My Sister’s 2-Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken Never Lets Me Down
My sister is a full-time working mom of two, so she’s always on the lookout for the easiest dinner recipes. Between juggling sports and activities for her kids, it leaves little brain space or time to figure out what to cook on a weeknight (we’ve all been there). When I was struggling to answer this never-ending question for myself a couple of weeks ago, I remembered her wildly easy go-to recipe of two-ingredient slow cooker chicken. Yes, TWO ingredients! You’re literally not even adding salt and pepper.
The no-recipe recipe is this: You add boneless, skinless chicken breasts to a slow cooker (I used 2 pounds, but you can definitely just do 1 depending on how much you want), along with a 16-ounce jar of salsa verde (Herdez or bust!). That’s it! But there’s always a caveat, right? If you want a little more flavor and have ground cumin on hand, you can add 1 teaspoon of that into the slow cooker, too, but it’s not necessary. My sister forgets more than half the time and the Herdez salsa is flavorful enough — you truly don’t need anything else in the mix. Not a big salsa verde fan? Swap in a 16-ounce container of your favorite fresh tomato salsa like we do in our Slow Cooker Salsa Pulled Chicken.
Set the slow cooker to high or low depending on how much time you have (I like to cook it on low for like six hours). Once the chicken is cooked through and tender, shred with two forks and then you have so many options for what to do with it. This week I stuffed the chicken into corn tortillas and squeezed a little lime, then the next night rolled some into tortillas, topped with Monterey Jack, poured over a little extra salsa verde (I always keep a jar of it on hand), and made cheater enchiladas. And I still have plenty leftover chicken for quick lunch bowls or even tortilla soup!
The chicken itself is surprisingly flavorful for how low-effort it is — I kid you not that you will spend approximately 90 seconds dumping it all together. I’m not a huge slow cooker user; I typically turn to it most often for slow cooker spinach-artichoke dip or pulled pork during college football Saturdays, but this is one of those back-pocket recipes you’ll turn to again and again no matter how often you typically bust out the appliance. It’s too easy not to.
This article originally published on The Kitchn. See it there: The 2-Ingredient Slow Cooker Chicken My Sister Has Been Making for 12 Years (It’s So Delicious!)
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