sauce. Cook on low for 1 hour.

4. Enjoy! I like to have it with cornbread or slider rolls.