Talia Kasher

Slow Cooker Honey Soy Chicken from A Nutritionist Eats

The slow cooker is an excellent tool for the cold winter months when you want to come home to a hot, hearty meal but have no desire to cook at the end of the day. The slow cooker is ideal for soups, stews and braised meats. It also works well for soft, gooey dishes such as enchiladas or lasagnas. What it's not best for are dishes that are meant to be browned and involve dry heat, such as baking.

A basic slow cooker can be purchased for around $30 from amazon.com. The less expensive models tend to have fewer bells and whistles – generally there are off, warm, low, and high settings. The low setting can be used to cook a dish for longer (say, if you want to turn it on in the morning before work and have dinner ready when you get home). The high setting allows you to start a dish in the afternoon, and have it ready by dinner. The fancier models can set you back upwards of $100, and include features such as mobile programming or stovetop browning capabilities, but many of these features are unnecessary.

Some slow cooker tips:

· Don’t call it a Crock-Pot (unless that’s the brand you own!) – this would be the equivalent of referring to all tissues as Kleenex.

· Because the food is cooking low and slow and tends not to boil, not as much liquid evaporates as when you cook on the stovetop. Keep this in mind when adding liquids.

· You cannot brown in a typical slow cooker – if you want extra flavor from your meats and veg, brown ingredients on the stovetop before adding to the slow cooker.

· Never add cream, milk or yogurt until the end of a recipe – it may curdle if cooked too long!

· If a recipe indicates a certain time on low, the dish can generally be cooked for approximately half the time on high.

· Place slower cooking items (such as potatoes) on the bottom of the slow cooker.

· The slow cooker is a great opportunity to use frozen vegetables, which are just as nutritious as fresh! Just be sure to thaw first as to not lower the temperature of the food in your slow cooker. This applies to frozen meat as well.

· No peeking! Continuously opening the lid will slow down cooking.

· If you’re planning on beginning your dish before work, make sure you prep the night before! Nobody wants to chop celery at 7am.

· If you don’t want to eat the exact same thing every night for a week (a slow cooker can make a LOT of food), you have two options: freeze leftovers, or try braising meats that can then be incorporated into other dishes, or served with different sides.

Some of my favorite recipes:

Easy Crock Pot Chicken and Black Bean – this shredded chicken from SkinnyTaste goes perfectly on salad (think Chipotle), or inside a corn tortilla.

Slow Cooked Beef Pozole – if you prefer chicken, try substituting bone-in chicken thighs for the flank steak, and discarding the bones when the soup is finished.

Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken – this recipe from Food & Wine uses skinless chicken thighs, and includes meat, veggies and carbs (from the chickpeas) all in one pot!

Slow Cooker Honey Soy Chicken - I usually double the chicken, but keep the quantities for the marinade the same. This goes great with your favorite grain and vegetable.