Crock Pot BBQ Pork Roast

This has become one of our favorites, so I figured it was time to record it as a keeper.

Ingredients:

• 1 pork roast (I use tenderloin, about 3 lbs)
• 1 cup Southern Comfort
• 1 jar sweet honey barbecue sauce
• 3 strips (uncooked) thick cut maple bacon
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 1 jar apple butter
• 2 pouches Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice (I use long grain and wild or brown)
• salt, pepper, garlic to taste

Put pork roast in large ziploc baggie (I use meat tenderizer on it, both sides)

Add Southern Comfort and barbecue sauce

Zip bag (I double bag) and shake well so entire roast is covered.  Marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Put roast in crock pot with marinade.  Season with salt, pepper, garlic to taste.  Lay strips of maple bacon across the top of the roast.  Add chopped onions.

Cover roast with apple butter.  Use a spatula to spoon marinade from bottom of pot into the apple butter covering the roast until well mixed and covered.

Cover pot and cook on low all day, at least 6 hours (I cook 8 – 10 hours).

Option 1:  30 minutes before serving, shred pork in crock pot.  Add pouches of rice and stir in until well mixed.  Let cook the last 30 minutes so rice thickens.

Option 2:  If you want more liquid, cook rice separately (90 seconds in microwave) and plate.  Put pork on top and pour sauce over everything.

Makes 6 servings.

Crock Pot Sesame Chicken

At my husband’s request (haven’t tried it yet though)…

1 1/2 pound boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dried onion
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Put chicken into crock pot. Combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, and garlic. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and return to crock pot – can leave chicken in and simmer on low or serve. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

This is a modification of Betty Crocker’s Chicken Pot Pie recipe found here:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-chicken-pot-pie/df0d82fa-a1de-4bc6-8952-a4a2533baf75

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

2/3 cup frozen cut green beans

1 cup cut-up cooked chicken (I bought a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and used about 1/3 of it)

1 can Campbell’s cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup

1 can Campbell’s cream of chicken soup

1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls

Directions

1 Heat oven to 350ºF. Mix vegetables, chicken and soup in ungreased glass pie plate, 9×1 1/4 inches.
2 Separate crescent rolls and lay flat over the top of the mix to form the top crust of the pie
3 Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Jamie Oliver’s Roast Turkey Recipe

I was looking for this recipe earlier today and finally found it.  We made it about ten years ago and it came out wonderfully.  Just logging it here so I don’t have to go searching for it again next time I want it.

Roast Turkey
Serves 6 to 8

The big problem with cooking turkey is that the legs take longer to cook than the breasts. This means the breasts dry out in the oven waiting for the legs to catch up. In this recipe, I push sage and apricot stuffing up under the turkey breast skin, increasing the thickness of the breasts so they take the same time to cook as the legs. The result? Juicy turkey all round!

Some people brine the turkey, some people don’t. Personally, I like to rub the turkey with table salt inside and out and put it in a clean plastic bag and refrigerate it overnight (12 to 24 hours). This removes all the excess moisture and allows it to cook beautifully.

12 small fresh rosemary sprigs, plus few extra
At least 8 cloves of garlic, 2 peeled
6 strips pancetta (smoked bacon)
9- to 10-pound organic free-range turkey
4 shallots, roughly chopped
2 carrots
1 big orange
Olive oil
1 teaspoon flour
1 quart or vegetable stock, for the gravy
A little white wine or sherry (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. To prep the turkey, rub it with salt inside and out 12 to 24 hours before cooking; table salt is fine. Store the salted turkey in a plastic bag and refrigerate. When ready to cook, rinse or wipe off excess salt. Pat it dry with paper towels and place on a board.  Make a bed of roughly chopped shallots, 6 unpeeled garlic cloves, and carrots in your roasting pan to act as a rack.

Slice the strips of pancetta in half and slice the peeled garlic into thin slivers. Place a rosemary sprig and a garlic sliver on one end of a strip of pancetta and roll it up tightly. Repeat with the other pieces of pancetta until you have 12 little rolls.

Stab the thighs and drumsticks of the turkey in 6 places on each side. Push your finger into each slit to create a gap. Place each pancetta roll into the holes until it just peeps out. Find the edge of the skin at the turkey neck and with a rubber spatula or large spoon separate the skin from breast meat so that you can put the stuffing under the skin of the turkey breast. If you’re careful you should be able to separate all the skin from the meat, keeping it attached at the sides but without ripping any holes in it.

From the neck end of the turkey, spoon the stuffing up between the skin and the breast, tucking the flap of skin underneath to stop any leaking out during cooking. Microwave the orange for 30 to 60 seconds to get it nice and hot. Poke a hole in the hot orange and stuff it into the turkey cavity. You can also add some rosemary to the cavity.

Place the bird in roasting pan filled with the vegetables, season well with salt and pepper, and rub olive oil all over. Weigh the stuffed bird, cover with foil, and roast for 18 minutes per pound, or until the juices run clear from the thigh if pierced with a knife or a skewer. Remove foil for the last 45 minutes to brown the bird.

Remove the turkey and rest on a board for 20 minutes.

Remove most of the fat from the roasting pan. Mash the roast vegetables right in the pan with a potato masher. Add the flour, sherry and stock and bring to a boil on a high heat. When the gravy thickens, strain into a bowl. Serve the turkey with the gravy.

Crock Pot Sesame Chicken

1 1/2 pound boneless/skinless chicken breasts 
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dried onion
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Put chicken into crock pot.

Combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, and garlic.

Pour over chicken.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours, or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce.

Dissolve 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot.  Stir to combine with sauce.

Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened.

Cut chicken into bite size pieces and return to crock pot – can leave chicken in and simmer on low or serve.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice.

Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding

Haven’t tried it yet, but we love banana pudding in this house.

Recipe from Paula Deen

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen Cookies OR 2 bags Vanilla Wafers
6 to 8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 (5 oz.) box French Vanilla pudding
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz.) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Directions
Line the bottom of a 13×9 inch inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.
In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer.
Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth.
Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.
Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.
Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies.
Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Apple-Bacon Monkeybread!

Apple-Bacon Monkeybread!.