16 hours to make this?? Don’t freak. There’s only 3 ingredients – trust me, you won’t even have to work for it.

ingredients:
one 4-5 lb pork butt/shoulder
1 Tablespoon Hawaiian salt
1-1/2 Tablespoons liquid smoke

Place the pork in the slow cooker. Pierce it all over with a paring knife.

For the salt I used a mix of regular, coarse Hawaiian salt and a specialty Black Lava salt that I got from Hawaii. The charcoal, smokiness gives it a little something extra.

If you can’t find the ’special’ salt, don’t sweat it. Just use the coarse Hawaiian salt by itself – you can get a ton of it for a couple of bucks at a Japanese market.

Rub the salt into the top of the pork. Then pour the liquid smoke over and rub that in. Turn the slow cooker on to low…

Midway around the 8 hour mark, this is what your pork will look like. At this point turn the pork over,then walk away for another 8 hours…

Once the 16 hours is up, shred the pork using two forks, moisten with the juices if necessary, and serve.

Super simple! This is great for parties because there is NO work involved – just serve it with some Hawaiian sweet bread rolls, and you’re done!

If Thomas Keller aka Best Chef in America, aka James Beard award winner, aka Michelin star go-getta, aka king of the French Laundry, knew how I bastardized his tri tip recipe, he might kill me. Or take away my autographed cookbook, but they’ve have to pry it out of my cold dead hands!! Just look at that penmanship!

In Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home it says right in the book, ‘don’t cook tri tip for too long ‘ so of course…I put it in a crock pot for 8+ hours. HEY. Don’t judge. I’m trying to make life easier! It came out good, I promise.

ingredients:
2-1/2 lb tri tip roast
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons paprika
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
small pinch of cayenne
1 lemon, sliced thin
water or beef broth

I know what he’s saying. Cook it too long and it can become flavorless. But in a crock pot, slathered with spices, it works, honest. Trim the fat off the tri tip. If it doesn’t fit in the pot, cut into two or three pieces.

Mince the garlic, sprinkle with the salt and scrap at it with your knife to get a paste. Rub this into the tri tip.

In a small bowl mix together the paprika, black pepper, rosemary and cayenne. Rub that into the already garlic seasoned meat.

Slice your lemon thin and add the slices to the top of the meat. (Yes, that is a lemon, a giant one. Don’t ask.)

Down the side of the pot (not over the meat) add just enough water so that the meat sits in about 1″ of it.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

You can serve this with potatoes, rice, or I like to make little sandwiches for the kids out of it. It’s flavorful and soft – perfect tri tip. For the rest of his recipes I won’t betray the word of Thomas Keller, I swear. Well, not this week anyway.

Just like last year, the Lemon Fairy left a gigantor bag of lemons on my porch. I’ve been working my way through them, so you know what that means, it’s Lemon Week!
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This smells amazing when it’s cooking, all the ingredients come together so nicely. The kids just loved this and ate it right up, unfortunately that’s why I don’t have any good pictures – I apologize, but trust me it was delicious!

ingredients:
6-8 chicken thighs (bone in!!)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons flour
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons parsley
3 teaspoons lemon zest
3 carrots, cut into chunks
3 celery, cut into chunks
juice of one lemon
12 ounces chicken broth
1 cup water

Place chicken in the slow cooker pot. By using bone-in thighs, the chicken stays moist as compared to using filets which can really dry out, even in a crock pot.

In a small bowl combine the salt, pepper, onion powder, flour, chopped garlic, lemon zest and parsley. Rub into the chicken.

Put the cut carrots and celery on top.

Add the lemon juice over everything, then slowly add the chicken broth and water down the side (not on top of the veggies) filling the pot. This keeps the lemon and the spices intact.

Cover and cook for 6 hours on low. I served it with rice, but by itself with a nice biscuit is pretty great too!

So I got this book, What Hawaii Likes to Eat. What caught my eye was a chili recipe – now it says right in the book ‘Zippy’s won’t give out their recipe, here’s our version’. Uh…yeah. This is NOTHING like Zippy’s chili, however I can tell you, it’s a good hearty chili recipe just the same.

I made a few adjustments and made it in a crock pot. I was having a party and wanted to make my life easier. And I needed to watch back episodes of the Amazing Race. I have priorities you know.

ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 onions, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 (28 oz) can stewed tomatoes
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1-1/2 (14.5 oz) cans kidney beans
5 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic salt
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Brown meat in a large skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft.

In a large bowl, combine the meat mixture with all the other ingredients. Stir well.

Pour into a crock pot and set on low for 4 hours.

I like to eat this over rice, topped with a little onion and cheese, but you can always serve it the way Zippy’s does – over hot dogs or burritos.

My mom always made this for us as kids. I know, we’re Southern like that.

I don’t have time to stand over a hot stove so I made up this jambalaya recipe for a crock pot. Thus the ‘cheaters,’ as the pot does all of the work except for shoveling it into your mouth.

ingredients:
1 chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 (28 ounces) can diced tomatoes (DO NOT DRAIN)
2 cups fully cooked smoked sausage
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon Tabasco
¾ pound frozen fully cooked shrimp
3 cups cooked rice

Put the chicken breast in the bottom of the crock pot. Add all of the ingredients, EXCEPT the shrimp. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or high for 5 hours.

Add the shrimp at the end, stir up – the heat will thaw the shrimp just right.

Serve over cooked rice. Really tasty, and wasn’t that the easiest? It should last you a few days, or none at all depending how big your family is. No mess, either.

I love the Neelys, cause our family is also Southern…Southern Californian. I took their idea of tropical bbq ribs, but I changed the ingredients a little so that I could try it out in the crock pot. Hey, I’m a woman on the go, I don’t have time to be sittin’ over a hot grill.

ingredients:
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried mustard
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 slices fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons oil
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup mango juice
1/2 cup passion fruit juice
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar

1-1/2 to 2 racks baby back ribs

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. If you want you can just use a combo mango/passionfruit juice and do one full cup instead of the two half cups.

Cut your ribs so that they fit in your slow cooker. About 4 ribs in a slab should fit in there nicely.

Alternately layer the ribs and the sauce til you get to the top of the cooker, ending with sauce.

Turn on for 6-8 hours on low.

You will end up with flavorful fall off the bone ribs for dinner!

Seriously. What isn’t tasty when you add bacon ane brown sugar? These are always a super hit at parties, and the crock pot makes them easy!

ingredients:
1 package of little smokies
1 lb of bacon
1/2 cup brown sugar

you’ll also need:
a crock pot
toothpicks

Start by cutting strips of bacon into thirds or halves. (Thirds if you are cheap like me.)

Then wrap one strip of bacon around the smokie and insert a toothpick to hold it in place.

Fill the crock pot with the toothpicked smokies about halfway. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar. Pile on the rest to fill up the pot. Sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar on top.

Turn on the pot to high for about 4 hours, and you’re done! I’d post a picture of the finished product, but they were eaten so fast, I didn’t get a chance!

Warning – this is my recipe. Meaning, NOT authentic carnitas which traditionally use lard to fry ‘em up – which is surely tasty, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it!

ingredients:
3-4 lbs pork shoulder
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons minced garlic

Put the pork shoulder in your slow cooker.

Mix together the orange juice, lime juice, olive oil, pepper, salt and garlic and pour over the pork.

Set the cooker to low for 8-10 hours.

Take the pork out of the crock pot and chop into small pieces. Serve with corn tortillas, pico de gallo, fresh guac, whatever you like!

A Hawaii classic, this is the short cut way. This recipe is so easy it’s ridiculous. I remember making it a lot when I was trying to get the babies started on solid foods. The kids loved it. Personally I find it very comforting when I have a cold or just feel cold.

Ingredients:
2 cans chicken broth
2 chicken breasts
2 (serving) packets of long rice
1 small brown onion
4 green onions
couple of slices of ginger

Put the chicken breasts in the bottom of the pot. Sit the long rice bundles next to them. Chop onions and throw on top. Nestle the ginger into the mix.

Pour cans of chicken broth over the ingredients, then add enough water to cover the chicken and the noodles.

Turn on the pot to HIGH.

Go away.

Come back 4 hours later.

Add salt and pepper to taste. You don’t have to put the onions – in fact my kids insist that I DON’T. You can also add mushrooms if you like.

This looks like sludge, but it’s delish – as a side dish or a main dish!

I really couldn’t think of a name for this thing. I make this recipe a lot…but in the oven. Lately, I just haven’t had time. So I thought, what if I threw it all in a crock pot til I got home from work? Hm…I was worried, frankly. But it turned out so amazing that the kids declared it ‘THE BEST CHICKEN EVER.’ What. That in itself was totally worth it. Guess I won’t be going back to oven cooking.

ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut up
1/2 cup soy sauce (shoyu)
1/2 cup water*
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup mirin (sweet cooking wine)
1 teaspoon pepper

Well, there aren’t really any steps to this. In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, water, honey, mirin and pepper. *When I make this in the oven I DON’T use the water, but here in the crock pot I figured it needed a little more liquid.

Nothing like raw chicken staring at you. Ew.

Put the chicken in the crock pot, pour the sauce on top, turn it on low. I am not a fan of the ‘high’ setting, things don’t always come out the same – but it’s all up to the amount of time you have. If you only have a few hours, you can also put it on high for 4 hours instead.

At the end of the eight hours, you should have a nice, juicy, amazingly good piece of chicken. Hopefully the kids will agree.