No Touch Shredded Chicken

3-6 lbs Frozen Chicken (boneless, skinless, breast or tenderloins)
Salt

Open your frozen chicken and dump the entire bag into a crockpot.  Sprinkle some salt over the top of it and put the lid on.  Cook on high 5 hours.  You don't need to add any water cause the frozen chicken is already infused with juice.

Once the chicken is cooked use tongs to put chicken in your kitchen aid mixer.  Only pick out the good pieces, leave all the gunk and gross fat stuff in the crockpot juices.

Once the chicken is in the kitchen aid mixer use your dough hook to mix the meat on a medium speed.  It will shred the meat for you.  Stop the mixer, stir the meat with your tongs and mix one more time to finish the shredding.  (If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook you can use a hand mixer in a big mixing bowl.)

Use the tongs to put the shredded chicken into freezer zip lock bags.  Label the bags and freeze!

After the chicken juice has cooled, dump the chicken water and gunk down the garbage disposal.

That's it!  Freezer bags full of cooked, shredded chicken without touching the meat!!!

Hawaiian Haystacks

This is one of my favorites when we're having company over cause everyone gets to build their own with what toppings they like.  Plus it's an affordable way to make a lot of food.  And since you use veggies and fruit on top - no additional sides needed!  Yay!

Ingredients

• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 frozen chicken breasts
• milk
• rice (about one cup per person)
• other toppings (see below)

Directions

Place frozen chicken breasts in crock pot and cook on low for 3-4 hours.  Take the chicken out of the crockpot and cut/shred into bite size pieces.  Pour the gross chicken water that's left in the crockpot down the kitchen sink.  Put the chicken back in the crockpot and cover with soup.  Add enough milk to make the desired consistency (so it will easily pour over the rice, like a gravy).  Cover and cook on low for 2-3 hours.

Cook the rice.  Serve the sauce over cooked rice. Then top with whatever toppings you want.  These are what we like...

Toppings

• shredded cheddar cheese
• pineapple tidbits
• mandarin oranges
• raisins
• sliced olives 
• diced green onion (I'm the only one who eats this, so I usually don't bother)
• shredded coconut
• chow mein noodles
• diced tomatoes (usually use canned)
• peas (I use frozen cause Jake hates canned)
• diced green pepper
• soy sauce

or anything else that you think would be good, like...

• cashews 
• almond slivers
• water chestnuts
• mushrooms
• celery 

Crockpot Catalina Apricot Chicken

http://busycooks.about.com/od/chickenrecipe1/r/crockaprchix.htm

This super simple four ingredient crockpot recipe is so delicious and flavorful. Serve over hot cooked rice, pasta, or couscous. In response to the 'very sweet' comments, I added a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar the last time I made this, and we loved it!

Ingredients:

• 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts (not thawed)
• 1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup Catalina salad dressing
• 1 cup apricot preserves or jam
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or basil leaves
• 1/8 tsp. pepper

Preparation:

In 3-4 quart slow cooker, arrange chicken pieces. Mix remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and pour over chicken. Stir to coat. Cover crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours until chicken is thoroughly cooked and tender.

If you like, you can thicken the mixture before serving. Combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water or chicken stock and mix until smooth. Add to the crockpot; turn to high for 10-15 minutes until sauce is thickened. Serve with hot cooked rice or pasta. Serves 6

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours

Total Time: 8 hours, 15 minutes

YUMMY!!!

Ever since we've been married I've wanted to collect favorite recipes from both sides of our family. I finally decided to start a blog specifically for this purpose.

Friends and Family: If you have yummy dishes to contribute, email me and I will add you as an author to this blog. I only have 2 requests:

1 - "Label" your blog entry with the type of course.. ie: Chicken, Pie, Salad, etc
2 - Don't post any gross recipes - only the delicious ones! :)

Hopefully this will give us great ideas for dinners (so we don't continue eating the state of Connecticut's hot dog storage)