The: I'm broke and prefer to smoke but gotta eat on the cheap crock pot thread

Never did get any pictures of the chicken the other night before we stripped it down, but it basically looked like half of this:


But, here's a picture of the soup I made from the leftovers :

 

This was originally a venison chili recipe, but I’ve been out of ground venison for a few years and just started making it with ground beef...

INGREDIENTS

3 cans dark red kidney beans
3 cans diced tomatoes (any flavor variety of your choice)
2# browned ground beef, drained of grease. (If you use 90/10 or better, there's not any fat to drain off.)
3 packets McCormicks chili seasoning. (Your choice of heat-mild-med-hot)

OR! I have my own seasoning recipe -I’ll post shortly- that is all spices, no additives and crap.

Add entire contents of beans and tomatoes to crock and let stew on high for about an hour. (If you have the time, I like to let them sit longer)

Brown (and drain) the beef. Add to crock and let sit for at least 30 minutes on high.

Add seasonings last. Another 30 minutes on high. Set to low and serve when you’re ready to eat. This doesn’t get soggy or overlooked so don’t worry about it sitting for hours...

**not in the original recipe
I add a diced sweet onion, sometimes sliced mushrooms, or a drained can of whole kernel corn...

This is a mild-heat chili, flavor with more chili powder or red chili pepper flakes as needed.

 

The frozen dumplings have been elusive in CA so when I do see them, I buy 4-5 at a time. Sadly the usual place I do find them is Wally World and I refuse to shop there...

 

We have added enchilada sauce to the last 3 batches of chili, and I’ll probably do so for the entirety of my existence. We love it.

Also made a white, chicken chili the other week and it was delicious. All done in the IP. Love that thing!

 

Recipe or get out

 

The white was off Pinterest.

Red is just the same as any other recipe, plus enchilada sauce.

But I can probably assemble the specific white recipe later. We don’t use a recipe for red, and hadn’t made white before.

 

First of all I will get photos next time and edit them into my post. I've never had the roast fall apart even when I brown it. I mainly cook it all day on low. That said, the meat is ready to just fall off the bone when it's a shoulder roast but I wouldn't say it falls apart.

 

Then I must be some kind of special because I can never get meats out of the pot in one piece

I guess that’s a good problem!

 

I will say this I tried it with a boneless pork loin once and I guess due to the smaller grain on that cut it deteriorated into a sort of mealy mush. Shoulder and butt roasts have a lot more fat as well which adds flavor.

 

Thank you.

 

Never looked for those, but I cant say Ive seen them either.

 

There's some tricks you can use; you can tie the roast across the grain of the meat with cooking twine before cooking, which helps hold it together while you brown it. You can also use a crockpot with a removable oven-safe bowl. That lets you just move it directly from the crockpot into the oven for browning.
Or you can do what I do (because I'm lazy) and brown it in a hot cast iron pan before you put it in the crock pot.

 

Actually now that you mention it I do have a nice new big crockpot with the removable bowl. I like to brown after cooking so the outside gets a little crusty.

 

For sure. I cook whole and half chickens in the crock all winter long, and when I get home I always pull the liquids for gravy & then put the pot into the oven for 20-30 minutes so I can crisp the skin up. Otherwise the skin texture is just soggy and blech.

 

See, I throw my pork taco meat under the broiler for a few minutes (after it's shredded in the pot) to give it a little more texture

 

What about for beef nachos?

 

Can't help much there. I do make carne asada using a citrus based marinade but it then goes on the grill.

I like watching those cars drift though. Reminds me of when I had a front wheel drive sedan when driving in snow and I learned to pull out of a slide by accelerating. I initially learned it in desperation one time as braking was making things worse so I said f*ck it and stomped on the gas and surprise pulled out of the slide and got things straightened out.

 

All ground beef in this house is custom blended by yours truly and then cast iron cooked with seasoning.



I occasionally use some leftover pork for nachos

 

I'm a single bachelor with a house, Tacoma, and a dog. THANK GOD for this thread. I bought one of those 2 pound roasts, corn, and veggies. When I got home from work it was amazing

I seriously haven't eaten this good from my own cooking...ever