Fall is officially here. There’s snow on the mountains and our heat is on. For us, that means the crockpot will be out more. We use our crockpot year round, but in the cooler months, I find it is out nearly all the time. Here are my five favorite allergy-friendly crockpot meals.
whole chicken
This one is so easy. And multi-purpose, which is the main reason it’s an allergy-friendly crockpot favorite. Did you know a lot of boxed broths have sunflower oil in them? I didn’t until Ollie. I love cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot and making broth after. It’s so easy. We put four or five tinfoil balls in the bottom of the crockpot, coat the chicken with oil and spices, added chopped onion, and cook on low for 8 hours. Fair warning, the chicken will almost fall off the bone. It’s great for shredded chicken dishes like soup, tacos, or chicken salad.
To make the broth, remove the tinfoil balls, add in all your chicken bones and any meat you couldn’t get off/didn’t want to eat, lots of veggie scraps, and fill with water until it’s within 1/2″ of the top. In terms of veggie scraps, we save just about everything in a freezer bag for broth making: ends of celery, onion, carrot, pepper. I usually also add a few cloves of garlic and some ginger. The broth should cook on low for at least 8 hours. Truth be told, sometimes ours cooks almost 24 hours. If we aren’t able to strain and jar it, I simply add a bit more water and up the time on the crockpot. Once you taste the flavor of homemade broth, you’ll never want store bought again!
thai chicken
If you go look at this recipe, you’re going to question why it’s an allergy-friendly crockpot favorite. It is Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Butter Chicken. What I’ve found with recipes is I don’t often look for allergy-friendly recipes. I look at just about any recipe and figure out how to make it work for us. This wasn’t a huge hit with Ollie last time, but we always give a recipe a few tries with him. Erik and I LOVED it right from the start and Ollie inhaled it when we made it a second time.
With this one, the substitutes are quite easy. You need Don’t Go Nuts soy butter instead of peanut butter and CoYo natural yogurt instead of greek yogurt. I also add a bit of red wine vinegar to my cabbage as I find the dressing a little thick. We don’t always make quinoa – I personally think the chicken and cabbage are more than enough.
honey buffalo meatballs
I will admit, this does not get to be labeled as an easy allergy-friendly crockpot meal. A considerable amount of time goes into preparing these meatballs. For us, they’re a great option for our Sunday night meal prep. We make the meatballs and the sauce and keep everything in the fridge until the night we’re ready to eat it. Then we just pop everything in the crockpot and heat it up! We usually eat this with quinoa or mashed potatoes (sometimes with some cauliflower mixed in).
The thing I like about this recipe is how easily it can be adapted. We sometimes use all ground turkey and sometimes add in shredded carrot or zucchini instead. For the egg substitute, we use applesauce. It is a pretty wet recipe, especially if you use carrots instead of all meat, so we only add two small spoonfulls of applesauce. I’m sure it would work well with flax eggs as well or regular eggs if that’s not an allergy concern for you.
pulled pork
This is a clear allergy-friendly crockpot favorite for us because it’s super easy and versatile. We don’t load the pork up with a specific sauce and instead go for a more neutral flavor so the meat can be used in multiple ways. Start with a 2-4 lb Boston butt pork. Honestly, we make this when I find a great deal on pork at the stores. Whatever size you can find will work.
Chop some onion, mix together equal parts maple syrup and apple cider vinegar (usually 1/4 – 1/3 cup of each), 1 T. chili powder, and some salt and pepper. Place your chopped onions in the bottom of the crockpot, add the pork, cover with your sauce mixture, and cook on low 8 hours. Shred right before serving. We usually use this for at least two meals. My favorite ways to use it are with BBQ sauce and shredded cabbage for pulled pork sandwiches, in pulled pork tacos, or on top of vegan mac and cheese.
honey garlic chicken and veggies
This honey garlic chicken and veggies is amazing. It is an allergy-friendly crockpot favorite because it is super easy and makes an entire meal in one dish. I love it. We use this recipe from Damn Delicious, minus the green beans due to Ollie’s legume allergy. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t even add the green beans if he wasn’t allergic. Not a fan of those! As our veggie palate does expand, I’ve wondered about adding broccoli or brussel sprouts instead but haven’t tried it yet. I’ll let you know if I do.
what’s your allergy-friendly crockpot favorite?
There you have my top five allergy-friendly crockpot meals. Now it’s your turn. Share your favorite allergy-friendly crockpot meals and recipes in the comments! As I said, our crockpot is in use all the time during these cooler months. I’m always looking for new recipes to add to our rotation!