Slow Cooked Chicken Italiano

Dirt and Martinis — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:58:40 +0000

Hello everyone! This is my first “What I Wednesday” post. Please check out Peas & Crayons site for LOTS of yummy recipes!

Some of the best meals I’ve enjoyed have the fewest ingredients and are the easiest to prepare. All you need is a little a planning to turn your family dinner into something enjoyable and extremely tasty! If you like to prepare meals in advance this is a great recipe to add to add to your collection because it actually taste better a day or two after it’s prepared.

For quick meals I like to keep these staples on hand: bottled pasta sauce with no sugar or high fructose corn syrup, frozen boneless-skinless chicken thighs, no-sugar canned stewed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, red wine, bay leaves, whole grain pasta, and red pepper flakes. The hardest part of today’s recipe is opening the jars…it’s that easy!

Chicken Italiano

Ingredients:

10 frozen boneless-skinless chicken thighs

1 yellow onion, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

2- 26 oz jars of pasta sauce (without sugar)

1-15 oz can stewed tomatoes (without sugar)

1 small carton sliced mushrooms (2-3 cups), optional

1/8-1/4 cup Italian seasoning

Small handful of fresh basil or a dollop of basil pesto sauce, optional

3/4 cup red wine

1 TBSP red pepper flakes, optional

2 Bay leaves

Preparation: In a large pot add all ingredients and stir. No, I didn’t thaw out the chicken! On medium-high heat bring up to a simmer. Cover and turn heat down to low and simmer for 2 hours. During the cooking process keep checking and stirring every 5-10 minutes. You may need to add more liquid if it seems to thick and if you cook it for longer than 2 hours. I simmered mine for 4 hours and it needed an additional 2 cups of water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta and sprinkle with fresh basil chiffonade, parmesan cheese and more red pepper flakes if you like it spicy. Enjoy! Serves 8

Note: This recipe can easily be cut in half for a smaller batch or doubled for a huge batch. Also would be delicious served over polenta.

All the ingredients added to the pot!

All stirred up! Ingredients barely fit...

Simmering away...

Dig in!

Dirt and Martinis » chicken

Slow Cooked Chicken Italiano