Slow cooker pulled chicken with creamy red potatoes

Warning: Church-basement food ahead. Not for the snobbish.

I think I actually paid money for this cookbook at one point, which is testimony to how desperate one can get to find something new to make in a slow cooker if you have to leave meals ready for weeks at a time. It’s basically a collection of the kinds of submitted recipes you find in church cookbooks, only all for slow cookers. Lots and lots of canned soup, canned fried onion rings and prepared ingredients involved. But it’s on the shelf, and this combo of recipes lets me double-check it off the cookbook to-make list.

I left this meal in dueling crock pots on the counter. It won’t go down in the annals of all-time best meals I’ve presented my husband with, but it qualifies as warm comfort food that only required him to slice open the buns. Well, and take pictures, since I wasn’t around for the final product. Besides, he liked it. He really liked it. He really wanted to know what made the potatoes so tasty, so I had to confess to its baser contents.

Barbecue Chicken for Buns

Adapted from “Fix-It and Forget-it Cookbook,” a submission by Linda Sluiter of Schererville, Ind. After a few tweaks, it's a not-horrible approximation of a pulled pork type substance and involves very little effort. It's at least good enough and simple enough to make further experimentation worthwhile.

Ingredients:

6 cups cooked chicken

2 celery stalks, diced

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped red pepper

4 tablespoons butter

1½ cup catsup

1 can tomato paste, plus a can of water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons vinegar

2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon each salt and pepper

Method:

Combine catsup, water, tomato paste, brown sugar, vinegar and spices in crockpot. Add chicken, celery, chopped onions, peppers and stir. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve on buns.

Creamy red potatoes

From “Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook,” a submission from Mrs. J.E. Barthold, Bethlehem, Pa.

Ingredients:

2 pounds small red potatoes, quartered

8-ounce package cream cheese

1 can cream of potato soup

1 envelope dry Ranch salad dressing mix

Method:

Mix cream cheese, soup and dressing packet in crockpot. Add potatoes and stir to coat. Cook on low 8 hours.

Like I said, he really liked it.

Also-rans in the new crockpot recipes tried this year:

Slow cooker jambalaya: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/meaty-slow-cooker-jambalaya/

Slow cooker scalloped potatoes and ham: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=440089

The recipes weren’t horrible, but aren’t going into the keeper pile either; just basic hot food someone didn’t have to make.

The “Fix-It and Forget-It” folks have their own blog (http://fix-itandforget-it.com/blog/) and another new cookbook out. Not going to pay money for that one; I can’t imagine how many more recipes one needs that seem to have all been the result of what happens when you combine whatever is in your home into a slow cooker, providing your home includes creamed canned soups and gravy mix. But sometimes I have to remind myself from whence my husband sprang and give in for a request for tuna noodle casserole and the world's most low-brow pea salad.