July 2013 – The Weekday Chef

Zucchini Recipes (Zucchini Chicken Chili)

Zuchini Chicken Chili

My good friend Launa brought my hubs and I over some of her hub’s garden goods; a few of these yellow squash and zuchinis. I love zuchini and my hubs loves yellow squash, but neither one of us had grown or seen these yellow zuchini before. Aren’t they so pretty? I had to use them tonight in something.

Chocolate Chip Zuchini Bread and Chili are how I used up these garden veggies!

So I came up with a chili that I added the yellow squash to. It was really good. I had some leftover roast beef I used, some fresh tomatoes from the garden, corn off the cob and some leftover taco meat and leftover Jimmy Dean sausage I had frozen in a zip lock baggie.

Stir fried up the veggies and added the yellow zuchini to the mix…..I didn’t have any corn so I added carrots instead. I use up whatever leftover veggies in my fridge with this chili. It’s healthy and spicy too!

But not as spicy as this yummy Apricot Zucchini Bread I also made with the yellow Zucchini! Check it out HERE.

It was one of those nights where I just wanted to throw things in a pot and simmer it for an hour while I was finishing the wall painting in my master bathroom.We are remodeling again. Oh Crap!!

This is kind of the “Before Picture”. I’ll be done with this in another day Woo Hoo!

We are down to the last 2 bathrooms and we have finished the tile floors. Now we just need to add granite countertops. I can’t wait!

Add a packet of Lawry’s Chili seasoning and some salsa to ground or shredded beef or cubed chicken.

Anyway, here is another use for zuchini! Taco Chili

1 1/2 cups of diced chicken or fried & drained ground beef
(or shredded….I use whatever I have on hand)
1 small or 1/2 medium onion diced and sauteed for 8 minutes in oil/butter mixture
1/4 cup green or red pepper sauteed with the onion
1 cup diced tomatoes or use a can of stewed, diced tomatoes
3/4 cup corn off cob or frozen yellow corn (or another leftover veggie)
1 can kidney beans
1 can chili beans (I don’t drain the liquids)
1 quartered and sliced zuchini (small) yellow or green
1 packet of Lawry’s chili mix (found in the spaghetti and gravy packet aisle)
1/4 cup fried up ground Jimmy Dean sausage spicy (Optional) I usually have some leftover frozen from doing sausage breakfast burritos.

Zuchini Chicken or Beef Chili….it’s soooo good!

Fry up your onions first and then throw the green pepper in. While that is sauteed, fry up your ground beef and drain off the fat. Then mix the two pans together. Then cut up your tomatoes, and zucchini and 1/2 can of corn or 1 cup of fresh or frozen corn, and dump them all in, your packet of chili mix and your beans. Let it all stew together for 15 minutes on medium heat, I rarely ever have to add any more spice to this.

You can also add in any leftover veggies or spanish rice. It is kind of a “use up my leftovers” dinner. But BOY oh BOY those yellow zuchini look and tasted great! And my chili goes great with corn bread too!

Homemade Mini-Tostados (Tacos in a mini shell)

We went out to a new Mexican restaurant, my friend Marsha and I. We ate this weird thing called a “deep fried avocado” and it was pretty good. Not great, but good. It was too dry for me.

Oops! I took a picture of enchilada seasoning packet. It’s supposed to be a Taco Seasoning packet!

But it WAS pretty ingeniously made. I was in awe of how they did it! It was filled with some spicy chicken and that was it. The avocado was peeled and sliced in 2 and filled with the meat. Then a dough was wrapped around the outside and deep fried.
Stuffed avocado
I think I prefer my tacos in some kind of hard, crispy shell. I’ve always liked tacos much better than soft burritos. I just like the crunch better. So I love hard shell tacos better than soft tacos. But I did LOVE the avocado taste in with the spicy taco meat. So I’m going to do some crispy shell tostado shells with taco meat and yummy veggies inside.

I’m going to season my meat with salsa, a taco seasoning packet AND a tiny can of diced green chilis.

Maybe make some guacamole to put on top of your mini tostados. Just smash an avocado, add some salt and pepper, some lime juice and a few diced tomatoes. It’s yummy as a topping!

But I would rather have corn tortillas. So I am going to try some version of the avocado spiced up with meat but with some veggies and cilantro added for flavor and moistness.

Taco OR Tostado meat is super easy and can be used as a basic recipe for so many mexican dishes.

Then start frying up your corn tortillas in a little canola oil in your frying pan. Blot them dry on paper towels.

I used ground beef, fried up and drained, then I added a taco seasoning packet and some salsa and simmered it for about 6 minutes.


After the meat is done add a small can of diced green chilis. It just MAKES the taco meat mixture so much BETTER!

After your tortillas have dried a bit lay them over an upside down mason jar. place a paper towel over them. Then put a larger cup or measuring cup or bowl over the top and press them down to the shape of the mason jar. They should look like this after about 5 minutes.
I’ve made my own corn tortillas before with a tortilla press. They are even MORE yummy than regular tortillas from the grocery store. They are more time consuming though. But check out my tutorial HERE!

Here are my homemade tortillas. Check out the tutorial HERE. There’s nothing like a hot, homemade, corn tortilla!

Here is what the store bought ones look like when your mini tostadoes are all done!

Ingredients for Taco/Tostado meat:
Serves 6 to 8
1 1/2 pounds of sliced flank steak spiced with Montreal Steak Seasoning and grilled
OR ground beef fried up and drained (either or, just depends on the time and $ you want to spend)
1 Cup of finely diced, medium salsa
1/2 (or more) cup water
1 small can diced green chilies
1 Taco Seasoning Packet
Let simmer for 10 minutes on low stirring occasionally. Add more water or salsa as desired.

Mini handmade tostado shells are fun and so easy! Great for a kid’s party!

Use a larger bowl or measuring cup to press down over the shells laying on the mason jars. That will help them keep their shape.


So, just press the tostado shells down and remove the cup and do another one. They will dry and keep their shape under the paper towel.

Get your toppings ready, we are about done!

Fill each of the cute little tostado shells with meat and then let everybody do their own fillings!

Put out some chopped tomatoes, olives, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa, corn, avocado, fresh cilantro, whatever you like! It’s FUN to do a taco/tostado bar for an easy KID’S party too! Kids LOVE to do it themselves.

This is how I like my mini tostados in a homemade shell. If you have some cute tiny bowls like this it is even better! You can also use clear custard dishes to set them in.

Or even just plates since they really will keep their form once dried.

My grandkids love tacos in a tostado shell. They are so sweet, aren’t they? And they are yummy too!

Mandarin and Cranberry Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad with oranges and cranberries!

I’ve had this salad many different ways but this is my favorite way to have it. I use cabbage, Ramen Oriental Noodles, sliced almonds and mandarin oranges and dried cranberries. I make the dressing with oil and rice vinegar and sugar and the noodle seasoning packet. It always turns out delicious, crispy and fresh looking. And the best part is…..it will feed a huge crowd!

I love this crunchy Chinese Chicken salad! You can add green onion to each serving if you like it.

I like that it is super easy and quick too. When I’m not in a cooking mood I usually pick up a cabbage and have some chicken breasts in the freezer, and those ramen noodles last for like 10 years in your pantry so I buy them in bulk…. a whole box at a time. We usually use them up in a year. I also buy all my nuts from Costco in bulk, so I know I’ve got my ingredients on hand.

Mandarin oranges, Ramen noodles raw, sliced almonds and dried cherries go into my Chinese Chicken Salad. I got dried fruits at the downtown Farmer’s Market.. …Yum!

Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe
1 medium cabbage chopped coarsely
2 packages ramen noodles broken up (oriental style) reserve the 2 packets of sauce mix
1 larger or 2 small cans mandarin oranges (add them just before tossing salad)
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds
1/3 cup dried cherries or cranberries
3 chicken breasts cooked and diced into chunks
green onion for garnish.

This dressing is really flavorful and tart….

Delicious Asian Dressing

2/3 cup canola oil (I’ve used olive oil and I don’t like it as much)
1/3 to 1/2 cup rice vinegar (or apple cider or red wine vinegar but I prefer the rice vinegar)
1/4 cup sugar
2 seasoning packets from the Oriental Ramen
pepper to taste
1 Teaspoon of lemon or lime juice (optional) for a zingy flavor
A shake of Lawry’s season salt if needed (or Johnny’s season salt – get at Costco)

Break up the Ramen Noodles in the chopped cabbage and fruit and sliced almonds…

Then add the dressing and chicken for the Chinese Chicken Salad, and toss a few times!
That’s it!

Whisk the dressing up in a small bowl till sugar is dissolved. Taste it.. if it is not flavorful enough add a dash of rice vinegar…not sweet enough add a shake of sugar, not seasoned enough add a shake of Lawry’s Season Salt. I can’t remember a time I have not messed a little with homemade dressing of any kind. You get better at it the more you make it.

These plates are so cute for a summer Chinese Chicken Salad, aren’t they?

Here is my finished salad. It’s delicious on a warm, fall day when you don’t want to cook! Great with homemade muffins or some rustic, crusty bread and butter.And how do you like my new stoneware? It’s from Smiths Marketplace! I bought a set of 12 with bowls too. I think they will look cute in the Spring and Summer for dinner parties. It was a buck a plate! I think it’s so pretty! Boo yah!

Apricot Zuchini Bread (with chocolate chips)

Apricot Zuchini Bread (with chocolate chips!)

I had these wonderful yellow zuchini I wanted to make something sweet with. I also wanted to use up some of the apricots from my tree that were really ripe and almost mushy. And I love chocolate chips (what’s not to love?). And I also had lots of leftover cuties that I needed to use up before they dried out in my fridge. So here is what I came up with. It is a basic zuchini bread recipe for 2 loaves. I doctored it up a bit to use up my fruits and zuchini. It turned out wonderful!

Yellow Zuchini is so pretty and looks great in soups and salads too!

The yellow zuchini tastes the same as regular zuchini but it is just so darned PRETTY! It’s such an easy veggie to grow too! Here is a yellow squash that my neighbor brought over. Her hubs is a green thumb! Me, not so much…..

But we did get some great apricots off of our tree this week. I picked about 20 the other day. They are so yummy!

We have been working so hard on our yard this summer. My hand is kind of stiff from hours of weeding yesterday morning. But the front yard sure does look tons better! (And we actually finally took down the Christmas lights and here it is JULY!

Apricot Zuchini Bread…..mixing it up was a snap!

Almost ready to bake….I just HAD to add chocolate chips. The hubs said it’s better without…..(what’s wrong with that guy…better without CHOCOLATE?) well….maybe….

Yeah, we are not a driven, organized team. We are lazy and most Saturdays we love to go and play, not do things we really SHOULD be doing (like cleaning out the garage, you can’t even walk around in there anymore!) EEK!

I have heard of orange zest in sweet breads but I had never tried it. It is a fun little hint of a taste that adds a little something to your bread, but it is entirely optional!

Everything is better with chocolate!

Zuchini Apricot Bread (with Chocolate Chips)

2 1/4 C flour
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 C canola oil
1/4 C butter
3/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
1/3 C sour cream
2 1/2 C grated zucchini
2 apricots diced fine
2/3 C chopped walnuts
3/4 C chocolate chips
zest from one medium tangerine or small orange (optional)

Zuchini bread is a great way to use up your garden zuchinis! And neighbors really like it too!

Cream butter, oil, sugars and eggs together. Add vanilla. Then grate zuchini and add in with the apricots and sour cream. Then add salt and soda to the flour mixture and dump that in. Mix well. Then add cinnamon and nutmeg, walnuts and chips one at a time. Spray 2 bread pans with Pam. Pour batter in pans evenly. Bake at 350 for 55 to 60 minutes. Let bread set for 10 minutes on cooling rack before slicing. Mmmm….it’s SO good.

Apricot Zuchini Bread….it turned out so yummy!

Homemade Kool-Aid Playdough

It rained a ton last night and today it was muggy and hot outside so I wanted to think up something fun to do with my granddaughters while I was babysitting today.

Making Playdough out of Kool-Aid is so easy, I’ll never buy it again!

I had bought a pile of Kool-Aide packets to make playdough for my classroom kids last summer but I never got around to it. And that stuff was still up in the cupboard. So we pulled them all down, chose our colors (flavors!) and mixed up a batch in about 2 minutes! Seriously, I’m not Kidding! It was FAST!

There are only 5 ingredients in Kool-Aid Playdough besides the water……

My Granddaughters picked out their favorite Kool-Aid flavors for the Playdough.

It took me about 2 minutes to mix up the Kool-Aid Playdough! Super EASY PEASY!

It is soooooo super quick and easy. It calls for the playdough in the mix before adding the hot water, but I wanted to divide the one batch into 4 colors. So I experimented with it to see if we could add the Kool-Aide after it was all mixed up.

Kool-Aid makes great Playdough….it smells so good!

Here were the colors we chose today for our Kool-Aid Playdough.

Do you think they’re getting excited to start mixing them up? Oh yes they were!

This is the before picture….nobody has rainbow fingers yet. 😀

It worked fine except for one thing; all our fingers were rainbow colors! It dyes you fingers pretty good, but after a few washes you can’t even tell. I should’ve taken a pictures of our rainbow fingers! What fun we had! And the playdough smells yummy too!

Meg chose Orange and Cherry-Red for her Kool-aid Playdough!

Marisa chose purple-grape and blue-raspberry Kool-Aid for her Playdough.

KOOL-AID PLAY DOUGH RECIPE

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 pkg kool-aid (unsweetened)
2 tablespoons cream of tarter
Mix together then add in:
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons oil

Mix and knead for 4 minutes or until cool.
We mixed it all in the Mixmaster for 4 minutes
then separated it into 4 bowls. Then we dumped
the Kool-Aid into each bowl so we’d get 4 colors!
Such a great rainy day activity.


Make some soon!

Mini Chocolate Eclairs

Yummy cream filled Chocolate Eclairs….super yummy for a summer BBQ….

My French born sister-in-law Danielle makes these TO DIE FOR ECLAIRS every year at 4th of July. Everyone has come to expect and love her chocolate eclairs. She actually can’t make a different dessert because everybody looks forward to these 4th of July Eclairs so much! Or they’d be great for a Summer BBQ too! These little cream puffs are so yummy I want one NOW!

My sis-in-law made the easy chocolate eclairs/cream puffs…..I made the fruity, chocolate cupcakes….both look great on our 4th of July table don’t they? They are great for any summer BBQ too.

Easy Eclairs or Cream Puffs Recipe:
1 cup water
1/2 cube butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Heat oven to 400. Heat water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour untilmixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. Let cool a bit till batter is not hot. Beat in eggs one at a time. Drop dough 1 Tbsp size onto baking sheet using a pastry bag. Mine were about 1 3/4 inches oval x 1 1/2 and I got about 30 little eclairs.

Cook until puffy and golden. I did 14 minutes at 400 and then turned oven down to 350 for 5 minutes. I think from posts I read on other blogs 20 minutes is perfect for smaller eclairs. Larger ones about 20 minutes at 400 and 4 minutes at 350 but watch them the last 3 minutes. Your oven might be different as I am at high altitude.

Directions

Heat water and butter till boiling. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth.

The ingredients for cream eclairs are only 4….so easy!

Water, butter, flour and eggs….

Batter before adding the eggs…..I let it beat a little to let off some of the steam….

Then I added 1 egg at a time and beat for a minute in between eggs…..

The eclair batter is like pudding…

I piped the batter onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper….

I added a blob of eclair batter to each of the 4 corners…then pressed the parchment paper on top. It helps
“glue” the paper down to the cookie sheets.

Here are my finished Eclairs….just out of the oven!

Now they are ready to fill with the creamy, rich pudding filling….each one was a half a handful !

Cool. Cut a slit in the side of puff with a knife. Fill eclairs with a pastry bag filled with the french vanilla pudding mixture. Make chocolate icing and spread over top. Keep refrigerated. Makes 12 large or 24 eclairs (mine made 30 little round ones- bigger than the Costco size) I think this is a perfect dessert to bring to a party because if you have other desserts, this can be a side garnish and they are so cute and yummy too.

French Vanilla Cream Filling
1/2 pint whipping cream (smallest carton)
1 small box instant French vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup milk
Whip until thick.

HERE is a link to a yummy eclair recipe from Annie’s Eats if you like mocha flavor.

1/2 cup milk, pint of cream and small box of french vanilla instant pudding….

The filling is really rich and creamy too…I had to pop an eclair in my mouth to taste test it!

Squeeze inside of your little puffs….so easy!

Chocolate Fudgy Glaze
1/2 slick butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar ( I used a little less, just add it till desired consistency)

Heat until melted, stirring constantly-add 2 cups powdered sugar until melted. Shake a fork
back & forth and then the other way to ice tops of eclairs if you want a cool design. Or just frost with a knife.

This was the most delicious chocolate glaze!

It was easy and quick….

And it tastes like the most divine fudge! Really!

Chocolate Eclairs….oh my yum! Wouldn’t these eclairs be cute with at little flag sticking out on a toothpick? I saw some at Hobby Lobby the other day….shoulda bought them now that I think about it…..

Wouldn’t you love a creamy, chocolaty, eclair bite? That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

French Bread Baguettes

And here they are, hot out of the oven! French Baguettes are light and crispy!

Awhile back I went to a great cooking class and listened to a master cook and teacher named
“The Food Nanny”. She was just delightful and fun to listen to. She had so many food stories I could have listened to for hours. Here is her book. It is less than $20.00 on Amazon.
ck out her book, she has such a great meal plan to help families eat dinner together and stay close!

I didn’t have my purse with me so I didn’t get an autographed copy of it! DARN! But I DID get her to take a picture with me, when I told her I had a food blog. Isn’t she cute?

She’s a mom and a grandma too! (and she loves being a grandma best!)

She made pizza dough and french baguettes both in under an hour….

Anyway, she gave us all this fantastic recipe for French Baguettes! It takes literally 5 minutes to make. She showed us this cool baguette pan too. I ran right over after the lunch class and bought one at Spoons and Spice….. my fav cooking gadget store. They are having a huge moving sale, so if you are in the Salt Lake City area check it out at Spoons and Spice.

They had so many french bread pans to choose from and they were surprisingly CHEAP!

My finished french breads…..Don’t they look great? They are crunch on the
outside and soft in the inside…perfect to my taste…..

French Baguette recipe….totally easy and seriously yummy!

Then I went to work. A half hour later here were my baguettes. They taste just like a crusty french bread should. And no fat! She gave us all kinds of tips about meal planning that I thought were fabulous! In a nutshell here is her plan….

Sunday is traditional day…roast beef, chicken, those kinds of things.
Monday is Comfort food…chili, mac and cheese, easy stuff like casseroles….
Tuesday is Italian night….she does all her pastas here…she has tons of varieties….
Wednesday is Meatless night….soups, salads, fish, or breakfast for dinner, waffles, french toast, pancakes, bacon, etc.
Thursday is Mexican Night. Tacos, Enchiladas, mexican casseroles, burritos etc.
Friday is Pizza night and all the kids invite their friends over for her out of this world pizza varieties.
Saturday is Grill night. They do a lot of hamburgers or chicken on the grill.

Doesn’t that sound fabulous and fun? I thought so too. Gotta give that plan a try. The thing she stressed, that I really liked was how she said it kept her family together while her husband flew planes in the military and later for an airline. He was gone a lot. She was like a single parent. And dinner around the table every night added structure to her day and a bonding with her kids. They still all come back for Pizza night. She has many gourmet types of pizza as you can imagine. Her favorite is arugula, fresh mozzerella, cherry tomatoes and olive oil on thin crust. I’ll do that on a later post.

Yeast mixed with warm water and sugar…..let it foam up a bit…..

Then add the flour and salt and mix up with warm water….a little at a time until it is a nice ball….Then knead
for a minute on the counter….

Here are mine kinda kneaded and waiting to be put into the pan….took 5 minutes to make and roll!

I went over to Spoons and Spice to see if I could find a “Baguette Pan”

HERE is a page full of coupons to Spoons and Spice. It’s a really fun place to browse around if you are a foodie like me.

Anyway it looks cool….it’s 2 long u shaped pans for breads….

The food nanny makes this bread and gives it away for people’s birthdays and special occasions. What a great gift idea and so quick. Who wouldn’t love some hot french bread homemade by you?

Here’s the Baguette pan. It was only $5.99 at Spoons and Spice! Or check these out!

Recipe for French Baguettes… SO EASY!
1/2 Cup Warm Water
1 1/2 Tablespoons Yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/4 cups flour add a cup at a time
Add up to one cup warm water to get perfect consistency

Mix up first 3 ingredients in a small bowl and let sit for 2 or 3 minutes. (sugar feeds yeast so let it set awhile) Then in a separate bowl add salt and flour and add it to wet mixture, and then add the (up to 1 cup) warm water. Mix and then knead for a minute. Roll out in 2 loaves and lay them on greased baguette pan and let rest for 15 minutes under a towel (it will rise a bit). Then bake 450 for 15 minutes or until golden colored. This whole french bread takes about 35 minutes total to make and bake.

So here they are before the 15 minutes rising time…..Both have their own tube to sit in….

And here they are after the 15 minutes rising time….I put a line down the middle of each with
a sharp knife just before popping in the oven….it will look just like french bread when it has been baked!

Wha la! Ready for a hot 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes….watch it the last minute or so…..

And here they are, hot out of the oven! French Baguettes are light and crispy!

Well, they are just plain DEEE-LISH! That’s what they are! I sent one down to my friend Lauri down the street. Spread the lovin!
Then Spread some REAL butter and dig in! mmmm….Yummy!

Pulled Pork in a Dutch Oven

Dutch Oven Pulled Pork….so yummy!

I think dutch oven cooking is fun okay? It is a LOT of work when you are camping, but it is simply fun to watch the pots covered with coals do their thing. And kids love dutch oven stuff. It’s a great family “making memories” time. I would do it in the backyard on a cookie sheet if I don’t like to camp.
But if you don’t like outdoor cooking, try some pulled pork from the crock pot. Either one is really so delicious.

Tools for Dutch Oven Cooking…..

Pork Ribs we bought from Costco….So we didn’t have to pull apart the meat….they are cut already so they just fall apart in the cooking process….

Just dry rub and season with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders and some brown sugar….

Here are 3 recipes for dry rub. Take your pick. Each makes about a cup of dry rub. .

2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup paprika

Dutch ovens come in all sizes. I have 2 of the 12 inch sizes which are most popular.

1/3 cup paprika
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons black pepper
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons cayenne
1 teaspoon white pepper

Lid Lifter for the dutch ovens…you will really NEED one of these…..

You can see the fire ring has the coals in a big pot to use for the ovens…..

1/4 cup paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne

Here is My recipe. It tastes sweet more than spicy …it makes about 1/2 cup of rub which is enough for my family. You can double it.

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoon Seasoning Salt (Lawry’s or Johnny’s)

1 teaspoon Chili Powder

1 teaspoon Black Pepper

1 teaspoon Onion Powder

11/2 teaspoons paprika

Rub it all over dry ribs and let them sit 1/2 hour before cooking. Add a little bit more brown sugar ( 1/3 cup) and the rest of the dry rub an hour before you want to serve them by pouring it on top of the cooked pulled pork. I love Cattlemen’s BBQ sauce over my ribs and Famous Daves Sweet and Sassy Sauce too. I would choose one of those to have on hand when the pulled pork is done.

Lodge Dutch Ovens are a very good brand. Check out my KITCHEN STORE at the top of my blog if you want some Dutch Oven tools and cooking products. They are ones that I have in my kitchen and home.

Dutch oven OR crock pot….pulled pork can be done either way.

Pour a 1/4 cup of oil into your pot to start and then add the pork in 1 layer. Add dry rub if you haven’t already. Then put the top on and add your coals to the top and bottom. I think most cooks will do dutch oven meats for around 3 hours. It is like cooking them in a slow cooker crock pot. You can also DO this in a crock pot for more like 5 hours. Either way they fall off the bone.

We had dessert in one, potatoes with bacon and cheese in another and pulled pork in another. The top one was just for looks. So cute, right? Dutch oven dinners are fun to do. The holder to the left is another way to put coals down for the first dutch oven. But they are really expensive. Another way is to use a dutch oven stand.

These are expensive and not as necessary unless you plan on doing it a lot. But they do keep the wind out of your dutch oven and the ashes out of your food!

Use a charcoal tower to light up the coals. When they are just gray on each of the 4 edges they are ready to go. Layer about 12 underneath and 10 on top depending on your size of pot. I like the 12 inch pots. Lodge is a great brand if you want to buy one.

You can also do dutch oven in the oven with one of these 9.5 quart Dutch Ovens. But they are VERY expensive.

SEASONING YOUR NEW DUTCH OVEN
Be sure to “season” it before using a new one. It will come with wax in the bottom of the pan. Scrape it out and wipe with a paper towel. Rub just a tiny bit of Wesson oil on the inside and outside surfaces with a rag or paper towel. Then put the lid on one rack and the pan on the other. Let it bake for an hour and a half on 450. It will smoke your kitchen up so be prepared and open windows or your smoke alarm will go off!! When the smoking is all gone, it is seasoned and should look more black than grey. It will continue to get seasoned as you cook with it. Don’t ever wash dutch ovens with soaps! Just rub it out with warm water and reoil it a tiny bit before you put it away or it may rust. Always let it air dry or oven dry before storing.

A close up of our finished pulled pork from a Dutch Oven. Boy I wish I had some right NOW!!

When they are done, pull the pork out of the pan and leave some of the sauce in the pan so you don’t douse your rolls with too much liquid. Add the bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce to the pork. Then serve in a foil pan or large casserole dish and keep covered. Here are our finished pans of pulled pork from a Dutch Oven.

Don’t you want a bit of delicious Dutch Oven Pulled Pork? Buy some soft sub rolls or sandwich type rolls and add pulled pork and maybe some extra bottles of BBQ sauce on the side. So decadently Yummy either from a crock pot or dutch oven, they are both wonderful!