Tales from the Motherhood: Latin Chicken in the Crockpot

Pin It Now! This week I am participating in Mel's Crocktober link up. Because Mel is my friend and I like crockpots and October. It's a triple win. And because I speak Pig Latin I thought I would make Slow Cooker Latin Chicken. I tweaked this recipe from allrecipes.com.

Here is my before shot --

See how lifeless and pale and unhappy everything looks? Well, everything but the LOVE mug, but that is not a part of the recipe so please don't throw that in your crockage.

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 pounds skinless chicken thighs
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
2 large sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips

1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
2 (15.5 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
1 cup hot salsa
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
3 large cloves garlic, chopped

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet; season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 1/4 cup cilantro over the chicken thighs; brown the chicken in the frying pan, 3 to 5 minutes each side. Or however long it takes so that your husband will fear you have undercooked the meat.

2. Arrange the chicken in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and black beans on top of the chicken. Mix together the chicken broth, 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, salsa, cumin, allspice, and garlic together in a bowl; pour into the slow cooker. Set slow cooker to LOW and cook for 5 hours or until the sweet potatoes are soft. I had to crank it up to high for 30 minutes at the end to get those sweet potatoes to submit.

3. Serve it over whatever you want, but I choose white rice and it worked well. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves about 6 hungry adults.

I am not good at plating and the chipped plate probably doesn't add pizazz to the finished product, but this junk was good. Here is what you need to know:

1. My husband loved it. He put it in his Top 12 of meals. And if you know my husband, that is good. You also know that he has a weird ranking system and rarely commits to a #1. Welcome to my world.

2. My seven-year-old son liked it and my daughter Lydia (5) tolerated it. My three-year-old would rather have died than even tasted it. But she got hungry enough right before bed that she ate some too. It was not very spicy.

3. You can prepare it the day before! This was my favorite part - I got it all ready in the crockpot and put the whole pot in the fridge overnight. The next day around lunch time I pulled it out of the fridge and pressed "Let's Do This" on my crockpot and there she went.

Head over to Mel at The Larson Lingo and check out some of the other Crocktober action!

And if you are not linked out, come back here Saturday to link up with me for Stylin' Saturday. There's a giveaway too!