I don’t know about you, but after a long day of playing outside in the heat with my kids the last thing I want to do is cook. My kitchen is not air conditioned which makes cooking in the summer feel like sitting in a hot sauna. In the summer my favorite cooking appliance is my crock pot. Not only do I not have to turn on my oven, but dinner is pretty much ready and waiting for us when we get home. Also, easy clean up if you use a crock pot liner. Not scrubbing pots and pans is always an extra bonus for me!
Here are 5 of my family’s favorite summer crock pot recipes:
Tacos:
Crumble ground meat and place it in the crock pot and let it cook on high for a few hours. Once the ground meat is fully cooked drain the grease and return the meat to crock pot. Add a cup of water and your favorite taco seasoning to the meat. Mix it up, and let it continue cooking on low until dinnertime. Add all your favorite taco toppings and dinner is ready!
BBQ Chicken Legs:
Place the chicken legs in the crock pot and add about 1/2 cup of water. Let the chicken cook on high for 3-4 hours. Then drain all of the liquid from the crock pot and pour a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce over the chicken. Let it cook for about 30 more minutes to an hour and serve with your favorite side dishes!
Sweet Meatballs:
Add one bottle of BBQ sauce and one bottle of grape jelly to the crock pot and stir it. Then stir in a bag of frozen meatballs and let them cook on high for about 4 hours. Make sure to stir it a couple of times while its cooking.
Burgers:
The key to making burgers in the crock pot is to make sure that they don’t sit in the grease. To do this roll up pieces of foil to sit the burgers on in the crock pot like this:
Put the hamburger patties on top of the rolled up foil and cook on high for about 3 hours. If making cheese burgers, put slices of cheese on top of burgers when they are finished cooking and let them sit in the crock pot for a few minutes so the cheese will melt. These juicy burgers are always a hit in my house!
Orange Chicken:
Place boneless skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Drain the juice from the chicken. Mix 3/4 cup of BBQ sauce and 3/4 cup sweet orange marmalade together. Add the sauce mixture to the crock pot over the chicken. Cook on high for another 30 minutes. I love to serve this chicken with rice, and the kids love it!
