Creamy Salsa Chicken – Heaven in a Slow Cooker!

Tags

Chicken, Cooking, Creamy Salsa Chicken, crock pot, Food, slow cooker, stew

  
It was Halloween night, so I knew cooking dinner would be tricky. I thought I would put a stew-like substance in the slow cooker and then we could help ourselves when we had time to eat. You could also use this as a burrito filing.

This dish is so full of flavor and was very easy to make! The acid of the salsa and the creamy-ness of the cream cheese offset one another wonderfully. The rice helps thicken the mixture up and the beans and corn add some great tasting, yet healthy substance to the dish.

I served this as a stew with sliced olives, jalapeno slices, tortilla chips and hot sauce available as garnishes. Cilantro would be good on this too now that I think about it, but I was out of that.

I hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Creamy Salsa Chicken

3/4 cup instant brown rice

2 cups salsa (I used medium Pace Picante, our house favorite.)

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

1 – 15 oz can black beans drained and rinsed

1 tsp cumin

8 oz fat free or low fat cream cheese

Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours, stirring a couple of times. Towards the end, use a couple of forks to shred the chicken. Spoon into bowls or use tortillas to make burritos and enjoy!

Southwest Slow Cooked Chicken – Bold Flavors Without the High Fat Content!

Tags

Chicken, Cooking, crock pot, Food, slow cooker, southwest, stew

  
Yesterday morning I was in the mood to do some slow cooker cooking. I looked in a skinny slow cooker magazine we had picked up, but everything was too exotic and I didn’t have most of the ingredients. Then I noticed the cover of another magazine we had. My eyes were drawn to the the rich, contrasting colors of black beans, red bell pepper and the green of cilantro. 

I didn’t even open the magazine, but started digging through my pantry, fridge and freezer. Chicken – check! Black beans, red bell pepper, and cilantro – check! Onions and garlic – duh! Tomato and corn – more wonderful colors and flavors! Hot green chilies – why not? Life’s better with some spice!

Slow cookers are pretty darn forgiving. So try throwing in some ingredients! Pick a theme, like I went with Southwest and picking ingredients you like. Just keep in mind that slow cookers tend to draw out the moisture in ingredients, so if you add broth or other liquids you’re going to have more of a soup. If that’s what you’re going for, great! I was shooting for a moist, flavorful concoction that would be well served over rice and that’s what I got with this recipe. If you weren’t shooting for soup, but that’s what you’re getting, you can always thicken it up quickly by adding some fast cooking brown or white rice. 

Southwest Slow Cooked Chicken

2 large green onions, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 large fresh tomato, diced

3/4 cup frozen corn

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs

Salt and pepper

2 cloves garlic, pressed or diced

1  – 15 oz can black beans, drained

1 – 4 oz can hot diced green chilies

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Spray slow cooker pot with non-stick spray. Put chicken in pot and season with salt and pepper. On top of chicken, layer tomatoes, garlic, onions, bell pepper, corn, chilies and black beans. Cover pot and cook on low in your slow cooker for 6-8 hours. We garnished ours with non-fat sour cream and jalapeno slices..