11 January 2011

Crock-Pot Chicken Salsa

I made this for three weeks straight when I was back in Wisconsin. It is filling, comforting, and delicious.  I have tried different amounts of stuff, and the recipe below has been the most successful:

Boneless/skinless chicken breasts (they can even be frozen!) : as many as you need--in the picture there are 3 GIANT ones. (I usually use 3-5)
1 jar of salsa (as mild or spicy as you wish) I use the GIANT jar of Pace mild salsa, not the normal, standard size.
1 can of low-sodium black beans rinsed (I usually use the biggest can, or two cans)
1 bag frozen sweet corn (I LOVE white corn)
1/2 onion chopped
package of mushrooms
package (big one) 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1-2 packets of taco seasoning: OR MAKE YOUR OWN (thanks Krista!) which I did this time--soooooo much better!!
My version of taco seasoning for this dish:
2 tsp EACH:
garlic powder
cumin
kosher salt
oregano 
paprika
1 tsp black pepper
so much better without the added random scary crap!
Directions:
The night before, put chicken breasts in crock pot.  Add taco seasoning, salsa, beans, corn, onions, mushrooms.  Put crock pot in refrigerator overnight. In the morning plug crock pot in, turn on low, let cook all day (it makes the house smell so good!!)--at least 6 hours.  45 minutes before eating, I take two forks and pull apart the large chicken pieces so it is in shredded pieces (see picture), and then 30  minutes before serving I add the cream cheese.  Stir and serve.  It is hearty enough to eat as is, or you can put it over rice or in tortillas or tacos.  My friend made this and left out the mushrooms and added jalapenos and used spicy salsa, but I am a baby when it comes to heat.  I seriously love this dish and it would provide lunches for the week.  
This time around I got 10 servings/5pts. a serving.  But it varies depending on the amount of chicken/beans I add.  You could probably use regular cream cheese or fat free.
Now that I have written about this, I am going to go make some leftovers for a late breakfast, early lunch!


5 comments:

  1. what size crock pot do you use for this? I am going to try it :-) Everyone says crock pot stuff is supposed to be easy but some how I always seem to F it up!

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  2. Seriously, you can't mess this up. Here I have the biggest crockpot I think normal people can buy (4-7 Quart). At my sister's in Wisconsin, we had one size smaller (2-3.5) that one I would JAM this recipe in and the lid would barely close, but it still tasted good! I have a lot more room in the bigger version. Seriously, you can't mess this up--SO GOOD!!!

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  3. I made this yestereday. It was yummy. Thanks!

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