Faux Pork Mole

Again, continuing on my theme of getting things done ahead of time, this recipe is one that you can do all day and it will be great. It's adapted from Lynn Rosetto Casper's Splendid Table (splendidtable.org).

You'll need:
One Boston Butt (pork shoulder) bone in
Two ancho chilis
Some cocoa powder
Some garlic powder
Some salt
Some cayenne pepper
Some brown sugar

A dutch oven
Some aluminum foil

Some good tortillas
An avocado or two
A sweet onion, chopped
Maybe some cheese (mexican cheese would be best)

Cut open the chillis and remove the stems and the seeds. Then put them into a clean coffee grinder and grind them into a powder and put the powder into a small bowl. Add to that an equal part of cocoa and brown sugar. Then about a tablespoon each of garlic powder, salt and cayenne. Rub this all over the pork and let it stand for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 275 (yes, 275). Put the pork in the dutch oven cover it with foil. Then put foil over the top of the dutch oven and put on the lid. Cook for ever. 3-4 hours or longer.

Here's what I did. I put it in the oven at about 8 or 8:30. Then I put my oldest son to bed and fell asleep with him. I woke up at 4 in the morning and thought, "Oh, shucks!" (or something like that) "The pork is still in the oven!" I hustled downstairs and got it out of the oven. It was just fine. I let it cool. Then I shredded the meat (the shoulder bone just came out by itself). I haven't tried this but you could do this in the crockpot.

Assemble a taco with the tortillas, avocado, onion, maybe a little of the juice from the pork and maybe some cheese. Serve with refritos and rice and you're in heaven.

Crockpot Chicken (or Chinese Chicken, as Brett calls it)

So, recently I've been working late and getting home late. So, I was thinking about ways to make things either ahead of time or so they are ready when I get home. This one was really easy.

You'll need:

A whole chicken; take out the giblets and the neck and save them for stock.
A cup of brown sugar
8 to 10 cloves of garlic
About an inch of fresh ginger
1/4 Seven-Up
3/4 cup vinegar
1 T. soy sauce
1 t. cayenne pepper

Put the chicken in the crockpot. Mince up the garlic and the ginger. Throw everything in the crockpot. Turn it to low and let it cook for about 8 hours more or less.

That's it. You're done. However, you can kick it up a bit. When it's done, the meat will literally fall off the bone. So, carefully pull out the chicken and put it in a roasting pan and run it under the broiler for 20 minutes to crisp up the skin. Meanwhile, take the juice out of the crockpot and boil it down. Season it with salt and pepper and thicken it up with cornstarch.

Serve it with rice and roasted veggies (which you can do when you're crisping up the chicken).

I was thinking of some variations and instead of Seven-up and vinegar, just throw in some OJ and some orange zest. Maybe throw in some rosemary.