Converting a slow-cooker recipe for the WSM


 
C

ChadVKealey

TVWBB Pro
My wife is always finding these "slow cooker dump recipes" on Facebook. You know, those ones where you just plop a bunch of ingredients in a crock-pot, set it on low for 8 hours, and magically have a wonderful dinner waiting for you after work. Most of them are garbage, but she tried one recently that was pretty darn good. It's for chicken nachos, or, more precisely, for pulled chicken to be spread over tortilla chips to make chicken nachos. We used it as taco filling, and it was really tasty. Basically, it's chicken (5 8-oz boneless, skinless breasts), a packet of taco seasoning (I make my own) and a jar of salsa. I was expecting the meat to be really dry after 8 hours, but it was surprisingly moist and tender.

So, I'd like to make this (on a larger scale) for a scout camping trip next month and cook it in my WSM. I researched crock-pot temperatures and found wildly different information, but averaging things out, it seems like most slow cookers cook at temps of about 200 degrees (on low). I think if I aim for 225 and put the ingredients in foil pans (or a foil-lined dutch oven) and cover tightly for 5-6 hours, that should do the trick. I'll probably replace some of the breasts with boneless/skinless thighs (which, ironically, are more expensive, but I think will handle the hotter/faster cook better).

Has anyone else successfully translated a crock-pot/slow-cooker recipe for preparation in a WSM or similar cooker?
 
It seems like you pretty much just want to use your WSM because you are camping, correct? Because you won't get any smoky benefit from using it with something that is just wrapped up. Perhaps you should think about buying a campfire dutch oven, because this is exactly the reason to own one.
 
If you think of the WSM as an outdoor oven than any recipe should be easy to replicate.
Slow cookers have one thing going for them as you can set it and walk away for 8 hrs and your food is done.
\The WSM does that and you can ramp up the temps and get it done sooner.

Tim
 
SteveCK said:
It seems like you pretty much just want to use your WSM because you are camping, correct? Because you won't get any smoky benefit from using it with something that is just wrapped up. Perhaps you should think about buying a campfire dutch oven, because this is exactly the reason to own one.
Click to expand...

Our pack has several camp dutch ovens, but at the time this would need to cook, they'll already be in use (prepping desserts to serve after the campfire program). I have a couple non-camp DOs (flat-bottomed, domed lids) and could probably use one of those. I was hoping (for simplicity and easy cleanup) to cook it in foil pans. I'm also planning to cook a couple of the desserts in the WSM as well (we'll likely have 90-100 campers, so we need lots of desserts), but those are more of a known quantity (specific temps & times, so easy to replicate). It's hard to find any definitive information about the actual cooking temps used by electric slow cookers. I guess I could run a test: fill the crock pot with water, stick a temp probe in and set it on low for a few hours.
 
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