Potato Patch Recipes
Slow Cooker Recipes | Crock Pot Chicken and Rice

Chicken Recipes are some of the most popular recipes in the United States.  Easy Chicken and Rice Recipes are eaten in every part of this country:  North, South, East, and West.  What we do here is combine the best of two worlds:  The Chicken Recipes that everyone loves with the easy cooking that you can do with a  Slow Cooker | Crock Pot Cooking.

There is a certain twist that goes along with this Crock Pot Chicken and Rice Recipe.  The twist is that it is one of many popular Spanish Food Recipes that you will find people making in their slow cooker.  Spanish Chicken Recipes should not be mistaken for Mexican Chicken that is made in a Crock Pot.  They are two different and distinct ethnic dishes.  Make no mistake about it, this Chicken Dish has its origins with Spanish Food.

How To Cook Crock Pot Chicken and Rice

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 11 ounces of cooked kielbasa,sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 pound)
• 1 onion, diced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups converted long-grain white rice
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1 red pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
• 3 1/2 cups hot fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of frozen peas, thawed

Directions

1. The first thing you are going to do is to heat the olive oil in a medium size skillet over a medium heat.  Heat until hot. 
2. Add the kielbasa and brown it on both sides. 
3. With a slotted spoon (to help drain) put the kielbasa into the crock pot.
4. Now add the chicken to the skillet and brown it on all sides.
5. Place the chicken into the crock pot
6. Now place the diced onion into the skillet, and stir it while cooking until it is soft.  Stir in the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.  Transfer the onion and garlic into the slow cooker.
7. Now add the rice, carrots, bell pepper, salt & pepper into the crock pot.  Cover the crock pot.
8. Cook on high for 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours.
9. Before you serve the chicken and rice dish you will still need to add the peas.  So after you have cooked the chicken stir in the peas and let cook for 15 more minutes.

Chicken Recipes

Some people view cooking as a chore.  While others view cooking as an art form and a enjoyable hobby that they get to do on a daily basis.  When you are making chicken recipes or any recipe you should always remember that food always taste better when made with a simile.  With that in mind, Slow Cooker Recipes | Crock Pot Chicken and Rice, should be made with a big smile and you should be enjoying yourself while making this wonderful chicken recipe. 

 

Chicken Meals

People make chicken meals because it is easy to find recipes for chicken and simple chicken recipes.  Low fat chicken recipes makes for a healthy chicken recipe.  With all the emphasis that is placed on healthy eating, diet and weight control, it makes perfect sense to serve up easy chicken meals instead of red meat or other types of beef.  When you make chicken in a crockpot you not only are making a fast chicken dish but you are also able to choose from a plethora of simple chicken recipes.

Chicken and Rice is really a basic type of food that most people eat.  It is good for you and it is filling.  Maybe some people are taking into consideration when planning their meals that chicken and rice is a very inexpensive meal.  It never hurts to stay within your budget when shopping for food.  Quick chicken meals can be served in several different ways.  It makes chicken crock pot meals a must for any dinner menu when your in  a hurry and need something that you are sure is going to taste good.

Easy

One of the reasons that I enjoy cooking with a slow cooker | crock pot is because it is so easy.  You prepare all of the ingredients, place them in the slow cooker | crock pot and then off to work you go.  When you get home your dinner is hot and waiting for you.  That is what I call easy cooking…and convenient.  It is difficult to ruin a slow cooker meal, just follow the easy recipes and you are pretty much guaranteed a tasty dinner.  This is really easy cooking.  And as an added benefit there are very few dishes and pots to clean up.

The way I initially found out about crock pot cooking was through a cookbook that I was thumbing through at a garage sale. There were all sorts of quick and easy recipes in the cookbook, but the ones that caught my eye were the simple easy slow cooker recipes.  I don’t really like going out to eat in restaurants very much.  I would much rather cook at home.  Home cooking always taste better to me.  So when I found out that it was easy to become a crock pot gourmet I was hooked.  The food you prepare is fresh and easy and that is all I needed to know.

Thigh

We are using the chicken thigh with this recipe.  The thigh is a popular piece of chicken because it taste good, it is meaty, and it cooks up without too much worry.  Another benefit of the thigh is that it is an inexpensive piece of the chicken.  So the thigh serves many purposes.

Healthy Chicken Recipes

A healthy recipe is always something mothers look for when preparing the evening meal.  Most recipes that contain chicken really are healthy chicken recipes.  There is not much to worry about.  Unlike many so called diet or healthy eating sites we give all of our recipes, including our healthy chicken recipes, to you for free.  That is right…All of our recipes are free recipes.

Spanish Recipes

In case you are wondering about the Kielbasa in this recipe, wonder no more.  Spanish food and Spanish recipes often contain ingredients from other countries.  Kielbasa is simply Polish Sausage.

Cooking

 

Cooking School

A lot of times when I cook I tend to daydream.  You know come up with stories in my head that have no basis in reality.  But there are interesting stories that emerge when I cook.  I thought what the heck maybe I will start to write some of them down after I write out a recipe.

Sometimes when I am measuring ingredients and chopping up vegetables I think that maybe I should have attended cooking school.  You know, one of those places where they make a chef out of you.  Now don’t be mistaken,  I am not one of those fancy cooking school chefs.  I am The Potato Chef and that is about it.  I can follow directions and whip up a meal.  Really that is all most of us can do.

A good cooking recipe can be found just about anywhere.  You can find cooking recipes in a cookbook, on television, magazines, from friends, and the list goes on and on.  Cooks tend to accumulate recipes over the years and use them when they are appropriate.  Sometimes that can be years down the road.  But when the time is right, a good cook or chef is ready with the recipe that fits the menu.

To become a good cook you don’t have to go to a fancy cooking school.  Many cooks just go to some cooking classes that are put on in their own community.  Sometimes retired chefs or even housewives are willing to share their cooking secrets and favorite recipes with total strangers.  It just gives them a little sense of satisfaction to do it.

So remember, if you want to increase your cooking skills don’t fork over the big bucks to go to a cooking school, just take some cooking classes.

Learn To Cook

The best way to learn to cook is to jump right in and do some cooking.  Many people learn to cook at a very early age.  They help their mother or father cook dinner.  Little by little they do more and more.  By the time they are tall enough and don’t have to stand on a step stool to see the top of the oven many kids have already become adroit cooks.  Perhaps that is the best example of why a person really does not need to go to a cook school.  There is a cooking school in every kids house.  It is called the kitchen. 

Despite the popular and sometimes humorous mental pictures that are conjured up of people cooking horrible dishes when they are just starting out, it is simply not true.  If you follow the directions of most recipes, even the most inexperienced cook can make a very good meal.  This is especially true when cooking a new dish using a slow cooker recipe like crock pot chicken and rice.

I guess microwave cooking is the way many people go today.  I have nothing against the microwave.  Heck I use one just about everyday.  But if you think that you are going to become an accomplished cook by microwave cooking, boy are you sadly mistaken.  Heating items up, yes!  Warming leftovers up, yes!  But microwave cooking an entire meal….NO…If you prepare make ahead chicken then microwaving the meal to warm it back up makes sense.  Cooking the chicken from scratch in the microwave makes no sense.  Yuk!!!

Cooking Schools

There are so many cooking schools out there that it is hard to keep track of them.  I see cooking schools advertised on TV and in newspapers.  I will tell you this:  They are very expensive.   You have to wonder if these schools are producing so many highly trained and qualified chefs, that the value of chefs go down.  I wonder if the cost of these schools are really worth the benefit that you get out of them.

Le Cordon Bleu is perhaps the most famous of all cooking schools.  I’m not sure but I believe they started out in Paris, France.  I don’t think that they teach you how to cook in a slow cooker or crock pot the way that I do.  But hey….that is why I’m here.  So, take a cooking class, go to an expensive cooking school, become a chef,  settle back into an easy cooking experience, and enjoy the culinary arts.

Fresh Cooking

Fresh Cooking is the “new” phrase in cooking circles.  I’m not sure what it is suppose to mean.  Does it mean you are cooking with fresh ingredients?  Or does it mean that you are cooking everything fresh and not heating up anything that is pre-made?  I’m not sure.  But when I Twitter about cooking I know that the “fresh cooking” phrase is being thrown around like a rag doll.

Speaking of Twitter, you can pick up some useful cooking tips by befriending some of the “foodies” on there.  I do have a problem with some of those bloggers.  They tend to talk a good game, take great pictures of food, and make dishes that I have never thought of or had the inclination to make.  I just wonder if you and me will ever make those recipes.  What good are recipes if nobody makes them?  The thing that I like about today’s recipe:  Slow Cooker Recipes | Crock Pot Chicken and Rice is that everybody can make it and probably will make it.  It is the type of food we all can cook and enjoy.  I’m not sure if Crock Pot Chicken and Rice is Fresh Cooking.  But really, who cares?  I guess there is something about “cooking online” that makes certain people feel superior.  After all….you don’t really have to do the cooking, just write about it.  As for me, I like to eat, so I cook and I cook what I write about.  Simple, good tasting, All-American type food.  I like eating your typical home cooking.  That is why my mother had to cut me off when I was 23 years old.  I liked her home cooking more than my own.  Of course that is what got me interested in cooking to start with.

Cooking Times

The one really great thing about cooking with a Slow Cooker or Crock Pot (do you know the difference?) is that you really don’t have to worry too much about cooking times.  You don’t want to over do it, but if you are an hour late you can be pretty sure the food won’t get burnt.  Exact cooking times just aren’t as important with slow cooker recipes.

Culinary Schools

I know I keep going on and on about these darn schools and what I think about them.  But there is something that rubs me the wrong way when I think about what they are all about.  If you think about culinary schools and what they teach,  you almost have to laugh.  After all, if you don’t go to a fine, upscale, expensive restaurant, the chances are you are not going to experience any of the recipes that they teach the students to make.

A culinary school is really not for the everyday person like me that just likes to cook good tasting meals that are easy, simple, quick, and fast to make.  The typical culinary school graduate probably winds up working at some casino buffet.  I think that they train too many people for too few jobs.  What do you think?

FoodTV

Will somebody please give me a break?  I know you watch the Food Network….There are times I watch it.  But really FoodTV is just for entertainment.  Don’t kid yourself into believing that “real” people make the recipes that they gush over for 1/2 hour during the program.  I’m sure the stray person will try and make one or two of the dishes that they see being made on TV and then give up.  It is never as easy as it appears on FoodTV.

During another rant I said that you would never see any of the “star chefs” from the Food Network cooking with a crock pot.  I said something like, “You wouldn’t see them showing you how to make crock pot chicken and rice in a slow cooker.”  Well wouldn’t you know it….Somebody wrote into this site and corrected me.  They told me (I have to take their word for it) that there is a chef on the Food Network that has cooked with a crock pot.  In the interest of fair play and all that type of stuff:  The Food Network Chef that has “demonstrated several recipes using a crock pot” is:  Alton Brown.  Give credit where credit is due!!

Alton Brown may be the exception to the rule.  But I still stand behind what I said.  The food network star chef’s are not going to show you how to cook food in a slow cooker.  They are not going to do a show on how to cook crock pot chicken and rice.

These people just are not going to do it:

• Sandra Lee with her show Semi-Homemade Cooking
• Paula Deen with her show Paula’s Home Cooking
• Bobby Flay with his show Throwdown with Bobby Flay 
• Ina Garten with her show The Barefoot Contessa
• Giada De Laurentiis with her show Everyday Italian
• Rachael Ray and her show 30 Minute Meals

Sorry…You just are not going to see slow cooker recipes on these shows.  The foods these people make should be called semi-gourmet for cooks with all day to mess around the kitchen and spend gobs of money on ingredients.

Before I get to leave this rant about FoodTV chefs we certainly need to mention my personal favorite:  Gordon Ramsay from Hell’s Kitchen.

While there is no way you are going to see Chef Ramsay have his “students” cooking in a slow cooker or crock pot, you do have to admit it is fun to watch him get red in the face and yell at everybody.

If I were on Hell’s Kitchen in would go something like this:

Chef Ramsay:  Potato Chef are you finished with that crock pot chicken yet?

Me:  No Chef.

Chef Ramsay:  Why not?  What are you doing with that bloody chicken and rice?

Me:  Cooking it in a crock pot chef.

Chef Ramsay:  You are cooking in a slow cooker?  Get out of here and don’t ever come back you fat cow!!

I wouldn’t make it past the first episode.  But it would be fun to be on FoodTV.  It also might be fun to read my original rant about FoodTV and its “star chefs” that appeared in my post about steak salad.

Dinner

 

Dinner Parties

When we throw a dinner party the first question we ask ourselves is what is going to be on the menu.  Dinner parties are like a right of passage for young people.  It takes you from being served to being the server.  You have to plan, execute, and cook.  In other words you have to be the grown up.

Dinner Set

Once you have the party all planned then you better have a decent dinner set if your plans include a sit down meal.  Of course when you are first starting out the dinner set might not be top notch, but people will give you a lot of leeway when you are first getting started.  As long as the the table and chairs are not too wobbly then you will be fine.  Cover the table with a tablecloth and you are on your way. 

Dinner Recipes

If you are throwing a dinner party then the recipe is of the utmost importance.  The less formal the party the better.  This is where your slow cooker | crock pot chicken and rice will come in handy.  As the main course for a informal gourmet dinner you can’t go wrong.  I can’t ever remember meeting anybody that didn’t like chicken and rice.  It is one of those dinner foods that you can be safe making.  Spend a little time planning out your the dinner recipes that you will cook.  It really is the most important part of DINNER.

Cooking Dinner

When you are cooking dinner you should always keep in mind the likes and dislikes of your guests.  Remember that you cook for yourself everyday, but you are only going to be cooking dinner for your guests once every now and then.  If somebody doesn’t like spicy food then don’t make spicy food.  Put some seasoning on the side for people who want a little extra pop with their meal. 

Gourmet Dinner

There is no reason for you to think that you have to make a gourmet dinner when planning a dinner party.  Nobody really expects much.  If you bring out chicken and rice that is being kept warm in a slow cooker then most people will be happy.  Of course you will want to add other items to the menu.  But for right now our concern is the main course.  Leave the gourmet cooking to the chefs of the world.  You and I can stick to basic cooking.

Nice Dinner

More than anything people will remember a well cooked and presented dinner.  The next day, week, or even month they will remember if the food you served was good or just run of the mill freezer food.  A nice dinner is something people appreciate.  Chances are some people will ask you for the recipes that you used to fix some of the dishes with.  It is a sincere compliment and I always share my recipes.

Dream Dinner

Everybody has a different example of what their dream dinner would be.  Just speaking for myself, my dream dinner would be something light and tasty that I can eat with my wife at the kitchen table while enjoying good conversation.  When cooking a crock pot recipe there is plenty of time to talk because there is very little to do.  The slow cooker is doing all the work.  Oh yeah, my dream dinner also includes a nice bottle of wine.

Lunch

Lunch Bags

Do you remember when we all used to go to school or work with lunch bags?  The term we all used was “brown bagging it”.  All of us had small brown paper lunch bags that contained our lunch sandwiches.  Which reminds me, not only did we carry lunch bags but the sandwiches we had were wrapped in wax paper.  The reason for the wax paper was because plastic baggies were not invented yet.

Lunch bags gave way to the insulated lunch bag at some point in time.  Now you have to admit that the tuna fish sandwich really does keep better in an insulated lunch bag with blue ice to keep it cool.  And of course baggies seal the air out while wax paper really didn’t do much of anything useful except maybe make decent tracing paper.

Lunch Delivery

People have gotten so lazy that for the most part they don’t make their lunch anymore.  Now the “in” thing is to go out to lunch or to have a lunch delivery service bring your lunch.  Lunch boxes full of pre-made food makes it way to office building and warehouses across the country on a daily basis.  I guess everybody gets to eat what they want instead of the bland lunch bag sandwich.  Of course the cost of lunch delivery will break the bank, but that is a discussion for another day.

Lunch food mean different things to different people.  To some, a hamburger and a soft drink is an acceptable lunch.  To others lunch food is a full meal.  Their lunch menu consists of salad, main course, dessert, specialty drink, and a snack for later on.  Sounds like a recipe for a call to Jenny Craig.

Lunch delivery is taken to a whole other level when we start taking about lunch catering.  Lunch catering normally takes place when a business has a meeting that last through the morning and into the afternoon.  For some reason a meeting like that seems to dictate a free lunch.  And of course a simple sub sandwich won’t do.  Oh no!!!  A lunch like that call for lunch catering.  And of course everybody can’t eat the same thing, so 100 lunch items have to be specially ordered which of course drives the bill sky high.  Lunch catering is best left to the deep pockets.

Lunch catering is the newly minted family member of the business lunch.  For some reason some people think that the lunch they eat when out doing business should be paid for by the business.  The business lunch was born and everybody who could….would take advantage of that little perk.

My office lunch is still the simple sandwich with a bottle of water.

One more thing before we leave the subject of lunch…

Metal Lunch Boxes

Remember metal lunch boxes?  I certainly do.  My favorite lunch box had Batman and Robin on it.  I also like Superman on my metal lunch box.  I think that you can get just about any character printed on a lunch box.  Now of course metal lunch boxes have gone retro and cost a fortune.  Go figure!!!

Crock Pot and Slow Cookers

So now we find ourselves at the end of this recipe for Slow Cooker Recipes | Crock Pot Chicken and Rice.

There are many ways and times to enjoy a good crock pot dish.  When you cook in a slow cooker the possibilities are endless.  We will be bring you more slow cooker | crock pot recipes in the near future.  In the meantime you can view the category on Potato Patch Recipes called:  Slow Cooker Recipes | Crock Pot Cooking