Cilantro Lime Chicken

If you are a fan of Chipotle burrito bowls (aka naked burritos), then you will LOVE this!  This is a great slowcooker meal that takes almost no time to prepare, and it made my apartment smell amazing!  Best of all, I know exactly what went into it!

Here is the original recipe.  I made it fresh, but you can prepare everything ahead of time and just freeze it in a large freezer bag, then thaw overnight and throw it in the crockpot!

Ingredients:

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Juice from 2 limes

1 bunch (pkg) fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 16oz bag of frozen corn

1 16oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.  I chose to prep in the morning and cook on low, but I found that 7 hours was plenty of time.  I also mixed everything around occasionally to let all of the chicken have a turn soaking up some flavor.  The lime, corn, and chicken produce quite a bit of liquid, so don't worry about the chicken getting dry.  When there was about an hour left, I shredded the chicken into large chunks.  I served it with some steamed brown rice (should have saved some cilantro and lime juice to kick up the rice!) but I'm sure this would be great with tortilla chips or however you like to eat Mexican food!  It's meant to serve 6, but I made it stretch to 8-9 servings because some of my chicken breasts were rather large!

I highly recommend this recipe!  I'm very excited about eating this throughout this hectic week of catching up on microbio! :)  Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Ginger Chicken

I haven't posted in a while because the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind!  We got back to school on January 2, had 7 days of pathology lecture and workshops, then had our exam this past Friday!  The huge upside to having the exam on Friday is that we have a completely FREE weekend with nothing to study for!  We start Immunology tomorrow, and from what the upperclassmen say, it will be a handful. So I broke out my new Crock Pot for the first time, and I'll be eating for a week!

Ignore the thyme!!!! That's for another recipe...oops!

I chose a relatively simple recipe for the first use: Gingery Chicken from the Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook by America's Test Kitchen.  I plan on eating it throughout the week with brown rice or sweet potato.  I'm off to my friend's house for dinner tonight, but I tasted this and it is quite delicious!  No knife needed, the chicken just shreds!  The prep was easy, except for grating the ginger.  Ginger is a great flavor, but grating it is such a hassle!!

I changed the recipe a bit to make it healthier.  The original recipe calls for skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, but I used boneless skinless.  I also used olive oil instead of canola oil.

Onion, ginger, garlic

Ingredients:
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
Olive oil
1/2 large onion, minced (or 1 med-small onion)
3 tbs ginger, grated
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbs sugar
3 tbs low-sodium soy sauce

*(The chicken breasts I had were huge, so I cut them in half horizontally.  This also allowed them to cook through faster.)

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet, and brown the chicken breasts.  Remove them from the pan and place them on a plate to the side.  Add the onion, ginger, and garlic to the pan and saute until the onion is translucent (this mixture smells amazing!!).  Add the flour, mixing for about a minute.  Slowly add the chicken broth while stirring, and you'll be left with a thick mixture.  Add this to the slow cooker, then stir in the sugar and soy sauce.  Place the chicken in the slow cooker, and set it on low for 4 hours.  Mix everything around every hour so that each piece of chicken has time in the sauce.  Serve!

Also, I started a little project on New Years Day - a picture a day!  I've been documenting it on a separate blog: 2013-365.  I usually try to post something interesting or unique about each day, considering much of my time is spent in class and studying, so hopefully I can keep that up!! :)