Inspired Easy Dinner

Well I am a bit late in posting this, but better late than never right? :)

So the other day, I was hungry and trying to think of lunch... however what came into mind was a a combo of what a friend had for dinner the other night and a recipe I had seen online... mind you I really had no clue what my friend had - just how it looked... but it looked good... so what was now stuck in my head, was something that would take some time, and would most likely be a great thing to make in the crock-pot... Since I didn't feel like putting the time in now and wanted to do it in the crock-pot - this wasn't a lunch recipe, it was a dinner recipe that I had in my head... since it sounded so good I figured I'd toss it together and then I'd figure out lunch next. I know that seems backwards - but the dinner recipe was now stuck in my head and since I wanted to do it in the crock-pot, it was time to put it together.

So I pulled out the crock-pot, and started with some frozen chicken breasts

Tossed in some frozen corn

Then I blended together some rotel, onion, and green chilies and tossed them in. You could certainly leave things chunky, I just don't love tomato chunks even though I like the flavor so I blended them all together and poured the mixture over the chicken.

Next came the black beans (you can use any bean of your choice and I'm sure it'd be just as good)

Then came the green enchilada sauce... much like the beans, I'm sure you could use any type of enchilada sauce you like - this is just what I had in the pantry.

To have a little more liquid and a bit of a sauce once it was all done, I added some chicken broth.

It was time to add a little seasoning - even though there's a bit of flavor in all the ingredients already. So I added some oregano.

Which was followed by some garlic and a little salt and pepper

Then I mixed it all together and turned the crock-pot on high to allow it to cook.

After 4 hours, I pulled out the chicken to shred it

Took out some of the cooking liquid (trying to avoid the beans and corn as much as possible) and poured it into a small bowl. I added the corn starch and mixed them together - this would give me a thicker sauce instead of the soupy one I currently had in the crock-pot.

Then I added the chicken back to the crock-pot

Added the corn starch mixture and mixed it all together

Then I let it cook for another hour. During this time I cooked up some rice. Then it was time to enjoy :)

Southwestern Chicken & Rice

4     Medium          Frozen Chicken Breasts
2     Cups               Frozen Corn
1     Can (10 oz)    Rotel (diced tomatoes and green chilies)
1     Can (4 oz)      Diced Green Chiles
1/4  Small              White Onion
1     Can (15 oz)    Black Beans (drained)
1     Can (10 oz)    Mild Green Enchilada Sauce
1     Cup                Chicken Broth
2      Tbl                Minced Garlic
1      Tbl                Dried Oregano
                              Salt & Pepper
2      Tbl                Corn Starch

Place all ingredients in crock-pot and mix. Turn on high and cook for 4 hours.

After 4 hours, remove chicken and shred with two forks.

Take out 1/3 cooking liquid and place in small bowl. Mix in corn starch until smooth.

Add chicken and corn starch mixture back to the crock-pot and allow to cook for an additional hour.

Cook 2 cups rice per package instructions.

Serve chicken mixture over rice.

Yields 6 - 8 servings (depending on serving size).

**You could also cook this on low for 8 hours if you wanted to put it together in the morning and go to work and have dinner pretty much ready when you got home. Then all you'd have to do is shred the chicken, add the corn starch, and make the rice **