Southwest Spiced Slow Cooker Chicken
Some of my friends and I are in a Bachelor fantasy league. Feel free to make fun of me, I don’t care. It’s awesome and a legit excuse to drink a questionable about of wine on a weeknight. It’s kind of like fantasy football, but we “draft” the hot messes from each season of the Bachelor franchise and then hate-watch and track whose players earn the most points (from achievements like “revealing a sob story,” “secretly has a kid,” “hot tub bonus make out” etc.).
We take turns hosting – whoever is on weekly host duty is also in charge of dinner. I hosted the premiere last week and needed to make a big batch of healthy food – and this southwest spiced chicken was perfect. I was able to prep everything the night before, throw the chicken in the slow cooker before work the morning of, and when I came home dinner was basically done.
Now that is worth some major bonus “hot tub make out” points. (If by “hot tub” we mean “slow cooker” and “make out” we mean “cooking.”)
Southwest Spiced Slow Cooker Chicken
Shredded Chicken:
5-6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (preferably all-natural, free-range, you know the drill)
1 14.5oz can organic black beans
1 14.5oz can organic corn
1 28oz can organic diced tomatoes in their own juice/sauce
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
Toss everything in your crockpot and cook on low for about 6-8 hours. I put mine in around 8am and came home at 6pm. At this point it was literally falling apart and looked/smelled amazing. I shredded the chicken with a fork (seriously so tender it took like one second), drained most of the excess tomato juice, added some cayenne, salt & pepper to taste, and kept it in a serving dish while I put out the rest of my power bowl ingredients…
Power Bowl Components:
4 cups cooked quinoa (for time’s sake, I cooked this the night before)
4 cups your favorite crunchy salad greens (I used organic baby spinach + kale but you could use lettuce, cabbage, arugula, really a mix of anything you choose)
1 large avocado, diced
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
roughly chopped cilantro leaves
shredded Mexican cheese
chopped green onions
lime wedges
your favorite spicy salsa – you can use this instead of a salad dressing!
Grab a bowl and fill it with a scoop of quinoa, topped with warm shredded chicken/black bean/corn mixture, topped with the rest of those treats I listed above… feel free to make it your own by adding the vegetables and herbs of your choice! The great thing about these southwest spiced chicken bowls is that everyone can customize them to fit their tastes. This should feed about 8-10 people depending on how hungry everyone is… we had leftover shredded chicken to put into salads for a couple days after!
