Crock Potting 101: "Crock Pot Chicken In Salsa"

This is a simple dish that hardly even needs a "recipe" but it is one of my go-to meals and helps ensure that I get plenty of protein in my diet:

1) Buy a big 67oz jug of salsa at your grocery store. The store brand is usually only around $5. It's only 5 calories/tablespoon and, aside from some sodium, is a very healthy addition to your diet.

2) Place boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a crock pot and add enough salsa to completely cover them. Optionally add some sliced mushrooms and chopped celery, if desired.

3) Cook on "high" for 3-4 hours or "low" for 6-8 hours.

4) When it's time to eat, just shred a chicken breast onto your plate and top with a generous portion of the salsa from the crock pot. Even with an 8oz breast you'll come in under 300 calories for a delicious meal.

Enjoy!

(Note: you can use bone-in split chicken breasts or thighs, too, but pull off the skin to keep the calories down. Also, don't cook the breasts so long that all the little rib bones end up floating around in your salsa. You don't want to risk choking on one of those!)



If you decide to get more adventurous, here is a crock potting article I wrote awhile back (before I started dieting-- a point that will become readily apparent as you read it.) Note: not all recipes are low cal!

I oftentimes use my crock pot as a "mini-oven" and move my oven dishes into it. Since I try to live a "green" life I figure this saves energy and doesn't heat up the house the way the oven would do.



Crock Potting 101:

I love to cook and end up blogging about it fairly often. Since many people don’t use their crock pots to their full potential (to roast a duck, for example) I wrote this post in hopes that it will motivate some of you to use yours a little more often!

In cooking there are very few “one size fits all” recipes, but when you use a crock pot you can come pretty close. I will make the disclaimer that this information can be fine tuned based on different crock pots, different amounts cooked, etc., but this information will get you right in the ballpark.

It is almost impossible to mess up with a crock pot. You can cook for an hour or two longer or shorter and it usually won’t matter. So here goes:

GENERIC ONE SIZE FITS ALL CROCK POT RECIPE:

1) Take an inexpensive piece of meat and put it in the crock pot. (Everything that comes out of the crock pot ends up “fall off the bone tender” so there is no sense in spending lots of money on tender cuts of meat.)

2) Add the liquid of your choice.

3) Cook on high for 4-ish hours or cook on low for 8-10 hours.

4) Eat.


(Pictured above) Chicken that I roasted in a crock pot while wrapped in foil-- then placed under the broiler before serving.


(Pictured above) Duck I roasted in crock pot while wrapped in foil and placed on top of potatoes and carrots that were set directly on the bottom of the crock pot with a 1/4 cup of water. Everything was placed under the broiler just before serving.

I love spices so I usually spice the heck out of whatever I cook. I tend to use some seemingly random combination of spices chosen from among the following: onions, garlic powder, basil, oregano, cajun seasoning, salt, pepper, ginger, cumin, lemon pepper, Chipotle seasoning, coriander, curry powder, chili powder, ground mustard, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, green peppers, green chili peppers and jalapeno peppers.

Also remember that if you cook bone-in chicken breasts until the meat falls off the bones then you’ll end up with all those little tiny bones floating around in your sauce. So if you’re cooking breasts you might want to shorten the cooking time. I prefer to cook with thighs, anyway. If you blow your budget and buy boneless/skinless breasts you can avoid the bone issue and shorten your cooking time.

Here are some crock pot adventures for you to try:

1) Pack the crock pot with beef and/or pork ribs. Pour in one bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. Best ribs you’ll ever eat.

2) Chicken and a jar of salsa.

3) Chicken and a jar of spaghetti sauce.

4) Beef roast and either a can of cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup. Mmm, mmm good.

5) Pork roast and a bottle of pork marinade.

6) Corned beef and water (and the seasoning packet that comes with it). About an hour and a half before dinner, cut up a head of cabbage and add it to the crock pot, turn temperature to “high” if it’s not already there, and get ready for some incredible corned beef and cabbage. Make sure you don’t serve until the cabbage is nice and tender.

7) Ham and water (or Ham and a jar of pork marinade).

8) Turkey breast and a little water. (If you put the turkey breast in a roasting bag it will be even better.) I also like to stuff the turkey breast with sausage stuffing.

9) A whole chicken (or hen or duck) and a little bit of water. You can either a) wrap the chicken in foil or put it in a roasting bag and set it in the crock pot or b) place a bowl upside down in the crock pot and set the chicken on the bowl so that it will sit above the drippings and come out more like a rotisserie chicken. Optionally, you can just put the chicken in the crock pot without wrapping it in anything and it will still come out really good. For best presentation, place under the broiler for approximately 8 minutes before serving to crisp the skin. (Note: if you want to cook a duck there are one or two other things you need to know to have it come out really well. Email me and I'll share those with you.)

Once you get bored with those you can advance to making Olive Garden-like Italian dishes in your crock pot with scallops, clams and mussels, etc. Or you can simply make spaghetti sauce from scratch in your crock pot. You can also make dal, chili, grits, various kinds of beans, breakfast casseroles— you name it. And it’s really hard to mess up with a crock pot.

Grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do and when I find bargains I always fill the freezer so that we can eat good food without spending a lot of money.

Here are the meat prices (per pound) that I like to shoot for (I’m not always successful):

Split Chicken Breasts: $.99

Chicken Thighs: $.99

Pork Roast: $1.29 (will go as high as $1.49)

Boston Butt: $.99

Beef Roast: $1.99 (will go as high as $2.29)

Corned Beef: $2.99 (normal price is $3.99)

Rib-eye Steaks: $3.99 (will go as high as $4.99)

Pork Cube Steak: $1.99 (normally $3.99)

Whole Chicken: $.69 - $.89 (will go as high as $.99)

Turkey: $.69 (will go as high as $.89)

Turkey Breast: $1.49 (will go as high as $1.69)

Shrimp: $4.99

Ribs: $1.49

Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts: $1.79

Let me know how you make out!

-Chelle



Check out some of my OTHER recipes (most of them are original) and progress pics:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/279170-chelle-s-cauliflower-mashed-potatoes

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/307942-169-calorie-big-big-big-bowl-of-noodles

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/308337-by-request-pic-of-the-169-calorie-big-big-big-bowl-of-nood

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/309503-my-236-calorie-very-filling-italian-style-lunch

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/294301-quick-filling-super-spicy-55-calorie-snack

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/300028-a-delicious-245-calorie-lunch

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/291632-cauliflower-pizza-crust

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/325678-cooking-with-saffron

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/322339-bathing-suit-progress-pic-after-48-pound-12-week-loss