You know well my mantra of cooking outdoors in the summer weather. But if you’re new to Craftapped, then you may not be hip to the complete degree of my encouragement. I don’t mean just the grill or BBQ, I mean any and all cooking with heat – take it outside.
If you have a side burner on your gas grill, or a larger propane burner that only comes out of the garage for booyas or deep fried turkeys, make use of them now! And here’s another cooking tool that works great outside in the summer: your crock pot.
You may only think about the slow cooker for those winter stews and braised roasts, but that rascal does the job for so many summer meals. This slider recipe from The Beeroness is a good one, and should be accompanied by fresh sweet corn and cole slaw. Use a high ABV porter, for sure, as the additional alcohol adds more oomph in tenderizing the meat.
A Poetic Ode to The Outdoor Crock
Quietly sitting
on a table
on the deck
plugged into juice
slowly
blending a bevy of components
creating
a comestible composition
that would
rival Ravel and make Mozart mirthsome
were it music
Keep the heat outside and let the crock do the work. More time that way for hanging with family and friends and drinking craft beer!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 3 tbs soy sauce
- 3 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 12 ounces porter beer (high ABV dark beer works best)
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 18-20 slider buns
Directions
- In a small bowl whisk together the tomato paste, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder and brown sugar.
- Add the sauce, chicken and beer to a slow cooker. Cook on low for 4 hours or until chicken pulls apart easy with a fork.
- Using two forks, shred chicken.
- Scoop chicken into slider buns.
- Top meat with a little pile of cole slaw, if you have it on the menu.
(double the recipe for parties!)