I have this recipe that I think will be good. It's a slow cooker recipe and it calls for you to add raw pasta to the slow cooker. Usually, you don't add pasta to the slow cooker, you leave it until it's done. I just made a recipe w/raw rice in the slow cooker and besides the ground beef and corn and other things, the rice disappeared! My sister had no idea there was rice in there until I told her. I will post the recipe and you tell me if I should make it as it and if I do, will the pasta totally fall apart or should I make the pasta in a separate pot and add it at the last min. so it stays whole?



Chicken Fettuccine in the Slow Cooker

Chicken Fettuccine in the Slow Cooker is my favorite comfort meal! I make this slow cooker chicken recipe at least once a month...maybe more in the winter. You're sure to love this tasty slow cooker recipe!
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, halved
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 (about 14.5 ounces) tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 tablespoon basil
1 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
8 ounces fettuccine, uncooked
1 cup peas
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced
Instructions

In skillet, brown chicken breasts in olive oil. Place chicken in slow cooker.

Add green onions, garlic, tomatoes, and basil. Cover and cook on low 7 to 9 hours.

Remove chicken and cut into pieces. Return chicken pieces to pot. Stir in cream, egg yolks, and Parmesan cheese. Cover and cook on high 30 minutes to thicken.

While sauce is t hickening, cook fettuccine according to package directions. Add fettuccine, peas and mushrooms to slow cooker. Cover and cook on high 30 to 60 minutes.

Im no cook but would absolutely, definately leave the pasta until last minute and then stir in with the sauce!

I think the pasta would go extremely rubbery if it was to be cooked that long!

Shannon xx

That's what I was wondering. The rice in the other recipe, even though it went in raw, totally melted! You could not see any of it at all. I don't want to ruin this one.

Thanks for your input.

Where did you find this recipe? I think you should follow it. If it goes wrong, oh well, it goes wrong. My mom was just telling me the other day, you ALWAYS follow the recipe exactly the first time through, then you can start messing with it next time you make it.

I know, always follow the recipe the first time you make it. The problem w/all the ingredients in it, if it's terrible, I've wasted some money on a recipe no one will eat. I got this recipe in an e-mail from a crock pot recipe site. This was on someone's blog I think.

Okay, and if you DON'T follow the recipe, you have the potential for the same result. Whatever, you're a grownup, it's your money, your choice.

Uh....are we reading the same recipe? Because your recipe CLEARLY says to cook the noodles according to the package instructions...THEN add to the slow cooker. Not add raw pasta.

My aunt has made a recipe where you put in raw pasta and let it cook. I think its very recipe dependent based on how much liquid you are working with.

I'd definitely follow the recipe though!

www.onedishdinners.com . . .

If you're supposed to add cooked pasta, there is no reason to cook it for another 30-60 minutes. If this were me, I'd add the uncooked pasta, peas & mushrooms when I added the eggs and cheese. Then I'd skip the last 30-60 minutes. That recipe don't make no sense.

Oh, and rice that's cooked to death in a slow cooker is called congee, and I LOVE it. You can make it thin like soup or thick like oatmeal. Sweet or savory. Delicious.

The recipe seems off to me. I hate adding rice and noodles to the crockpot but I also hate cooking it on the stove top. The only thing that has worked for me is adding uncooked pasta at the end and then letting it cook for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the pasta, and sometimes I have to add a little bit more water. For fettuccine noodles it will probably be 30 minutes. Otherwise just cook on the stove top and serve the crockpot mixture onto the top.

I've never heard of Congee, Panic. How do you know so much about everything, especially food? Just curious is all.

If I make this for supper, and it turns out horrible, then what do we eat? Right now I am a caregiver to both of my parents and I do 99% of the cooking. I have to make healthy meals and meals my dad can eat. He has a bridge in his mouth and chewing can be a problem, which is why he won't eat steak. Also, he is on meds for depression/anxiety and his eating is not good. If he could, he'd eat sweets and drink Coke all day long. Now that he is in a walking cast and using a walker (he's 88) he doesn't eat much at all, so making a crockpot meal is good for all of us and it's usually easy.

What I will do is cook the Fettucini separate and add it at the end. I will also add what Panic said at the end too. I get lots of food e-mail's and I belong to a Christian Homemakers Group and we are always swapping recipes. I got this and sent it in to the group. I liked the ingredients and will let all of you know when i make this how it came out.

You just need to make a decision and go for it. If it goes wrong, it goes wrong. Best of luck. Let us know what you do and how it turns out.

OK, for the record, I don't think chicken alfredo should be cooked in a slow cooker because it only takes like 20 minutes to make - even if you do it the LONG way. But I'm sure that recipe will be fine if you cook the pasta separately. Let us know though. I'm curious.

I just found out about congee a few months ago because we have had a slow cooker for years, but I never really used it. So I was looking for new stuff to try. I found a few recipes for congee online, and it seemed like the most absolutely basic recipe ever. So I tried a thin congee (which I like savory like soup) and a thick congee (which I like sweet similar to oatmeal). I LOVED them both, and the only difference is the ratio of rice to water. And there's no recipe - you just put rice and water in the slow cooker and cook until the rice falls apart. It's especially great if you want a super-easy hot breakfast - you just put it in the slow cooker when you go to bed, and it's ready when you wake up. Add a little sugar and cinnamon, and it tastes like rice pudding.

If you want a fast pasta recipe, here's a great one - similar to alfredo, but MUCH easier. Quick carbonara:

In a bowl, combine 3 eggs, 3/4 cup milk or cream, a handful of parmesan (optional - but any cheese works), cooked bacon (optional - or chicken, sausage, ham, whatever). Cook and drain the pasta of your choice. Return the pasta to the pot and add the egg mixture to the hot pasta. Toss over medium heat until warmed through. If you're feeling fancy, throw in a handful of chopped, fresh parsley.

It's basically italian bacon-and-eggs. If you cook the bacon in the microwave while the pasta is cooking, the whole meal can go from box to table in 20 minutes. And it's DELICIOUS. I usually add peas or carrots, but I'm always trying to sneak in vegetables.

Tunie wrote:

Okay, and if you DON'T follow the recipe, you have the potential for the same result. Whatever, you're a grownup, it's your money, your choice.

Christ...

Personally I disagree that you can't mess with a recipe the first time you do it. Unless you're baking, because cakes and pastries really don't like their quantities messed with, how wrong can you possibly go by substituting? If it doesn't seem right do it your way.

Starches do have a tendency to cook away to nothing - if you cut potatoes up for a stew and they're too small, for example, they'll just disintegrate. So I'd imagine the same would be true of pasta cooked for too long as well.

Carbonara with green vegetables is amazing. I've had it with peas before, and I often see it with tenderstem or purple sprouting brocolli as well so perhaps that's a classic way of doing it. Courgette, if not overcooked, is nice too. I'm sure I've seen it with asparagus too.

panic wrote:

I just found out about congee a few months ago because we have had a slow cooker for years, but I never really used it. So I was looking for new stuff to try. I found a few recipes for congee online, and it seemed like the most absolutely basic recipe ever. So I tried a thin congee (which I like savory like soup) and a thick congee (which I like sweet similar to oatmeal). Add a little sugar and cinnamon, and it tastes like rice pudding.

I don't know why but I never thought of having congee as a sweet dish. I've always eaten it as savory with fish sauce, fried garlic, an egg, and chopped scallions for some color. (Easy over or poached is my choice of cookage for the egg, but in a pinch, you can just top the congee with a raw egg and let residual heat do the cooking.) I've eaten it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I'm going to have to try it as a sweetened porridge sometime. Don't know why I never thought of it...

When I first discovered it, we made a huge amount of congee (thick like oatmeal), stuck it in the refrigerator, and then reheated a bowl for breakfast every morning. We tried maple syrup, brown sugar & cinnamon, banana & peanut butter, strawberry jam... I absolutely LOVE it as a sweet porridge. Just treat it like oatmeal or cream of wheat.

Panic, you never told me about how you know so much about cooking? Every time I see you on-line you seem like you know so much about that subject. Are you a jack of all trades or have you had that many different jobs? Your wife must love you!

SoloJazzDancer wrote:

Your wife must love you!

That is funny stuff right there, can you even imagine panic with a wife?!

And why is that so funny? I'll have you know I'm very popular with the ladies. And I have lived with the same crazy bitc... I mean woman... for the past 20 years. I'd make a FANTASTIC husband. Just watch...

"Woman, go get me a sandwich!"

"Jeez, this beer isn't even COLD!"

"I paid for this damn toilet, and I'll leave the seat up if I want to!"

See? I'd make a great husband. pfft.

ANYWAY... SJD, I really have had a million jobs. My friends always tease me about that. And I have worked in a few restaurant kitchens (MANY years ago), but actually, I've just always had an interest in food. Not so much because I love to cook but more because I love to eat. I'm not a great cook - I just like to learn about food in general.

What a coincidence that we're talking about crockpot foods, because I just did a whole lot of discovery on the topic today on teh interwebs! Going to try to make homemade yogurt for the first time using the crockpot, very excited. I LOVE yogurt!

Panic, would brown rice make a congee too, or not? I'm just curious if that's only for white rice or if brown will also dissolve despite the extra fiber. Folk always say brown rice is a healthier alternative to white. (Not like it matters for me at the mo', we have about 2/3 or a 50lb bag of jasmine rice still in our pantry and that's got to go before we restock with anything else.)

Brown rice congee is supposed to be great, but I've never tried it.

panic wrote:

I'd make a FANTASTIC husband. Just watch...

"Woman, go get me a sandwich!"

"Jeez, this beer isn't even COLD!"

"I paid for this damn toilet, and I'll leave the seat up if I want to!"

See? I'd make a great husband. pfft.

OMG I'm really upset now, my husband has never said any of those phrases to me, he's also had a million jobs, the wind changes direction and he changes his job

Oaky, Panic, thanks for letting me know. I had no idea why you seemed to know so much about food. I too love food, the stuff that I can eat anyway and I love to cook. I will cook just about anything but I hate, hate, hate to clean up.

I also thought that I heard you say somewhere about a wife. Didn't know you weren't married. Sorry that I assumed.

Let me ask you something, Panic. Do you believe that if you can read, you can follow & make any recipe? I don't think I have ever ruined a recipe, not that I can think of but there have been recipes that my family just didn't care for. Not because I ruined the recipe but because they just didn't care for it. I just can't believe that show "Worst Cooks In America" is people whose food is that bad. I grew up w/a mom whose mom was an amazing Italian cook (I'm half Italian & half Polish.) She died when I was 7 or 8 so I never got to cook w/her but I do remember some of the stuff she used to make and it was yummy. My dad's mom died when he was in the second world war so I never got to meet her. I guess I learned from my mom although I don't remember cooking w/her specifically. There are some things that only my mom makes and I am hoping someday she will share those recipes w/me but for now, I am a pretty decent cook.

I know I just hijacked this thread but hey, it's my thread so I can hijack it if I want! LOL

I also thought that I heard you say somewhere about a wife. Didn't know you weren't married. Sorry that I assumed.

We've lived together for so long that everyone assumes we're married. We're both used to it, so no worries. We definitely act like an old married couple.

Let me ask you something, Panic. Do you believe that if you can read, you can follow & make any recipe?

I honestly don't know. But I come from a serious cooking family (pennsylvania dutch on one side and southern on the other) so everyone in my family is a good cook. My father is a great cook, and so are my brothers. All my grandparents were masterful cooks. My mother likes to say she's not a great cook, but she only says that so people will tell her how good her food is. pfft. Everyone in my family is a good cook, but I don't think they got that way by reading recipes. They became good cooks because they were just interested in food.

sjerose wrote:

would brown rice make a congee too, or not? I'm just curious if that's only for white rice or if brown will also dissolve despite the extra fiber. Folk always say brown rice is a healthier alternative to white.

It absolutely will. Takes a little more liquid to rice, and takes slightly more time when doing it the old fashioned way, but overnight or all day in a crockpot is still sufficient.

Let me ask you something, Panic. Do you believe that if you can read, you can follow & make any recipe? I don't think I have ever ruined a recipe, not that I can think of but there have been recipes that my family just didn't care for. Not because I ruined the recipe but because they just didn't care for it.

Ok, then that just means you made a recipe that wasn't to the taste of the eaters you were cooking for. It doesn't mean you wrecked anything.

I made a chili last week that was SPICY chili. My husband, who typically likes chili, and typically likes spicy things, didn't like it. Doesn't mean I messed anything up or that I'm a bad cook, just means that despite how well that should have hit my target audience, I didn't hit the mark. No big deal.