Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

After finding that my son has some food allergy issues involving red dye, I have been trying to use more whole food ingredients in my cooking. Seeing the immediate behavior change in him has made me wary of chemicals.  This recipe has you making your own pasta sauce thus avoiding the sugar that many store-bought sauces have.  Local honey is used as my sweetener; in my opinion, it adds more flavor and helps us with our seasonal allergies.   As you are working with this recipe, you may want to add mushrooms or other vegetables on hand to your sauce.

I have made this a few times. At first, I used a small food processor to puree my ingredients.  I needed to refill my processor a few times; this added to my prep time.  After Christmas, I used my Vitamix.  It allowed me to get everything done in one batch.  My whole family enjoyed this meal, and the leftovers were great.

I often plan ahead so I pureed my sauce and threw some chicken breasts in a freezer bag to freeze. When I am ready for the meal, I pull it out the night before to thaw; the next morning into the crock pot.  Sometimes my mornings are just too hectic to find all the right ingredients to put in the slow cooker; prepping ahead in this manner has really helped keep me a bit more calm on our busy mornings.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 5 medium tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T honey
• 2 red peppers
• 2 T minced garlic
• 1/3 cup Italian seasoning 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place chicken in slow cooker.
2. Use a high speed blender to puree the remaining ingredients.
3. Pour sauce over chicken; cook on low for 6 hours.
4. Shred chicken to allow it to absorb juices.
5. Serve over whole grain pasta or quinoa.
   
   
   
   
   

Difficulty: Easy

Time: Prep-5 minutes (if using a high speed blender) Cook:6 hours

Source: adapted from an online group