Slow-cooker salsa chicken
250 min · 53 g protein · 466 cals / serving
The three-minute dump-and-go dinner: chicken breasts, a jar of salsa, black beans, corn and taco spices, left alone until the chicken shreds into a juicy, tangy, lightly spicy filling. Spoon it over rice and crisp lettuce with lime yogurt and fresh cilantro, or roll it into tortillas; one pot covers dinner and three lunches.
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken breast
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 jar (16 oz) salsa, medium, chunky
- 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 tbsp lime juice
To serve
- 2/3 cup brown rice
- 1 large head romaine lettuce, shredded
- 3 Roma tomatoes, diced
- 3/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt, stirred with the zest and juice of 1/2 lime
- 2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 3 green onions, sliced
Steps
- Lay the chicken in the slow cooker, sprinkle with the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and salt, and pour the salsa over the top.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4–5 hours or HIGH for 2 1/2–3, until the chicken is tender and at least 165°F in the thickest part.
- Shred the chicken in the pot with two forks, stir in the black beans, corn and lime juice, cover and cook 15 minutes more so everything is hot and the chicken soaks up the sauce.
- Meanwhile, cook the rice in a pot or rice cooker according to the package.
- Serve the salsa chicken over a little rice and plenty of lettuce, topped with the lime yogurt, cilantro and green onion.
Good to know
Pressure cooker instead?
Pour 1/2 cup of water into the pot first, then the chicken, spices and salsa on top without stirring (it helps avoid the burn warning). HIGH pressure 10 minutes, 10-minute natural release, then shred and stir in the beans and corn on SAUTÉ.
How does it keep for meal prep?
The chicken keeps 4 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer in its sauce. Pack it with the rice in one container and the lettuce and yogurt in another; reheat the chicken and rice covered in the microwave until steaming hot, 2–3 minutes, stirring halfway.
Which salsa?
Any thick, chunky jar salsa you like eating with chips; it is the whole sauce, so the flavor comes straight through. Salsa verde gives a tangier, greener version.
Frozen chicken straight in?
Use thawed chicken. Frozen chicken sits too long below a safe temperature in a slow cooker before it heats through; thaw it overnight in the fridge first.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 82
- Protein
- (47%)
- 9 g
- Fat
- (15%)
- 1 g
- Carbohydrates
- (38%)
- 8 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 221 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 2332 kcal goes into the pot and 2660 g of ingredients comes out as about 2850 g of food: 82 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.