CROCK POT CHEESY CHICKEN, BACON, & TATER TOT BAKE

Original recipe

CROCK POT CHEESY CHICKEN, BACON, & TATER TOT BAKE

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

3 hours

Total time

3 hours 10 mins

Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken, Bacon, & Tater Tots is a delicious and super easy meal to put together! Your whole family will love it!

Author: Real Housemoms

Recipe type: Main

Serves: 6 or more

INGREDIENTS

• One 32 ounce bag frozen tater tots
• 6 slices thick-cut bacon
• 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese or Colby jack cheese blend
• 2/3 cup 2% milk (whole milk would be fine too)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Once bacon cools, crumble it into small pieces, and set it aside.
2. Coat the inside of your crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Dump half the frozen tater tots into the crock pot, and spread into an even layer. Top tots with 1/3 of the cheese and 1/2 the crumbled bacon.
4. Place uncooked chicken on top of the tater tot layer. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Top chicken with 1/3 of the cheese.
5. Spread remaining tater tots over the chicken layer. Top with remaining bacon and cheese. Pour milk over the top of the dish.
6. Cover your crock pot and cook on HIGH on 3 hours, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Serve warm.

NOTES

You can cut down on your prep time buy using ready to serve (cooked) bacon as well.

Alright so this is a decent recipe BUT I made the mistake of doing it on low for 7 hours instead of high for 3. This was a critical error! The chicken ended up VERY dry because of this. I'd say if you want to go this route leave your chicken breasts whole instead of cutting them up. I also used pre-cooked bacon bits instead of cooking fresh just because it was easier before heading out the door for the kids first basketball tourney of the year. I used 1% milk and don't think it made a lick of difference. 

Overall this was tasty but I should have seasoned the chicken layer with some garlic (YES, I forgot garlic BAH) and when I make it again I will cook on HIGH for 3 hours as directed instead of trying to make the recipe fit my schedule!

Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup

The ORIGINAL recipe
The recipe I followed (mostly)

INGREDIENTS

1. 4 small potatoes, peeled and diced
2. 1 small white or yellow onion, chopped
3. 1 cup shredded carrots
4. 1/2 cup diced celery
5. 1 teaspoon dried basil
6. 1 teaspoon dried parsley
7. 3 cups chicken broth
8. 1 pound lean ground beef
9. 3 Tablespoons butter
10. 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
11. 2 cups milk ( I use 2%)
12. 1/2 teaspoon salt
13. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
14. 1 (16 oz.) package Velveeta processed cheese, cubed OR 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, dried basil and parsley in a large crock pot. Pour chicken broth over vegetables. Cover with lid. Cook on low heat 6 to 8 hours OR on high heat 4 to 5 hours or until potatoes are tender.
2. About 20 minutes before serving, cook and crumble ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain any grease. Pour cooked ground beef into crock pot. Carefully wipe out hot skillet with a paper towel then add butter. When butter is melted whisk in flour and cook until golden brown and bubbly (about 1 minute.) Whisk in the milk, salt and pepper. Pour mixture into the crock pot and stir to combine everything.
3. Add the cubed velveeta cheese or shredded cheese to crock pot. Stir again. Cover with lid and cook another 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.
4. Serve and enjoy!

NOTES

1. Cook Time: 6 to 8 hours (because all crock pots heat differently)

By Holly

Adapted from Taste of Home

OK so 4 small potatoes didn't even cover the bottom of my slow cooker so I used 6 potatoes. I definitely could have cut them smaller (My bad, I am used to mashing potatoes in my soups!) I think because of using more potatoes I needed more liquid so I ended up using 5 cups of chicken broth (I use the stock powder added to boiling water because it's cheaper and still very tasty just not clear). I used 1% milk because that's all I buy.

I prepared my vegetables the night before and added a chopped clove of garlic, cause well...GARLIC people! If it's a savory recipe and doesn't have garlic chances are pretty damn good I'll add some or a LOT! I put everything up to the chicken broth in the crock and let it sit on the counter over night. I browned my ground beef with garlic powder of course and added it with 2 hours and 40 minutes left of the 8 hours. This was done at this time because my daycare boys were quietly reading and they let me sneak into the kitchen for a few minutes!

I don't buy processed cheese...EVER! OK maybe not never but very, very rarely! So we used the two cups of shredded cheddar. What I find a little confusing is that in step 2 it says about 20 minutes before serving etc  but then step 3 says to cook for another 30 minutes after adding the beef and milk/flour mixture! So I added the milk/flour mix and cheese and just cooked it on low for another 30 minutes. 

Overall this is a good recipe! It's very tasty, especially with the addition of garlic! (I did mention I love garlic right?!) To call it cheeseburger soup is a bit of a stretch to me as I don't know anyone who has potatoes, celery or carrots on a cheeseburger! This was enough for the kid and I for dinner, lunch the next day and one more dinner tucked into the freezer. I am sure it yielded more due to my potato and broth additions. 

When I make this again, and I will, I will definitely cut my potatoes smaller and I will very likely cut back the addition of salt and add a good bit of bacon instead!!! Being that the recipe I copied and pasted is already an adaptation on the original recipe (also linked at the very top of this post) I think it's safe to say that one could make many variations on this recipe and still have it come out tasting good!

I served this soup with a quick yeast roll because we love bread almost as much as garlic ;)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13827/quick-yeast-rolls/

Intro-A little about me

My name is Jenn. I am a 37 year old single mom to an awesome yet frustrating at times 13 year old daughter. The kid has a sensitivity to citric acid so she cannot eat oranges, can only have tomatoes in limited quantity and has to be careful of other foods containing citric acid. She will not touch a berry if her life depends on it. Sometimes I think the list of what she will eat is shorter than the list of what she wont! As for me, I am deathly allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, squid and scallops. I also have texture issues and cannot eat certain foods without gagging or being sick.

As you can imagine that you add all that together and we are quite the pain in the rear to feed! I am constantly looking for new recipes because I get bored of eating the same things all the time. Yes I love meatloaf and mashed potatoes...probably in an unhealthy manner but I don't want to eat them every week anymore!

Now that the child is older I am starting to cook more of what I want and if she doesn't like it she is welcome to make herself a sandwich or salad for dinner instead.

A lot of my focus is going to be on reviewing slow cooker recipes and eventually developing my own. I will usually make a recipe close to the original instructions the first time I make it and then play around with ingredients from there. I have been cooking since I was about 6 years old so I do have a very good grasp on what kinds of flavours go well together and what kind don't.

It is hard to find recipes geared towards 2-3 people instead of feeding 6-8. We do like leftovers for lunch the next day but I don't want to eat the same thing for a week. I know some people don't have a lot of freezer space and some things just don't freeze all that well!

I ran a home based baking business for over a year so there will be some baking recipes as well but I will lean more to the savoury side here because I don't often change up a baking recipe. That is science you just don't want to mess with!

Hopefully this gives you a little insight into what I am trying to do with this blog. I haven't decided how often I will be posting but I am aiming for at least once a week.

Poor Man's Stew Review

Poor Man's Stew original recipe

Poor Man's Stew

Author: Sarah Olson

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  6 hours

Total time:  6 hours 15 mins

Serves: 5

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
• 1.5 lbs potatoes, diced large
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced (I had this on hand already)
• 1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. dried oregano

Instructions

1. Add the cooked ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic to a 5-quart or larger slow cooker.
2. In a small bowl whisk together the tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, onion powder and oregano. Pour this mixture over everything in the slow cooker. Stir.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours, without opening the lid during the cooking time.
4. Serve with buttered sandwich bread.
5. ENJOY!

I made this for the kid and I. While it was a good base recipe it definitely needs a few tweaks to be an awesome recipe!
I have chosen to make this again with cut up inside round steak instead of the ground beef as I found that the beef just kind of disappeared in this. The garlic needed to be amped up too (You will find quickly by reading my recipes and reviews that we have a love for garlic in this house!). 2-3 cloves are needed here. Adding a little thyme or basil would be good too.

Saying this serves 5 would be generous. It served the two of us with enough leftovers for both of us for lunch the next day.

One footnote, I will be taking pictures to post with my blog entries but hadn't decided to blog when I made this!