Fast Food with Slow Cookers

It’s 5:30 pm. What’s for dinner? Each day, millions of people are faced with this question. If no plans have been made, fast food and home-delivered pizzas start to look pretty good.   A good solution for individuals who are time-restricted, nutrition-conscious, and budget-minded is the slow cooker.

For the most part, all one has to do is place the ingredients in the slow cooker, plug it in, and turn it on. However if important food safety recommendations are ignored, food prepared in a slow cooker could cause a foodborne illness. The Food Safety and Inspection Service offers the following tips for safe slow cooking:

·         Always start with clean hands, cooker, utensils and work area.

·         Refrigerate perishable foods until preparation time. You can chop meat and vegetables in advance, but they must be stored separately in covered containers in the refrigerator.

·         Use only thawed meat or poultry.

·         Do not place large pieces of meat, otherwise, the food will cook so slowly that it could stay in the danger zone too long (for bacterial growth).

·         Fill the cooker between 1/2 and 2/3 full. Root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes cook slower than meat or poultry so place them on the bottom, add the meat, and then cover with liquid.

·         Don’t peek! Every time the lid is removed, it can take 20 minutes to regain the lost heat.

·      If you are not home during the entire slow-cooking process and the power goes out, throw out      the food, even if it looks done!

If you want to make your favorite recipe in the slow cooker, follow these guidelines:

·         Soups, braises, and some casseroles with cooking times over an hour are the best choices.

·         If original cook time was about an hour, cook for 4 hours on high. If original cook time was longer than 1 hour, cook for 8 hours on low.

Following is an easy, slow cooker recipe:

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Chili

1 onion, chopped

One (16 ounce) can unsalted black beans, drained and rinsed

One (16 ounce) can unsalted kidney beans, drained and rinsed

One (8 ounce) can unsalted tomato sauce

One (10 ounce) package frozen corn kernels

Two (14.5 ounce) cans unsalted diced tomatoes

One (4 ounce) chopped green chilies

One package low-sodium taco seasoning

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 Tablespoon chili powder

24 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3 to 4)

1/4 cup chopped, fresh cilantro

Optional: chopped chili peppers

Combine all ingredients except for chili peppers and chopped cilantro in a slow cooker (10 hours on low or 6 hours on high).When ready to serve, shred the chicken with a fork and add chopped cilantro and chili peppers. Serves 6.

Nutritional information per 1 ½ cup serving: 370 calories; total fat: 3.5g; saturated fat: .5g; sodium: 460mg; carbohydrates: 47g; dietary fiber: 14g; sugars: 9g.

For additional information on slow cooking, contact me at the Wise County Extension office:

940 627-3341.