Slow Cooker Favorites Soups, Stews, and Chilis: 150+ Easy, Delicious Slow Cooker Recipes, from Cincinnati Chili and Beef Stew to Chicken Tortilla Soup
By Adams Media
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About this ebook
It’s time to start up the slow cooker!
Slow Cooker Favorites: Soups, Stews, and Chilis gives slow-cooker fans more than 150 recipes perfect for the fall and winter. With minimal prep work and easy clean up, the most challenging part will be selecting which delicious bowl to try next. Whether it’s crockpot chili for the tailgate, spicy chicken tortilla soup on a chilly day, or beef stew the whole family will love, there’s something for everyone in this comprehensive collection of crock-pot recipes.
Adams Media
Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, informs, instructs, and inspires readers across a variety of lifestyle categories by providing the content they’re looking for, from the experts they follow and trust. From New Age to Personal Finance, Cooking to Self-Help, Adams Media researches, identifies, creates, and distributes accessible content with implicit discoverability. Embodying a uniquely flexible “ground-up” publishing model, Adams Media navigates within or between consumer categories as market opportunity dictates. These are the books people are searching for.
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Slow Cooker Favorites Soups, Stews, and Chilis - Adams Media
Introduction
Are you sick of cleaning up a mountain of dirty dishes? Looking to serve a crowd? Does the simple act of eating a home-cooked meal seem like a luxury?
If this sounds familiar, it’s time for you to plug in your slow cooker and make a hot meal a priority—not a chore.
With a slow cooker, you can create everything from appetizers to soups and stews to flavorful entrées and you don’t have to worry about spending hours—or much time at all—in the kitchen. Just drop in your ingredients, turn on the slow cooker, and you’re out the door with a delicious dinner guaranteed to greet you when you get home.
In Slow Cooker Favorites: Soups, Stews, and Chilis, you’ll find more than 150 warming slow cooker recipes that make dinnertime easy, inexpensive, and incredibly versatile. These flavor-packed dishes come from a variety of cuisines—Mediterranean, Italian, Asian, and Indian—and we even serve up a number of American favorites like Texas Firehouse Chili, Simple Split Pea Soup, and Basic Beef Stew. You’ll also find a chapter that gives you the rundown on how to use, clean, and store your slow cooker and information on how to customize your recipes once you get the hang of using this appliance.
So whether you’re craving Smoky Chipotle Pork Chili; Garden Vegetable Soup; Ham, Cabbage, and Carrot Stew; or just some good old Minestrone Soup; with Slow Cooker Favorites: Soups, Stews, and Chilis you’ll always know what’s for dinner.
CHAPTER 1
Slow Cooker Basics
So you know you want to use a slow cooker and you’re excited to whip up the delicious soups, stews, and chilis found throughout the book. But, where do you start? In this chapter, you’ll learn everything you need to know to choose, cook with, clean, and store your slow cooker. In addition, you’ll find some basic techniques for using this appliance as well as some info on the methods and terminology used in the book to make cooking with your slow cooker as easy as possible. Let’s get cooking!
What Slow Cooker Equipment Should You Buy?
Maybe you’ve gone to buy a slow cooker and were intimidated by all the options. It can be intimidating. With so many different styles from which to choose, how do you pick the one that’s right for you?
There are small 1-quart versions that are perfect for hot-dip appetizers and large 8-quart models that make enough stew for a large family. There are versions with automatic timers and warming settings. Some have removable crockery inserts, while others have the crock built into the device.
The first thing you need to do is take a look at how you’ll be using the device. Are you routinely gone for more than nine hours during the day? If so, you might want to consider the automatic timer and warming functions because even a slow cooker can overcook some food. Do you want to make entire meals? The two-compartment model would provide more options. If you don’t like to spend a lot of time washing pots and pans, consider a slow cooker with a removable crockery insert. These can be cleaned in the dishwasher, while self-contained units must be sponge cleaned. The good news is that a slow cooker remains a slow cooker. It’s a relatively simple device that’s hard to use incorrectly.
If you are lucky enough to plan your purchase of a slow cooker, define what you will be using it for. Do you have more than four people in your family? If so, you might want to go with a 6-quart or even 8-quart version. Someone who does a lot of entertaining or likes to freeze leftovers might want the larger version. Many of the recipes throughout this book call for either a 4- or a 6-quart slow cooker, so keep that in mind while choosing your appliance. Once you decide what type of slow cooker to buy, you’ll need to figure out how to use it. Read on…
How to Use Your Slow Cooker
Today’s slow cookers usually have two settings—high and low. The low setting is equivalent to about 200°F at its highest, while the high setting gets up to about 300°F. However, the reason they are listed as high and low is because the actual degrees don’t matter. Since the food heats indirectly, absorbing the heat from the crockery, it will cook the same way within a 50-degree temperature range.
Slow cookers heat up slowly, usually taking two to three hours to get up to their highest temperature. This ensures that the food retains its nutrients while also preventing scorching or burning. It’s also the reason you don’t need to be home while the meal cooks. When your slow cooker is on, resist the urge to lift the cover to view, smell, or stir the contents. Every time you lift the cover of the slow cooker, valuable steam escapes, reducing the internal temperature several degrees. This steam that the slow cooker creates is an important factor in creating those marvelous flavors—foods are cooked in their own steam, literally infusing the flavor back in through the cooking process. This keeps the food moist and works to tenderize the meat and even the most stubborn vegetables. Every time you lift the cover, plan to add at least twenty minutes to your cooking time.
Slow Cooker Suggestions
The heating elements for a slow cooker are across the bottom of the slow cooker and up the sides. Until you become very familiar with the quirks of your slow cooker, cooking on low is the safest bet for ensuring the food turns out the way you want it.
Even the most inexperienced cook can quickly master slow cooker recipes. Just keep the following things in mind:
• Cut meat and vegetables to the same size to ensure even cooking in soups and stews.
• Place slow-cooking items such as hard vegetables—rutabagas, turnips, potatoes—on the bottom of the slow cooker.
• Slow cooker recipes don’t like water. Because the food is infused with steam, very little water escapes. When converting a recipe from a regular cookbook, use about half the water and add more during the last hour of the cooking cycle if necessary.
• Most traditional slow cooker recipes take seven to nine hours on the low setting. The high setting takes about half that time but doesn’t tenderize the meat as much.
• Spices and aromatic vegetables have different characteristics when slow cooked. Some, such as green peppers and bay leaves, increase in intensity when slow cooked. Others, such as onions and cinnamon, tend to lose flavor over the long cooking process. Most slow cooker recipes reflect this difference, although you may have to adjust for your own tastes.
• When cooking traditional slow cooker meals such as soups, stews, and meats, make sure the slow cooker is at least half full and the food does not extend beyond 1" below the top. This ensures even cooking.
• Don’t thaw food in the slow cooker. While it may seem a natural use, frozen food actually heats up too slowly to effectively prevent bacterial growth when in a slow cooker. It’s better to thaw food overnight in a refrigerator or use the microwave.
With these things in mind, you’ll be a slow cooker professional before you know it.
How to Care for Your Slow Cooker
Slow cookers are very simple appliances. However, they do need some special care. If you follow these rules your slow cooker will produce healthy meals for many years:
• Never, never, never immerse the slow cooker in water. If it’s plugged in at the time, you could receive a shock. If it isn’t plugged in, you could damage the heating element.
• Always check for nicks or cuts in the electrical cord before plugging it into the outlet. This is especially important because you may be leaving the slow cooker on for several hours with no one in the house.
• Parts of the slow cooker can be cleaned in a dishwasher. If you have a removable crockery core, place it on the bottom rack. If you have a plastic cover, be sure to place it in the top rack of the dishwasher so it doesn’t warp. If the crockery container isn’t removable, simply use a soft cloth or sponge to wash it out. Always use a damp cloth to wash the metal housing.
• Remove baked-on food from the crockery container with a nonabrasive cleaner and a damp sponge. Do not scrub with abrasives, as these can scratch the crock, creating areas for bacteria to reside.
Be sure to follow all of these rules to guarantee your slow cooker will both last for many years and perform at maximum potential with each use.
Slow Cooker Suggestions
Cooking with a slow cooker becomes even easier when you use slow cooker liners. The liners are made of food-safe, heat-resistant nylon. They also make slow cooker cleanup fast and easy because you simply place the liner in the slow cooker crock, add the ingredients, cook according to the recipe instructions, throw the liner away when you’re done, and wipe down the slow cooker and wash the lid.
What Else Do You Need to Know?
So now you know how to buy, cook with, and clean your slow cooker. Now let’s take a look at what else you need to know to successfully make the deliciously easy meals found