Slow Cooker Fiesta Chicken

The latest recipe "Pin" I'm seeing popping everywhere is actually unnamed; instead just described as "The Easiest Dinner Ever", with a picture of chicken, tomatoes, and a block of cream cheese sitting in a slow cooker.  Since I love all three of these things, I decided this would be my next Pinterest recipe to test.  

The recipe is from a blog called The Larsen Lingo and they actually don't have a name for "The Easiest Dinner Ever" either, but some commenters referred to it as "Fiesta Chicken", so that's what we'll go with!  The recipe really was ridiculously easy, and called for things that most people have on hand already. Plus, it doesn't cost more than 8 bucks (tops) for everything, and it would easily feed 8 people...8 very hungry people.  I modified the recipe just a tad for my preference.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of frozen corn

1 can of Rotel (undrained)

1 can of Black Beans (drained & rinsed)

2 to 3 lbs of chicken breasts (frozen or fresh)

8 oz cream cheese

1 taco seasoning packet (or lots of chili powder, cumin, cayenne, garlic & onion powder)

DIRECTIONS

1. Dump the corn, chicken, beans, and seasoning in the slow cooker. 

 Stir. Set slow cooker to low.

2. Slow cook on low for 6-7 hours. Every 2 hours or so, stir, and flip the chicken. If you will not be home to do this step, then I suggest adding in a 1/2 to 1 cup of of chicken broth (or water) so the food doesn't stick/burn.  This will make it soupy though, so you'll need to play around at the end to thicken it.

3. At the 6-7 hour mark, break up the chicken into bite size pieces (or shred with a fork).

4. Mix in cream cheese. Cover and cook for an additional hour on low. If it's too soupy for your liking, cook with the cover off on high instead. Or, if you are going to put it in tortillas, you could toss in some uncooked rice into the slow cooker; it'll cook in that last hour, and sop up the extra liquid.

The Finished Product:

5. Serve on tortillas with lettuce, tomato, hot sauce:

Or, my personal preference, over rice, with some cheddar cheese sprinkled on top:

So what's my verdict?  I think it is exactly as advertised: a very easy dinner. This would be a great meal for those with picky eating children, especially if you are wanting to sneak in some healthier foods (chicken, beans).  You could easily hide in some spinach too if you wanted.  From a non-picky adult perspective?  It was a bit bland, so I believe the taco seasoning packet is a must.  I also think an extra can of Rotel might be good, if you are going to serve it over rice.  Finally, the cream cheese didn't actually add the cheesy flavor I was hoping it would.  I couldn't actually taste the cream cheese at all.  Instead, the cream cheese dulled the other flavors a little--which would be a blessing for the many parents out there trying to feed their children (see above: picky eaters).  If I make this again, I'm going to skip the cream cheese completely...that is, until my daughter turns 2 years old and becomes the picky eater I'm desperately trying to prevent her from becoming!  But until then, I think I'll make it without the cream cheese; plus it'll save me some unneeded calories and fat.

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FIESTA CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of frozen corn

1 can of Rotel (undrained)

1 can of Black Beans (drained & rinsed)

2 to 3 lbs of chicken breasts (frozen or fresh)

8 oz cream cheese

1 taco seasoning packet

DIRECTIONS

1. Dump the corn, chicken, beans, and seasoning in the slow cooker. Stir. Set slow cooker to low.

2. Slow cook for 6-7 hours.Every 2 hours, stir, and flip the chicken. If you will not be home to do this step, then I suggest adding in a 1/2 cup of chicken broth (or water) so the food doesn't stick/burn.

3. At the 6-7 hour mark, break up the chicken into bite size pieces or shred with the fork.

4. Mix in cream cheese. Cover and cook for 1 additional hour on low. If it's too soupy for your liking, cook with the cover off on high instead.  

5. Serve on tortillas or over rice

Recipe inspired from:  The Larsen Lingo

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