Chicken Bake in the Crock Pot

Raise yo' hand if you have seen this post and image on Pinterest!

It's THE awesomely easy (remember that's the only type of recipes I make) chicken bake.  

Throw it all in a pan, top with Italian dressing seasoning and butter, then shove it in the oven for dinner.  So easy.  BUT it takes an hour to cook, and I don't usually have an hour between when I get home and when we eat dinner.  Hmm, what to do?  

Well,  we could eat dinner a little bit later, but I'm usually half starved and would end up eating 3/4 of a bag of Doritos if I had to wait.  My second solution is to put it in the crock pot!  Yum! 

If you missed my review of the crock pot cook book Fix-It and Forget-It, check it out here.

I love my crock pot mainly because it eliminates the need for me to cook right after I get home.  Plus, it's easy clean up.  So while this recipe is typically baked in the oven, I decided to try to adapt it to my crock pot a few weeks ago.  

Sorry for my glarey pictures.  You understand the concept!

It's very simple.  All you have to do is: dice your potatoes and butter, then butterfly your chicken breast.  (I only use one chicken breast to feed the 2 of us).  Then put the potatoes in the bottom of the crock pot.  Pour a TINY bit of the juice from the beans over them to keep everything from going dry.  Sprinkle the potatoes with the seasoning and put a few pats of butter on them.  

Place your chicken on top and sprinkle with seasoning and include the butter.  

Then finish it off with the beans.  Pour the rest of the seasoning over them and the rest of the butter.

Turn the crock pot on low and enjoy the heavenly smells if you happen to be home while is cooking!

It's just as delicious in the crock pot and even more tender.  So go ahead and give it a try.

Here is the recipe.  Enjoy!

Note: if you are not super duper health conscientious, use a little more butter! : )

Chicken Stuffing Casserole

When Mack was born, some of our friends brought us dinner one night when they came to meet the little mister.

It was complete comfort food, and we devoured it.  It was so good.

They provided a basic casserole with chicken, veggies, and stuffing.

Fast forward 6 months and one of my co-workers gave birth to a little girl last week.  I wanted to do something nice for her because I can remember how hectic those first few weeks really are.  So I got the recipe from Tara and whipped it up one Saturday morning.  

It is so easy and tasty!  It's like a fancy fake out, because it takes virtually no time to put together.  It's the thought and the food that counts, right?  Not the length of time it takes to prepare it.

The ingredients are simple: canned chicken-although I'm sure you could use fresh diced chicken breast, cream of chicken soup, milk, frozen mixed veggies, and boxed stuffing.

I really like casseroles because they basically are a complete dinner in one dish.  Casseroles eliminate the need to make sides dishes etc.  One thing I don't like about casseroles is that many times you have to cook the items that go in them ahead of time.  I think of casseroles as being time saving, but when you have to cook all the items ahead, they are not.   This one is so simple.  The only ingredient you have to cook ahead is the stuffing.  Stove top for the win. 

So I started the water for the stuffing and got to mixing everything else together. 

First, I put the cream of chicken in a bowl and slowly added milk to it until it got to casserole consistency.  There really isn't an exact measurement. I added about 1/4 cup at a time and mixed it through.  I estimate that I added close to a cup.

After that was mixed through, I threw my frozen veggies and canned chicken and mixed it again.

I finished making the stuffing once the water boiled and scattered it over the top.

I didn't bake it since I was taking it to her, but I would estimate to put it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy!

You can also download a FREE 3x5 card of the recipe here!