I don’t know what it’s like in your house, but Sundays always feel tougher for me to cook. Though we only live 3 minutes or so from our church, we don’t get home until after 12:10 or 12:15, and everyone’s usually hungry and ready to eat and not so willing to wait for lunch to be fixed.
Usually we just eat out, but I’ve tried making a stronger effort the last few weeks to stick to our budget, and utilize what’s in our pantry.
So Sunday morning I headed to the kitchen to grab the chicken from the fridge I let thaw out the night before…. and figure out what I would do with it.
I was thinking I’d use the crockpot… I just wasn’t sure exactly how.
And then I found this recipe.
First, can I just tell you how excited I was to actually have the fresh ingredients called for AND the seasonings too? There was actually fresh cilantro and fresh green onions sitting in my refrigerator. Wow. I felt so smart.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 24 oz (1 1/2) lbs chicken breast (I only used a couple of chicken breasts and shredded, this was a lot!)
- 14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies (we call this Rotel in the south)
- 15 oz can black beans (NOTE: I did NOT have black beans – so I decided to go with light red kidney beans – and they worked just as well I think)
- 8 oz frozen corn (I used just a regular can of corn, drained)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
- salt to taste
Directions:
Combine chicken broth, beans, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt in the crock pot. Season chicken breast with salt and lay on top. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Adjust salt and seasoning. Serve over rice or in a tortilla (extra pts).
I put everything in the crockpot with the chicken on top around 8 in the morning on high and we were home by 12:30 or so, so it was really only about 4 hours or so (as opposed to the 6 called for in the recipe), but that was plenty of time for my chicken breast to cook completely- it shredded beautifully.
My son is not a huge fan of rice AT ALL and he could live on Mexican food every day – so… I decided to add a bed of rice on top of a lightly cooked tortilla and then top with the chicken and other yummy ingredients from the crockpot, along with a little shredded cheese and salsa and sour cream on the side.
Here’s how it turned out:
This was a great way to change up Sunday lunch – it was light and fresh in taste but very filling – and even my rice-resistant 11-year-old really liked it!
