Cold Snap Slow Cooker Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sammies

I pulled out the crock pot again!  This time it was the smaller one.  Yes, you read correctly, I have 2 crock pots, or slow cookers if you will. Why? Why not?  One is a ginormous 8 quart size, perfect for large batches of chili, stews, and for pot lucks or any situation where you are making a large amount of food.  The other is a slightly smaller 5 quart (I think) which is good for (obviously) smaller amounts of food and testing new recipes before I double them to keep the Boy fed!

One of the ways I while away the long cold winters, besides cooking, baking and blogging of course involves my two magazine subscriptions or guilty pleasures if you will.  Food Network Magazine, and Everyday Food.  I get so darn excited when these come in the mail.  I get new ideas from them and it helps refresh old recipes with new twists.  I also just like reading them! My chicken wings from the other night were from this same edition of Everyday food as this recipe comes from.

The first thing I did before assembling everything in the crock was to make some homemade vegetarian worcestershire sauce.  I don't use the real stuff as we have a fish allergy in the Little Kitchen.  I must send props out to Liz from Blog is the new black for clueing me into the fact that I could make my own vegetarian worcestershire sauce!  Thank you!  She has a recipe for this on her site to make a small amount but I found almost the same recipe, but larger amounts from Martha Stewart.  This will keep in the fridge for 3 months and since I am excited about giving this a try, I made a bigger batch.

Home made Worcestershire Sauce!
From Martha Stewart
In a pot over medium heat combine all of the ingredients listed:

• 2 cups apple-cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground yellow mustard seed or dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Simmer stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes or until reduced to about 1 cup of liquid.  

Let cool and store in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Now on to the Sammies!!

Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sammies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Everyday Food, Jan/Feb 2011

In the crock of your slowcooker combine:

• 1 14oz can crushed tomatoes (all I had was a 28 oz can but I used the rest of it for pizza sauce!)
• 1/3 cup hot sauce (Used Frank's Red Hot.  The recipe calls for 1/4 cup bet we like it spicy)
• 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce (the homemade vegetarian stuff)
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (I grate mine on the microplane)
• 1 medium onion, diced small
• 1 medium red bell pepper, diced small

Mix all of this together and toss in:

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs. (original calls for half of this to be chicken breasts to 'lighten' it  up but we found a 1 kg package of the chicken thighs and decided to use that...it was cheaper that way

If you are preparing this the night before, slap the lid on it and place it in the fridge until morning.

In the morning, put the crock into the cooking part and turn to low for 6 - 8 hours.

When cooked, the chicken will fall apart and shred easily with 2 forks or try a potato masher to break it up!

Serve on rolls (I used Pretzel rolls) and serve with a salad (coleslaw works) but so does any type of veggie!

This was quite tasty and the boys both enjoyed it.  We only had 2  issues with the chicken.  The first was that there was a LOT of liquid in the pot and I had to strain it so it wasn't too sloppy.  The 2nd was that it really wasn't spicy.  Not a true buffalo chicken.  We do like things on the spicy side in the Little Kitchen and this just didn't cut it.  Perhaps jalapenos, cayenne, hot pepper flakes (I even have some dried habaneros).....hmmm....I am already thinking about next time. I will make this again but with less crushed tomatoes and more hot sauce.  I know the veggies added more liquid as well so I could cut the onion and red pepper in half....ideas....this one has me thinking!!

Keep warm and eat well!