Comfort Food: The Best Crockpot I Own

Since I became reacquainted with my crock pot slow cooker, I've been using one of my three slow cookers more than the others. It is the Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 Slow Cooker, which comes with 2, 4 and 6 quart crock inserts. The 2 quart insert works wonderfully for recipes from the cookbook Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two. The 4 quart insert is the perfect size for baking using the crock and I've used it twice to make the crockpot fruit cake recipe I found surfing the Internet (which is actually the recipe Dried Fruit and Zucchini Cake from the The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever cookbook). The 6 quart insert worked great for the Chinese Beef and Vegetable Stew I made and for the chicken noodle soup I am making tomorrow.

Honestly, with this versatile slow cooker, I am thinking about donating one of my two oval crockpots to a local thrift store. Although I did use all three for Thanksgiving, one for the turkey, one for the potatoes and one for the green beans.

Here is a super quick and easy chicken casserole recipe I made for Saturday evening dinner. I bet this recipe could be doubled if you used a 5 to 7 quart crock pot instead. Enjoy!

Quick-Fix Layered Chicken Casserole

from The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever

makes 4 servings

Ingredients

• 5 ounces scalloped potatoes mix
• 10 3/4 ounces cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning
• 16 ounces frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower mix, thawed and drained
• 16 ounces frozen stir fry vegetables, thawed and drained
• 1 lb chicken breast tenders
• paprika

Directions

1. Pour dried potatoes into a 3 1/2 quart slow cooker.
2. Mix the undiluted soup with the water, sauce packet from the potatoes and the garlic pepper. Drizzle just a little over the potatoes.
3. Layer the remaining ingredients as follows: all of the broccoli, carrots and cauliflower mix plus 1/3 of the stir fry veggies, 2/3 of the chicken tenders, 2/3 of the soup mixture, then the remaining stir fry veggies and the remaining chicken. Pour the rest of the soup mixture over the top.
4. Cover and cook on low for about 4 hours, or until the chicken and potatoes are tender. Sprinkle paprika over the top and serve immediately.

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