Recipe for complete dish that will happily sit in slow cooker and would appeal to most

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Just looking for ideas for a dish that is complete in and of itself that will happily sit in a slow cooker for half a day and will feed a bunch of blokes at half time during rugby (watching on tv, not playing!)

We are having people round, DH and blokes want to watch the rugby, sensible folk going out for a wander and a nice meal/drinks.

I've said to DH that I will cook something and put in slow cooker so they can just help themselves at half time with no prep required. Don't worry, he will be doing plenty other stuff for me! Something hearty and filling to soak up the beer would be good but they are in their 50s not young blokes so shouldn't be too bad.

They'll be fine to butter some chunky bread or something.

All meat eaters and nothing too fancy - any ideas?

It's an late-ish kick off so dinner type meal rather than soup and bread.

Goulash with bread or put some potatoes in.
Pizza chicken with bread.
Beef stew.
Any kind of curry if happy to use microwave rice or naans

Chilli. With bread or wraps or jacket potatoes and loads of cheese.

Thanks, I think I want to avoid rice, there will be about 10 of them and if they all start farting about with rice and microwaves, it will take more than the 15 mins break and I don't want to have rice sitting.

Goulash is a decent call,, I think i'd just chuck tatties in it and they could have bread as well if they wanted.

I've never heard of pizza chicken but i'll have a google.

To be clear also, I'm not fussed about it being initially cooked in the slow cooker as I'm not a fan to be honest, so happy to cook it in the morning/day before and then put into there to keep hot.

I thought about chili but again no rice, baked potatoes I hadn't thought of but not sure if I want to leave stuff in the oven as it might get forgotten about.

I'm not expecting them to be drunk but they will be watching game and chatting and generally distracted. DS (19) has been recruited as a taxi service for the day so I guess i could leave him in charge of food.

I suppose he could do a run to the chippy and save all the bother.....

We all like a ratatouille-style stew with chicken chunks cooked in it.
Or a curry and various nan bread. We all like peshwari nan with a veggie chickpea curry.

if your DS could reheat potatoes in the micro wave (or if you have 2 slowcookers they can be wrapped in foil in one) you could bake the potatoes ahead of time and just get them reheated in time for the break and serve with chilli

alternatively a nice beef stew with potatoes etc in and some chunky bread
curry and naan breads (again this can be popped in the oven for 10 min by DS)

Boeuf en Daube - aka posh goulash:-

thewatchfulcook.co.uk/tag/boeuf-en-daube/

Even more delicious if made with shin and cooked at a VERY low heat for hours.

Jamie Oliver’s ‘Andy the Gas Man Stew’ is a winner for just this kind of occasion - basically a slightly spicy beef stew with chickpeas delish!

I'm a pretty OK cook, but other than steak or mince, I don't do that well with beef sometimes. So I tend to avoid making stews. I cook a lot of chicken things with rice or noodles or potatoes but nothi g I think will sit well for hours keeping warm.

Some great ideas here though. :)

Could you not just do a big chilli and they can have it with garlic bread? If they're nibbling crisps & nuts etc during the match, then they won't miss rice or potatoes.

Alternatively, something like chicken chasseur or boeuf bourginon... Again, they can have bread with both of those.

Or just a nice basic chicken casserole will do nicely with some chunky bread to mop up the sauce.

I'd do a sausage casserole with either rolls or crusty bread. Browning the sausages first makes them look more tasty, but if not, just chuck it all in and leave it for hours

Any kind of stew or casserole with potatoes included as the carb then they literally just need to dish it up.

Many recipes out there, veggie house here but I often take meat recipes and just alter them to a veggie alternative using quorn or soya.

Favourites I’ve served to meat eaters and veggies alike easily done in slow cooker over the years:

Ghoulash
Stroganoff
“Beef” in ale
“Chicken” chauseurre
“Beef” bourgignon

My “go to” for a winter warmer “beef” stew:

Quorn need style chunks
Carrots - either sliced or if I’m being really lazy batons
Chopped onion (I’m lazy and use frozen)
3 cloves crushed garlic (but we love garlic)
Stock
Bay leaves
Thyme
Black pepper
Tomato purée

You could go really old school and do dumplings?

Jackets keep warm for a surprisingly long time. If you wrap them in foil once cooked then put them back in the turned off oven they’ll probably keep their heat for a couple of hours.

I love slow cooker lasagne

Quorn BEEF style chunks - sodding autocorrect!!

Thanks folks, I guess because I don't make stew things a lot i'd forgotten about that sort of stuff. DSs are very fussy and don't eat veg so we've got into the habit of having veg (or fruit in their case) on the side rather than mixed in. Even the traybake stuff I do is either just for DH and I or sorted in a way I can lift out their portions without contamination! DS2 doesn't eat beans or mushrooms but will eat peas and corn, DS1 will eat beans and mushrooms. It's not that long since he wouldn't eat potatoes!

No veg sort of makes a stew a bit pointless.

@user1483387154 Please explain how you do this?

I would do bbq pulled pork with some nice crusty rolls, coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad etc.

Hi user xx You just add all the ingredients as you would a normal lasagne but dont need to cook any of it first. So combine all of the raw ingredients and layer again as usual and just leave it to cook. it is very easy and tastes lovely.

So it does go in raw! Thanks user, I'll give it a go 👍

Pulled pork, cook and shred the meat in advance (or actually make your husband shred it before everyone comes over) and cover with foil, it doesn’t matter if the pork is cool, it’ll still taste nice. Serve with crusty rolls, coleslaw, potato salad.

Or chunky chilli served with crusty rolls or tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream and guacamole to make nachos. Yes, the cheese won’t have been melted on the nachos but with what they can assemble in half time, they won’t care.

For chunky chilli (serves 4):
500g diced beef, fry in a little oil until brown all over, remove from the pan. Use a frying pan or a cast iron casserole dish if you have one because then the sauce will pick up the bits that get stuck to the bottom of the pan.
1 onion, diced. Fry in the same pan the beef has been in, add a touch more oil if necessary.
Add the beef back to the pan with the onions
Add 1 tin of tomatoes, stir together, picking up anything that is stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Add 1tsp of ground coriander, 1tsp smoked paprika, 1tsp ground cumin
Add chilli flakes/pepper to taste, try a 1/4tsp and build up from there. For the first time, I would 1/4tsp chilli powder, then when cooked if it’s not spicy enough, add a little bit of chilli flakes or buy in chilli sauce - that way everyone is happy.
Add 1tsp honey and salt and pepper to taste.
Mix it all together.
You’ll need to add water but I find it’s best to add about 250ml water as I put it in but then add more as it cooks depending on how it looks. Serving with bread and nachos, you’ll want it a bit less saucy than if serving with rice or jackets, so take that into consideration as you’re cooking.

Both options will go well with a few beers and are eat in front of the TV meals.

I would just do a massive chilli, grate some cheese, put some guacamole and sour cream in bowls with cling film on and a pile of tortillas and nachos. Everything is prepared before hand, and nice and easy to eat.

Whatever you make, consider sautéing the aromatics (onions/scallions/garlic) in a pan with oil before putting them in the slow cooker with the other ingredients. To many people, raw onions and garlic in the slow cooker give off a horrible odour and taste terrible.