Monday, August 04, 2014

Crock-pot Chicken Tacos

Remember how I said I was going to try at least two new recipes a month? Well, I've already done my first August recipe, and I have another idea lined up, so so far it seems like I'm going to keep up with my resolution. Woohoo!

My first August recipe was inspired by this one. I have a small slow cooker, about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts. I bought it used at a garage sale so I'm not quite sure exactly what size it is. I've had it for a few years but I haven't cooked with it very often because it's hard to find recipes for small slow cookers. Lots of sauces and and appetizers, but very few meals. And it's hard to cut down some recipes designed for large slow cookers, because what am I going to do with 1/2 a can of cream-of-mushroom soup? So I've been scouring Pinterest looking for recipes that can be easily cut down. First up? Salsa chicken (which I used to make chicken tacos).

How I made it:
2 frozen chicken breasts
Roughly 1/2 a jar of Pineapple Peach Salsa
About 1/2 tsp Cumin

I put the two chicken breasts in the crock pot and sprinkled them with cumin*. Then I dumped salsa over the chicken, cranked the slow cooker up to "high," and let it cook for about 5 hours. I shredded the chicken  when I got home and let it cook about 15-20 more minutes so it could soak up more flavor, but then I got hungry and started eating. I ate these with shredded cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. I was able to get about 8 tacos (using the smaller, fajita size tortillas). I also use less meat in my tacos (compared to my family members) so that I have more room for cheese and other add-ons, so normal humans will get fewer tacos out of this. I ate this over two nights so safe to say you get about 2 servings out of this recipe.

What I will do differently next time:
Next time I'll either use a much chunkier salsa, or find a way to drain some of the juice out. These were some MESSY tacos. Like, wear-a-bib messy. But they were very tasty so I'll definitely be making these again.

*Since I used such a sweet salsa I wanted to add a little heat, and cumin was the warmest spice I had in my spice rack. You could skip this, use different spices, use a hotter salsa, or add in some peppers. Just depends on your preference.