Beef Brisket

I promise that this piece of beef tastes a LOT better than what is looks like in this picture! You may remember a previous beef brisket recipe. Since there are only 2 of us here, I had cut the meat in half and stuck it in the freezer for future use. Well, the future has arrived for the second half to be used. Jake found a great recipe from allrecipes.com. Our changes are noted below.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef-Style Brisket

Ingredients

1 small onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 bay leaves, crumbled
8 whole black peppercorns, crushed
1 tablespoon pickling salt (we used sea salt)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon celery seed (omitted)
1 (4 pound) beef brisket
1 cup water
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (omitted)
1/2 small head cabbage, sliced into strips (omitted)

Directions

Stir together the onion, garlic, mustard, vinegar, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, parsley, and celery seed in a bowl. Cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours. (We

Rub the brisket with the mixture, wrap tightly, and refrigerate overnight.

To cook the brisket, place it into a slow cooker along with the water. Cover, and cook on low for 5 hours. Add the carrots, and cabbage, and continue cooking until the brisket is tender, about 3 hours more.

We omitted the overnight part and the slow cooker part of this recipe entirely! We mixed up the rub, rubbed it on the beef and put it in the oven for about an hour (it was a small piece!) We served it with a side of curry couscous!

Roast Chicken

Jake and I have found a love for roast chicken. And they are cheap which is an added bonus! I usually just put it in the crock pot stuffed with onion and garlic. This time I wanted something different. I found a recipe for a rub at Kalyn's Kitchen. She was making this rub and bagging it up into Christmas gifts. So, I scaled the recipe way down. I also didn't follow her instructions for use. It came out fabulous and juicy. I then took the rest of the chicken apart today and we had chicken soup with lots of leftovers. I have now turned a roaster chicken into 3 meals.

Just to give you a reference. I bought the chicken at Sam's Club. The roasters come in a 2 pack for $8.42. That's 1 chicken for $4.21. And I am going to get 3 meals out of 1 chicken. That's $1.40 per meal. Now I realize that I add things to the meal but how can you go wrong when the protein for your meal costs $1.40!

Here is what I did:

Roast Chicken Rub

6 Tablespoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoon thyme
2 Tablespoon parsley
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sage
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon rosemary
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper (I omitted)

Mix all ingredients together. Store in a air tight container.


Roast Chicken

I mixed 2 Tablespoons of the rub into 1/2 stick of softened butter. I rinsed the chicken and patted it dry. I then trimmed it of excess fat and loosed the skin from the chicken breasts being careful not to break the skin. I salted and peppered the inside cavity of the chicken. I then rubbed the mixture onto the chicken breasts under the skin. I then used the remaining mixture to coat the outside of the skin including the legs and wings.
I laid the chicken on a bed of baby carrots. Added enough chicken stock to fill the baking dish up about half way (2-3 cups)
I cooked the chicken for about 25 minutes at 450. I took the chicken out, turned the oven down to 325. I basted the chicken with the liquid from the bottom of the pan. I returned the chicken to the oven and cooked for about an 1 and 15 minutes until the temperature on a meat thermometer read 165 degrees. I basted the chicken even 20-30 minutes. I covered the chicken with foil towards the end to prevent it from burning while I was waiting for it to come up to temperature.




Chicken Soup

I saved the cooking liquid from the bottom of the pan and ran it through a strainer. I removed all the remaining chicken from the bones. Added carrots, egg noodles and enough water to have a good amount of broth. Let it simmer for 45 minutes.

CEiMB: Sweet and Sour Brisket

In case you missed it a couple weeks ago, I've joined a new cooking group, Craving Ellie in My Belly. We are cooking from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger.

This week's selection was chose by Natalie from What's For Supper? It was a perfect pick for a comfort food night. I have been craving pot roast and this definitely hit the spot!


I cut the recipe in half and put the other half of the brisket in the freezer for a future meal. I only made a few minor ingredient changes. I left out the allspice berry of which I didn't have and added a pinch of both cinnamon and nutmeg. I also added a bag of carrots and cut up a few potatoes as a side.

I don't own a Dutch oven (yet, its on the Christmas list!) so I used my slower cooker. I put the carrots and potatoes right on the bottom and brisket on top with all the sauce. It could have used just a bit more sauce since the carrots and potatoes soaked some of that up.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ingredients and the flavor outcome. I never would have thought that beef, tomato sauce, raisins, chicken stock, cinnamon and nutmeg would all got together. But, I really loved it and my husband requested it to be a a regular meal this winter.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

With Jake being at rehearsal every night this week. We decided to use the slow cooker again. That way he could eat before he had to leave and it could stay warm for me to eat later when I got home.

Ingredients
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
1/8 cup margarine
1 package (.7 oz) dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
1 can (10.75 oz) cream of chicken soup

Directions
Put chicken, margarine and dressing mix in slow cooker; mix together and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.
Add cream cheese and soup, mix together and cook on high for another 1/2 hour or until heated through and warm.

Recipe from www.allrecipes.com; sorry I forgot to take a picture!

Husband Rating: A-; He really liked it however, thought it would be better cooked on the stove because the chicken was slightly on the dry side.

Wife Rating: A+; I loved it. I thought it had great flavor. I think the mistake with the chicken was that it was cubed too small but I didn't think it was too dry. I'd also like to try adding mushrooms or even cream of mushroom soup (Husband won't like it though!)