Creamy Salsa Chicken

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Creamy Salsa Chicken

This is a really easy crockpot recipe. And incredibly tasty! Amanda got it off a share on Facebook. We added the pineapple because we like that sweet element.

Lots of ways to tweak this one for your own family, too. If you like it spicier, there are lots of ways to fire it up.

Ingredients:

Chicken (we used a 40 oz bag of frozen chicken tenderloins)
1 24 ounce jar of Salsa (we used a mild variety)
1 small can chopped mild chiles
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can of pineapple, crushed or chunks, with the juice


Place your chicken in the crock pot. We didn't even thaw the tenderloins.
Pour the ingredients over the chicken.
Let it cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6.
Stir occasionally after the first two hours.

Shred the meat before serving.

Serve over rice.

Easy! And so good.

A Five out of Five from the Family:

You can use whatever chicken chunks your family prefers. You can use any heat rating of salsa and chiles. Yep, lots of ways to tweak this one!

Chicken Enchiladas

We quite often get one of those rotisserie chickens from the commissary. In fact, we sometimes get two. One to eat right away and one to pick the meat off to go into a family favorite, chicken enchiladas.

I've made this recipe so many times, I don't even have to hunt the printed copy down. All of the girls know how to make it, too. If you don't want to use the rotisserie chicken, you can just cook some breasts, boneless thighs, or tenders and shred them. I find that if you are going to cook the chicken yourself, boiling the meat with the bones and just a bit of skin gives the meat a better flavor.

Chicken Enchiladas

Heat oven to 350
Grease a 9x13 baking pan

2 cans cream of chicken soup
8 ounces sour cream (we use the light)
2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken meat
1 small can mild chopped chilies
1 cup shredded cheese, separated
10 soft flour tortillas (we use the plate sized ones)

In a small bowl mix the soup, sour cream and 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
Put about 3/4 of that mixture in a larger bowl and set the smaller bowl aside.
Add the chicken to the mixture in the larger bowl and combine

Place a thick line of the mixture on the tortilla, roll it up, and place it in the greased pan. You can make them fit pretty tightly.

Once all the tortillas are filled and rolled, take the small bowl of filling and cover the tortillas. Make sure you get the filling clear to the edges.

Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. I didn't specify what kind of cheese to use. Just use whatever kind you like best. When I made this today for my husband's birthday, we used a mix of four different kinds.

If your family likes things more cheesy, use more!

Bake for about 30 minutes. The edges should be a bit bubbly and the cheese should be nice and melty. This doesn't really need to be cooked; it just needs to be heated all the way through.

You can adjust how much filling goes in each tortilla. You can choose to make them a bit leaner...or a bit plumper. Totally up to you.

Sorry, forgot to get a picture when it was done. Will add one the next time we make it!

This one gets a FIVE from the whole family:

Crock Pot Orange Pineapple Chicken

We all love Orange Chicken, be it from Panda Express or from the deli counter at Walmart. When I saw several recipes for it on Pinterest recently, I knew that we had to try it. Those glazed chicken pictures just called to me. They all look like Panda Express Orange Chicken. While reading the recipes, I realized that without battering and deep frying, the recipes won't turn out like the pictures, not if made in a crock pot! I was intrigued by the idea of using concentrated orange juice as the base of the sauce, as directed by many of those recipes.

Now, this is BIG...This recipe doesn't make that kind of Panda Express Orange Chicken. This is WET chicken, not deep fried or battered, and it doesn't end up glazed. So, while it isn't Panda Express Orange Chicken, it IS good and tasty.




CROCK POT ORANGE PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

Ingredients:
 

4 thighs with skin and bones (You could use all thighs, all tenderloins, or breasts)

8-10 chicken tenderloins

3/4 cup baby carrots

3 stalks celery, sliced thin

2 large red, orange or green bell peppers (I didn't have any when I first made it, dang it!)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can Mandarin oranges, with the juice

1 cup pineapple chunks

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp pepper or to taste

8 ounces orange juice concentrate, thawed

**You could even add a splash of soy sauce for a more Oriental taste, maybe even a dash of Sesame Oil

 

Place the chicken chunks in the bottom of the crock pot and then put the fruit and veggies on top

Mix the orange juice concentrate with the spices and pour over the fruit and chicken

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

 

We served it with Jasmine rice.

 

This gets a FOUR out of FIVE on the Family Rating

as one child was not fond of it: