Coca Cola BBQ Chicken Crockpot version

As promised, the results of my home experimentation.  I don't think I'll make this recipe any way but in the crockpot from now on!

This version of this recipe double-ups the goodness by 1) becoming crockpot-friendly and 2) reducing the amount of fat in the recipe. 


You'll need to buy skinless bone-in chicken parts, or more likely yank the skin off your cut-up chicken.  It's not hard.  Hold the chicken in one hand (my left, since I'm a rightie), and use a paper towel to get a better grip on the skin with your other hand (my right, since I'm a rightie).  Pull.  Don't be afraid.  Just do it.  Yank.  Yank some more.  It will come off.  Don't sweat getting every tiny bit of skin off. 



Skinned chicken, chicken skin and sauce

Now what to do with that skin?  You can fling it, or if you want to be extremely resourceful and frugal, you can a) render it like bacon for chicken fat, a.k.a. schmaltz or b) spread it flat on a rack placed over a baking sheet and bake it until crisp to make a poultry version of pork rinds.  Or you can chop it up, saute it quickly and feed it to your dogs.

If we're taking the skin off, why don't we just use boneless chicken and save ourselves the fuss of working around bones in the cooked dish?  Because i) the bones will fall right out after a day of crockpot cookery and really not present much of a problem and ii) the bone-in structure will help keep your crockpot from way-overcooking these bad boys.

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Coca-Cola BBQ Chicken

A little more than ten years ago, my then-boyfriend and I decided it was time to get married.  I was still a grad student, anticipating graduation.  I had little interest, less money and even less time to spend on cooking real food.  But I decided that I should do something very old-fashioned...learn to cook for my future husband.  And I started collecting recipes. 

This is one of the first recipes I harvested, scrawled down frantically in real time while watching a cooking demonstration on a Nashville talk show (did anybody else ever see Crook & Chase?)  It wasn't all that long ago, but informatically it seems like the Dark Ages, or at least the early Enlightment, when recipes featured on morning talk programs weren't available instantly on the show's website.

I can't say now how closely the recipe I still have in my 3-ring binder replicates the original recipe, but it's still a good 'un.  Use a low or zero calorie soda, if you prefer.  Even though we don't keep soda routinely in the pantry any more, I still make this occasionally with a single bottle bought from the impulse aisle at the grocery store. 

I think this recipe would also do well in the crockpot, but I've never *actually* tried it that way.  I'd probably skin the chicken and skip the browning...or maybe not LOL  I'm going to do up some freezer kits this weekend b/c, duh-duh-da-duh! I'm going back to work after 3 years of full-time SAHM-itude, and I'll try this one as a crockpot kit and post results.

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Crockpot Grinders

Oh. My. Gawd. These are good.  All my favorite things...crockpot-friendly, prep-ahead and freezer-friendly and garlicky.

You can serve the grinders on toasted hoagie rolls and topped with cheese, sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms.  Just layer everything up and broil a minute or two to melt the cheese.  Or for a lower carb serving idea, serve the sauce and sausage over cooked spaghetti squash, steamed cauliflower or braised cabbage.

This recipe makes either 1 really big batch, or 2 smaller batches.  Perfect for dinner tonight and 1 freezer kit, 2 freezer kits or dinner for a crowd.  There's a lot of sauce here, and leftover sauce can be frozen to repurpose as pizza sauce or pasta sauce.

Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Better Than Mom's Slow Cooker Recipes.


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Stay-in Take-out: Pork Lo Mein

This is an America's Test Kitchen recipe originally, which means it's absolutely delicious but persnickety and step-heavy.  If you want to try it Chris Kimball's way, you can prep it ahead for same day or next day cooking with no problem...assemble the marinade for the meat and get that started, make the sauce, chop the veggies and grate/mix the ginger-garlic and set all that aside in the fridge.  But you can't freeze it ahead as a kit well, and the final cooking process comes to way more than 3 or 4 steps which my mental processing limit at 6pm.

 

So I keep the best parts of this recipe (the sauce, the cut of pork and the basic method of cooking) and reconfigure all the other parts to achieve simplicity and freezability.  If I do say so myself.  For vegetables, you'll need about 8-9 cups of veg...it seems like a lot, but it cooks down.  I park some frozen veggies in the freezer kit and plan to make up the remainder with fresh vegetables purchased the week I'll make this dinner or canned stirfry favorites like water chestnuts or bamboo shoots.  Use what you like in any combination. 

 

For the "lo mein", I've used udon, soba and whole wheat linguine, all with perfectly good results.  Just make sure to read the package directions since each type requires a different cooking time.

 

The sauce ingredients are perhaps a bit outside of the usual pantry staples, but are worth finding if only to duplicate this recipe many times over.  Oyster sauce is in the Asian foods section of even my podunk grocery stores, and it's like a steak sauce but much less vinegar-y.  Hoisin is an Asian-style barbecue sauce, and 5 spice powder is a mix of pepper, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and anise (at least my jar is).

 

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