CrockPot review & Chicken in the tub recipe!!

Hi there!!

I said I would be back soon, so here I am with a new blog post! 🙂

Hope you will find this interesting and if so, please give me your feedback, either by leaving a comment below or on social media! Btw, there’s a recipe for you at the very end of this article!! 😉

Today, I would like to write about one of our kitchen appliances that has become a huge favorite (and lets be honest, a friend); the CrockPot.

If you are not familiar with what a CrockPot is, in a short description, it is a slow cooker, which allows you to cook your meal in a simmering way, meaning you can leave you meal cooking unattended for several hours.

In short terms, a slow cooker is great if you want to prepare meat and be sure you will have a super tender and juicy end result. One can choose between two methods:

Low & Slow – low heat and cooking time longer than 5 hours
High & Fast – high heat and cooking time of less than 4 hours

It is the combination that matters, and of course, depending on the recipe you are preparing, one method may give a better result over the other method. In the end, all you gotta do, is experiment with it and not be afraid!

There are TONS of different slow cookers, each of them with different capacities (volume wise) and specifications. Instead of describing all of them, just have a look at the CrockPot website.

For us, in particular, we decided to go for a “medium” size with timer and “keep warm” function. Let me introduce you our friend “Potje” (the nickname we came up with for the CrockPot hahaha):

source: Google.com

This is an appliance not so well know in Europe (as far as I know), but commonly used in the USA and Canada.

You may wonder: why do I/we need such thing?!

Let me point out some reasons why we choose to invest on such appliance (yes, it’s an investment because these babies aren’t the cheapest pans in the shop!):

Ability to make big chunks of meat super tender
We’ve got a spare ribs fan in the house; the best spare ribs are the tenderest ones!
With the timer option, you can start cooking 6-8 hours prior your dinner time; no more stress about “when is the dinner ready?!”. If you’ve got super long days at work, are a parent, or simply do not like to worry about the time your meal will be ready, this is for you!
If you are a planner and like to “pre-assemble” your meals on a weekly basis (prepare veggies/meat/sauce in a bag and freeze), all you got to do is, every morning before going to work, put the content of each bag in the pan, set the timer (depending on the recipe) and be sure that your dinner will be ready once you are back from work!
And as a plus, your kitchen will smell divine!!!

Of course there are a lot more reasons, and each person has his/hers, but these were the ones that convinced us to buy such appliance.

So far, we have tried a few recipes, but the internet is full with them! 🙂

Beef stew
Big chunk of lamb with potatoes and veggies
Spare ribs
Lasagna (yep! It tasted good!)
“Chicken in the pot”.

Today, I bring you, my take on “Chicken in the Pot”!

Ingredients list:

Chicken thighs

2 medium size chopped potatoes

2 carrots in thin slices

2 small/medium sliced onions

1/4 chopped pumpkin

Peas (as much as you like)

1 garlic glove chopped in small bits

1/2 cup of chicken broth

Olive oil

thyme to taste

paprika powder to taste

black pepper powder to taste

Cayenne pepper powder to taste

Salt to taste

How to:

Cover the bottom of your slow cooker with the onions.
Top it with all the veggies.
Place the chicken thighs with the skin side up.
In a bowl, mix all herbs, peppers, salt, olive oil with the chicken broth. Make sure you get a nice mixture. Pour it over the chicken and veggies.

CrockPot settings:

Low & Slow method – low heat + 5 hours cooking time.