A couple months back, I finally caved and bought my first slow cooker. It was only twenty dollars at Target and I couldn’t wait to get home and start making delicious barbecue and one-pot meals with it that I didn’t have to worry about during the day. Well, typical me only made one meal with it (the day I bought it) and then promptly forgot about my shiny new Crock Pot.

That is, until I came across this recipe for Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches by Tasty Kitchen member myretrokitchen. The recipe was incredibly simple (basically just dump everything together in the crock pot, turn it on and six hours later you have dinner!) and turned out to be absolutely delicious. The pineapple chunks give the barbecue a delightful sweet surprise and using chicken was a nice change of pace from typical pulled pork.

Here’s what you need!

Simple, right? Just chicken (I used thighs for more flavor), your favorite barbecue sauce, a can of pineapple and an onion. Love it.

The recipe says to first put the chicken at the bottom of the Crock Pot…

Then, cover it with diced onion.

Followed by a can of pineapple chunks.

Amie says you can either save the pineapple juice to add to the sauce at the end for sweetness, but I prefer a more savory barbecue sauce so I tossed mine.

Next comes my favorite part: adding the sauce! Coming from the South, I love me some tangy vinegar based barbecue sauce, but for this recipe I chose my tomato-based favorite—Stubb’s.

You can never have too much barbecue sauce, no matter what anyone tells you.

All that only took about four minutes and now all there was left to do was turn the slow cooker on low and let ‘er stew!

At the end of the day, after the chicken had been slowly cooking for about seven hours, I removed the meat from the sauce and shredded it before adding it back in to soak up all the yummy barbecue goodness.

Delicious! I ate barbecue for dinner and then lunch the next day. Even my boyfriend, who claims to hate pineapple, absolutely loved this meal and devoured two sandwiches in the speed of light.

Thank you to Amie for providing such an easy and delicious weeknight dinner! Visit her blog, My Retro Kitchen, for more home-cooked, sit-down family dinners.

Printable Recipe

Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

by myretrokitchen on April 8, 2011 in Main Courses, Slow Cooker April 8, 2011 Main CoursesSlow Cooker

See post on myretrokitchen’s site!

4.62 Mitt(s) 35 Rating(s)

Prep Time: 3 mins

Cook Time: 8 hrs

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 12

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This is easily my most requested recipe. Each time I make it, I am always asked to provide the recipe so friends can make it themselves at home. It really is yummy, and the best part is it takes about 3 minutes to prepare, a couple additional minutes to shred the chicken once cooked and then back in the crock pot it goes to finish soaking up the goodness! Easy-peasy, but oh sooo good!

Ingredients

• 3 pounds Boneless Chicken Breast, Thighs Or A Combo Of The Two
• 1 whole Onion (large), Sliced Into Chunks
• 1 can (20 Oz. Size) Pineapple, I Recommend Nibblits Or Crushed, Drained But Reserve The Juice If Using (See Note)
• 1 bottle (18 To 20 Oz. Size) BBQ Sauce Of Your Choice (Our Favorites Are Sweet Baby Ray's Or Open Pit If We Want To Give It A Little More Of A Kick)
• Hamburger Buns Or Kaiser Rolls

Preparation Instructions

If you use frozen chicken, make sure it is completely defrosted. If you cook it frozen, it will indeed cook but it will make a very “wet” sauce. Place your chicken in the bottom of the crock pot. Top with onions, then pineapple. Pour the entire bottle of BBQ sauce over the whole thing.

Note: If you want a sweeter BBQ, add up to half a cup of the pineapple juice you drained, depending on how sweet you want it. This is optional.

Turn your crock pot on LOW and cook for 8–10 hours (or on HIGH for 4–6).

An hour or two before it is finished cooking, carefully remove the chicken from the crock pot and shred it using two forks. Watch out, it will be hot! Place chicken back in the crock pot and stir well to combine. Finish cooking an additional hour or two so the chicken can absorb most of the sauce. Serve on hamburger buns and top with coleslaw if desired.

Note: When I had made it with Sweet Baby Ray’s and pineapple juice, it was a very sweet Pulled Chicken. It was great, and everyone loved it. But I have to say, using Open Pit BBQ Sauce and no pineapple juice was hands down our favorite! It had just the right amount of sweet and vinegar that we love in a good BBQ.

If you are making this for kids, children tend to like the sweeter variety.

 
 
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Jenna is a food writer who has worked as a pastry chef and bread baker. Her blog Eat, Live, Run has great recipes, travel stories, and the perfect slogan: “Celebrating life, one crumb at a time.”

 
My husband and I LOVE fish tacos. We order them every chance we get. But since we live in a small community roughly 700 miles from the nearest ocean, a great fish taco is hard to come by.

When Patio Daddio’s Spicy Grilled Fish Tacos recipe popped up on Tasty Kitchen, I knew it might just be our lucky day. Patio Daddio (John) has a proven track record for wonderful recipes. Plus the recipe included some of my ingredients:

Corn tortillas. Check.
Grilled fish. Check.
Cabbage (with a twist). Check.
Lime. Check.
Cilantro. Check.
Spice and FLAVOR. Check.

I couldn’t wait to give them a try.

Guess what folks? These tacos rock. Yes, they are a little unconventional. But that’s what I love about them. The spicy recipe also includes a cool and delicious Avocado Cream instead of plain old sour cream. Yum. Patio Daddio also recommends topping the tacos with his crazy good chipotle and adobo Southwest Slaw.

I was surprised to see Frank’s Hot Sauce making an appearance on the fish but it really works. Buffalo Frank goes south of the border this time.

So if your mouth is watering like mine, here’s a step-by-step:

Start by making the marinade for the fish. Since they only need to marinate for 30 minutes, this meal is doable for a weeknight meal. Yeah!

The marinade is simple enough. Add canola oil, juice of two limes, and garlic salt into a small mixing bowl. Open up a can of chipotle peppers in adobo. Measure two tablespoons of the sauce and don’t worry, you’ll use more of the can for the Southwest Slaw.

Whisk it all up…

Pour it over your fish in a gallon zip-top bag. John recommends tilapia fillets for the fish and that’s what I used. I love tilapia for its mild flavor and texture and because it’s very budget-friendly, but you could also use mahi mahi, halibut or any white flaky fish.

Set it aside to let it work its magic, about 30 minutes.

I’m not sharing the step-by-step photos for Patio Daddio’s Southwest Slaw, but trust me on this one and just make it. Adding the slaw really completed the taco. The chipotle in adobo is spicy and smoky all at once. I could (did) eat it by the spoonful.

Now for the avocado cream. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe to smash the avocado on the cutting board with the side of a knife. The next time, I did it right in my mixing bowl with a fork. My way might take a little longer on the smashing part but I liked having less mess. A ripe, soft avocado works best.

Add the juice of one lime, sour cream, garlic salt…

And your favorite hot sauce. I opted for milder jalapeño Tabasco since I wanted the avocado cream to cool down the spiciness of the slaw and fish. I also liked the idea of a green sauce in the green cream.

Stir it up and set it aside.

Remove the fish from the marinade and pat dry with a paper towel. Then brush the fish with Frank’s Hot Sauce and canola oil.

Oil the grill and toss them on. Cook them until they are just cooked through and flaky but still moist.

Once off the grill, I poured a bit more Frank’s on my husband’s and my fish but left it off of the kids. ‘Cause they’re wimps. Break up the fish into nice-sized chunks.

Quickly grill the corn tortillas to warm them up.

We serve our tacos family style. I love sliced up limes, cabbage for the kids, rough chopped cilantro, and the Southwest Slaw and avocado cream, of course. Everyone gets to build their own just the way they like them. And like them we did, right down to the youngest.

Thank you John for bringing the perfect fish taco right into my own kitchen! Check out his blog Patio Daddio BBQ for more of this man’s incredible work. (I’d say more, but just … just go there. You’ll see.)

Printable Recipe

Spicy Grilled Fish Tacos

by patiodaddio on May 25, 2010 in Fish, Main Courses May 25, 2010 FishMain Courses

See post on patiodaddio’s site!

4.95 Mitt(s) 21 Rating(s)

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 6

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At the risk of being ridiculed by those in the know, I will call these “somewhat authentic.” Or, you might think of them as “Authentic Gringo Fish Tacos.” I was going to use that for the post/recipe title, but I had second thoughts.

Shoot, call me and the recipe whatever you want. Let’s get cookin’!

Ingredients

• 6 whole Talapia Fillets (or Other Mild Flaky White Fish)
• 2 Tablespoons Hot Sauce (I Use Frank's Red Hot)
• Canola Oil
• Lime Juice, To Drizzle On Grilled Fish
• 12 whole Corn Tortillas
• 1 cup Southwest Slaw (see My Recipe Box)
• ¼ cups Cilantro, Chopped Medium-fine
• _____
• FOR THE MARINADE:
• ⅓ cups Canola Oil
• 2 whole Limes, Juiced
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Adobo Sauce (from A Can Of Chipotles In Adobo)
• _____
• FOR THE AVOCADO CREAM:
• 1 whole Large Hass Avocado, Peeled, Seeded And Diced (I Recommend Calavo)
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 1 whole Lime, Juiced
• 2 teaspoons Your Favorite Hot Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Salt

Preparation Instructions

Important: Make sure the fish is fresh! It should be firm, with good color, and a clean briny (not fishy) smell.

If you can’t find talapia, any mild white flaky fish would work. Mahi mahi, cod, red snapper, or halibut would be fine.

Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

Put the fish in a gallon zip-top bag and add the marindade.

Slosh the fish and the marinade gently in the bag to ensure that all of the fish is coated.

Seal the bag (removing the excess air) and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.

Mash the avocado on a cutting board with the side of your knife.

Combine all of the avocado cream ingredients in an medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine, then cover and refrigerate.

Tip: The marinade and/or avocado cream can be made up to a day in advance.

Start your grill and prepare for direct cooking over a hot fire (450-500º).

Remove the fish from the marinade and drain well.

Pat each filet dry with a paper towel.

Smear each side of each filet with a teaspoon of hot sauce, applying it as evenly as you can.

Oil the grill grate and both sides of the fish lightly with the canola oil. The oil on the grate will smoke, so wait for it to dissipate.

Put the fish on the grill and cook for three minutes.

Flip the fish over and cook for another minute.

Move the fish to a warm platter, drizzle the fish with lime juice, and cover the platter with plastic wrap.

Quickly warm each tortilla on the grill.

To serve, offset two tortillas by half, smear the inside with avocado cream, add some fish chunks (separated with forks), then top with about two tablespoons of slaw and some cilantro.

Or, serve it family-style so that everyone can build their own.

Enjoy!

 
 
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Calli is truly a woman of many talents, from cooking, sewing, crafts, beautiful photography and gardening. Her blog, Make it Do is a treasure trove of recipes, household tips, crafts projects, sewing patterns … you name it. It’s also peppered with photos of her beautiful kids. Go visit her site, and visit it often. There’s always something new to learn there!

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