Spend Time Watching the Game Not in the Kitchen

Use your slow cooker to make these buffalo chicken sliders and enjoy the game with your family and friends.

TEXARKANA, Ark. –

You don’t want to be in the kitchen cooking while everyone is enjoying the Super Bowl game. Instead, let your slow cooker do all the work.  

Provide your family and friends with tasty, nutritious game day food using your slow cooker, or as some call it, your crock pot®. 

Is there a difference between a slow cooker and a crock pot®?  No. The only difference is in the name.  They both cook the same.

Crock pot® is the brand name of a line of slow cookers. The name, slow cooker, is the generic product name for a stand-alone appliance with a heating element and ceramic casserole which cooks foods with slow, moist heat. Regardless of how you see it referred to in an article or recipe, it means the same type of appliance.

When slow cookers were first introduced in the early 1970’s, many bought them. With catchy marketing slogans such as “cooks all day while the cook’s away,” why wouldn’t you want to come home to a meal already prepared.

Since the slow cooker involves simmering foods for extended periods of time at fairly low temperatures, foods can be started in the morning and will be ready to eat after work. So, as funny as it may sound, slow cookers are an excellent way to reduce your actual cooking time.

If you question the use of a slow cooker due to food safety issues, there are guidelines to assure that the food you are cooking does not remain in the temperature danger zone for too long. When cooking dinner in your slow cooker, problems can be avoided if you follow these easy guidelines:

• Be sure to remove your item to be cooked directly from the refrigerator right before the

            food goes into the cooker.

• Don’t use frozen meat or poultry since it takes longer for frozen foods to cook. Also, times given in most recipes assume the meat will be thawed, so foods may be undercooked if frozen meats are used.
• Don’t overload the slow cooker. Foods above the cooking area will not cook completely and it will be difficult for the food to cook properly if the food is packed too tightly in the slow cooker.
• Do not use the slow cooker to reheat leftovers. These need to be heated quickly and thoroughly to kill microorganisms. The lower heat of a slow cooker cannot give this type of heating.

Slow cookers can be an asset to your Super Bowl buffet. To minimize clean up, use a slow cooker liner. They are life changing when it comes to clean up.

For more information, contact the Miller County Extension Office, 870-779-3609 or visit us in room 215 at the Miller County Courthouse. We're online at cdue@uada.edu, on Facebook at UAEXMillerCountyFCS, on Twitter @MillerCountyFCS or on the web at uaex.uada.edu/Miller.

Try these Buffalo Chicken Sliders for your Super Bowl game buffet. They are easy to make, and you get to enjoy the game.

Buffalo Chicken Sliders

By Carla Due
County Extension Agent - FCS
The Cooperative Extension Service
U of A System Division of Agriculture

Media Contact: Carla Due
County Extension Agent - FCS
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
400 Laurel Street, Suite 215 Texarkana AR 71854
(870) 779-3609
cdue@uada.edu

The Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service is an equal opportunity institution. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate or need materials in another format, please contact your County Extension office (or other appropriate office) as soon as possible. Dial 711 for Arkansas Relay.

Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.