Heather's Bytes

This is one of my many favorite meals: Korean-style short ribs. One of the reasons I like it so much is because the majority of it’s made in the crockpot, so a lot of the hard work is done for me and the house smells wonderful all day — how can you beat that? I like to serve it over white rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onion.

If you can’t find short ribs or you have a bunch of people to feed (short ribs can be pricey), you can also use a pound or so of beef stew meat — it works really well and is already in perfect bite-sized pieces.

Korean-Style Short Ribs

1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c packed light brown sugar (you can scale it down to 1/3 c)
2 Tb sesame oil
2 Tb rice vinegar
2 Tb minced fresh ginger
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
5 lbs beef short ribs

3 Tb cornstarch
3 Tb cold water

Mix soy sauce, sugar, oil, vinegar, ginger, garlic and red pepper in a small bowl. Place ribs in a 5-quarter slow cooker and pour sauce over. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 9 hours.

Transfer ribs to a platter, and skim and discard excess fat from liquid. Place liquid in a saucepan, combine cornstarch and water and add to liquid. Bring to a boil and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove meat from ribs, place over rice and top with sauce, green onions and sesame seeds.

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Forgive the picture, this one doesn’t photograph very well!

One of Mike’s favorite restaurant foods when he lived in South Dakota was Chicken Tortilla Soup from Ground Round. I got to have it one time when we flew out to see his family, and it was really good. We don’t have Ground Rounds out here so it’s been at least 12 years since we last had it.

Anyway, he mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he was craving it, so I went online and found a “copycat” recipe for it. I adapted it for the crockpot and surprised him with it, and it was a huge hit. Even the kids, who aren’t that crazy about soup, loved it!

Chicken Cheese Tortilla Soup

1 pound cubed chicken breast
2 cans Fiesta nacho cheese soup
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups milk
2 cans mild enchilada sauce
Crushed tortilla chips
Shredded cheddar cheese

Gently boil the chicken breast until cooked through and shred or cube. Combine all ingredients except the tortilla chips and cheddar cheese and place in crockpot.

Let cook on low for about four hours, stirring occasionally as it will burn easily. Crush tortilla chips and place in bowl, ladle soup over top. Sprinkle top with shredded cheddar cheese.