Crockpot Corn Salsa Chicken with Quinoa

New picture! :)

 Picture from original post.

I know I have been lagging on the posts as of late. I just honestly haven't been making anything spectacular to post about. I tend to post most of my normal weekday dinners on my Instagram account, but don't usually do blog posts with the recipes unless I take hi-res pictures of the food. The problem with that method is that when I make something and it turns out amazing after I eat it, I have no hi-res pictures so then I don't blog the recipe. Well now that I think about it, that seems silly. Not all of my photos have to be perfect or hi-res. It's the food and taste that all of you really care about anyway! So thanks to one of my Facebook/Instagram friends Grace's request for the recipe, I decided to break tradition and post the recipe and just a simple low-res picture that I took and posted on Instagram last night.

UPDATE : I couldn't stand the low-res singular picture of this yummy dish so I went home during my lunch and shot the leftovers with the hi-res camera. I know, I know. I'm stubborn. Haha. See pictures below at the end of the post! :)

While this may be a crockpot recipe, I'd like to warn you all that I made the quinoa separately and then added it to the yummy shredded chicken.

Crockpot Corn Salsa Shredded Chicken with Quinoa
Yields: about 4-6 servings
Wine pairings: Loma Prieta Winery 2009 Viognier, Amorosa - Lodi GOLD MEDAL WINNER or a good Riesling would pair well

Ingredients

- 4 frozen boneless chicken breasts (I know there is a lot of debate out there regarding putting frozen chicken into a crockpot, but I have done this countless times and have never gotten sick. I got my information from here when deciding whether or not to risk it.)
- 1 jar of Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Salsa
- 1 jar of Trader Joe's Organic Tomatillo and Roasted Yellow Chili Salsa

- 2 cups of quinoa (rinsed and drained)
- 4 cups of water

Preparation

Chicken
1. Spray the crockpot to ensure nothing sticks, or use one of those crockpot liners.
2. Dump the entire jar of Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Salsa into the pot.
3. Place the 4 frozen chicken breasts on top of the salsa. (Yes, I literally pulled these chicken breasts out of the freezer during my lunch break and stuck them in the crockpot. I'm alive today to talk about it.)
4. Pour about 1/2 of the jar of Trader Joe's Organic Tomatillo and Roasted Yellow Chili Salsa over the 4 chicken breasts. (It's okay if there are parts of the chicken breasts that are not fully covered in sauce. The breasts shouldn't be submerged.)
5. Set crockpot on high and walk away for a good 5 hours or so.
6. After cooking 5-6 hours on high the chicken should be incredibly easy to shred. I just used 2 forks right in the crockpot to shred the chicken up easily. (The mixture may seem a little watery, but not to fret, it works out!)
7. Pour the rest of the Trader Joe's Organic Tomatillo and Roasted Yellow Chili Salsa over the shredded chicken and put on "warm" and let sit for another 20 minutes or so while you prep the quinoa.

Quinoa
1. Pour 2 cups of dry quinoa into a fine mesh strainer and rinse completely. (Water dripping out should be clear.)
2. Prepare quinoa per package instructions OR use my method which is using a rice cooker (see below).
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Rice Cooker Method
3. Dump the rinsed quinoa into the rice cooker and pour 4 cups of purified water on top.
4. Set rice cooker to "cook" and walk away for about 15-20 minutes until your rice cooker indicates it's done cooking. (I swear by this method, my quinoa comes out fluffy and moist every single time!)
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Final steps would be to serve about 1/2 cup of quinoa in a bowl and then place desired amount of shredded chicken on top. I mixed the two together slightly, however you could eat separately and it would taste just as yummy!

This is a really filling meal, so I only needed my one bowl of the mixture and I was stuffed! Almost couldn't eat my last bites. The recipe is boyfriend approved, so I know it's not just me who thought it was pretty darn amazing. ;)

Enjoy!

Green Chile Shredded Chicken and Spanish Quinoa

I have been trying to find time to post all weekend and look--it's already Wednesday! I have been reorganizing and prepping my house for a Superbowl party next weekend. Anywho I made this last week for dinner. It was delicious! I really have been enjoying all my experimentation with quinoa and making my recipes more clean. One of my favorite foods growing up was my grandmother's Spanish rice. Since my quinoa in the rice cooker came out so well the last time I made it, I thought I'd try making a Spanish quinoa using my grandmother's recipe by simply substituting the rice for quinoa. To go along with the quinoa I decided to make a green chile shredded chicken and heated up some sweet corn and black beans.

Green Chile Shredded Chicken

Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 can diced green chiles
- 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
- salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Boil chicken breasts on medium-high for about 15-20 minutes or until white all the way through and easy to pull apart with two forks.
2. Drain chicken and shred. Put back in the pot with oil, lemon juice and green chile. Make sure stove is on low to medium so as to not overcook the chicken--you just want to heat it up with the new ingredients.
3. Once the chicken is fully immersed with the green chile and heated, salt and pepper to taste.

 

Spanish Quinoa 

Ingredients
- 1/4 cup chopped onion (about a quarter of a medium sized onion)
- 1 cup pureed organic tomato (about 2-3 roma tomatoes or 1 large tomato -- I used my mini chopper to puree, it can be a little chunky)
- 2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/4 cup water

Preparation
1. Heat oil on medium.
2. Add quinoa to oil and saute the quinoa for about 1-2 minutes until fully browned.
3. Transfer the quinoa to your rice cooker.
or
3. Transfer quinoa to a larger pot.
4. Add the pureed tomato, chopped onion and water and stir.
5. Use rice cooker as instructions indicate (mine took about 20 minutes)
or
5. Cook quinoa mixture on medium for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is light and fluffy. (Be careful not to let the rice stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.)
6. Serve chicken on a bed of organic spring mix salad with a side of quinoa and the corn and black bean mixture.

Enjoy!