SIMPLE Crockpot Salsa Chicken BOWLS
YUM! These are at the pinnacle of “easiest meals ever” list… TRUST ME! The kids and I had a super busy day today with my hubby being out of town (which is rare for him!) but when it happens.. the wheels come off the bus real quick in our house.. Mostly because we have such a good home routine down with him apart of dinner, play, and bedtime that when Sam is gone, I hit the panic button, just being out of rhythm. In efforts to not feel that way tonight, I threw this in the crockpot last night (literally two ingredients- SO EASY) and then we had the chicken plain with rice and coconut aminos (key ingredient) for lunch, and then I spruced it up a bit with the veggies for dinner! And YES- this was actually a photo of what my two year olds plate looked like and he ate almost the whole thing!
The chicken is SO SIMPLE! I literally put chicken and a jar of my homemade salsa into the crockpot last night on low and woke up, shredded it for 5 seconds and BAM it was ready for the day ahead! These bowls are honestly hard to describe.. because the flavors all blend together so beautifully, yet each flavor is so delicately balancing one another. There is the perfect amount of soft and smooth with light crunch to it- from the romaine and the corn… I also love the versatility of these bad boys! Totally could add roasted garbanzos, or grape tomatoes and it would be delicious.
Okay.. moment of truth… I know I am a food blogger, but as I put these meals together and purchase the ingredients, there are so many hilarious confessions I have for you… LIKE EMBARRASSING CONFESSIONS! So whenever I needed to shred cheese, instead of paying for a 5$ cheese grater, I just continued to use my tiny lemon zester.. finally for this meal I worked up the courage to buy a REAL CHEESE GRATER like oh my goodness… what a kitchen staple that I have been missing out on! Being a dairy~ Free house for the most part, I guess its not a daily need haha.. Life changing, though.. I put the kids to bed, and shredded the rest of the block.. not because I needed it, but more just because I had a cheese shredder and needed to keep using it because its just so…. NICE.. FANCY… WOW FACTOR. Similar to the meal itself as well, I might add.
Anyway, another fun thing I learned today was about Cojita cheese: (one of the main savory flavors of this dish) that it is the mexican version of parmesan cheese! When you picture that in your head as your eating this meal, I feel like I kept picturing a block of parm with a Sombrero or something. It changed the whole experience for me. Anyway, the cojita, the coconut aminos, the rice and the chicken are the main flavors to the dish so don’t skimp on these! I use coconut aminos in a lot of my meals, because each time you use it, it brings about a different flavor, depending on what you put it on. With this meal, it brings out a light sweetness to the tangy salsa chicken. Its just so perfect.
Use this meal as a planned out lunch for the week, or for a dinner party, or just a sweet family dinner on a normal weeknight evening. Its such a beautiful bowl of veggies and flavors! Please comment and let me know how yours turned out and any changes you made!
X Shea
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHICKEN
▢ 16 0z jar of salsa
▢ 2 Lbs Chicken
▢ 1 Cup Chicken Broth
INGREDIENTS FOR THE BOWLS
▢ 10 oz Bag Frozen Corn
▢ Garlic Powder
▢ 1.5 Cups Jasmine Rice
▢ Fresh Grated Cojita Cheese
▢ 1 Head finely chopped romaine
▢ 2 Avocados halved and sliced
▢ 1 Green Bell Pepper finely diced up
▢ Cilantro for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the Chicken: Place the chicken and salsa in a crock pot on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours, when finished, shred it while it is in the crockpot, but turn off the heat or keep on warm!
Make the rice: according to package instructions (or if your like me, I love my rice cooker and I stick to the 1:2 ratio rule of Rice (1 cup) : Water (2 cups) so for this 1.5 cups of rice, and 3 cups of water with a little avocado oil so it doesn’t stick to the pan or cooker!
Make the Corn: in a non- stick frying pan, place the corn, with a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, a sprinkle of garlic powder, and a teaspoon of butter (or avocado oil) on high heat and saute until golden brown and sizzling.
Assemble the bowls in this order: using a 1/3 measuring cup, place 1/3 cup of rice in each bowl, 1/3 cup of shredded salsa chicken, then add the romaine, the corn, the green bell pepper, the cilantro, freshly grated Cojita cheese (use parm if you have a hard time finding this), and then sprinkle the coconut aminos all over top of this ( DONT SKIP THIS PART! This is the sneaky best part that balances all the tangy tastes out!) If you can’t find coconut aminos, you could use a little low sodium tamari (but use very sparingly because it could easily over power the whole dish)! Happy cooking and let me know if you have any questions!
