SMOKED CHICKEN AND CREAMY CHEESY RED POTATOES

My dinner tonight was awesome! I had decided to try my slow cooker as a smoker. I had seen it used before for smoking meat so I decided to try smoking chicken. Now I used mesquite chips and a mesquite rub for the meat and I only used a half of a chicken. If you do a whole chicken I would suggest increasing the time by an hour or so. My chicken came out very moist and tender. It just fell off the bone and the flavor was just like the smokehouse flavor. This proved to be a lot easier than standing outside all day smoking my chicken in a big smoker. I am going to have to try a brisket next time. So then I found this new recipe from Food.com for creamy cheesy red potatoes and filled up another crock pot. The potatoes at first seemed a little soupy but after I turned off the crock pot the liquid thickened up. The potatoes were good and creamy. I wouldn't have thought that sour cream and cottage cheese would go together but they did. Then I went ahead and wrapped up the corn on the cob in foil with a little butter and garlic and put it in another crock pot. No sense in heating up my house by using my oven just for corn. My dinner was done by noon and I was able to have a free afternoon. YEA! Next time I will have to add a dessert too.

SMOKED CHICKEN

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Mesquite chips wrapped in parchment paper.

 INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of smoker chips (any flavor like mesquite, hickory or pecan)

Parchment paper

2 large chicken breasts

Any dry rub (I used mesquite)

1 tbs. of liquid smoke

1 cup of water

DIRECTIONS:

Soak the smoker chips in water for 20 -30 minutes. Then drain them and wrap them in parchment paper and place them seam side down in the bottom of the crock pot. Punch several holes in the parchment paper to allow the steam to escape. Rub the dry rub all over the chicken breasts. Place them on top of the parchment paper. Pour a cup of water mixed with the liquid smoke in the bottom of the crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours.    

Creamy Cheesy Red Potatoes

INGREDIENTS:

7 cups of cubed red potatoes uncooked

½ cup of sour cream

½ cup of Velveeta cheese cubed

8 oz. of small curd cottage cheese

½ tsp of salt

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 tbs. of onion flakes

DIRECTIONS:

Spray the crock pot with PAM. Place the cubed potatoes in the crock pot. Combine the cottage cheese and sour cream and mix until smooth. Add the salt, onion flakes and cubed Velveeta and stir. Pour over potatoes and mix well. Cover and cook on low 5 -6 hours.

For corn on the cob I just butter it and sprinkled it with garlic and parsley powder and wrapped it in foil. Put it in the crock pot on low for 6 hours and it comes out like roasted corn. It would be good with a little mayonnaise, chile powder, and lime on it too.There are many different flavor combinations you can try on roasted corn that would be delicious.