Erin’s Yummy Slow Cooker Chicken

 For the last few months my friend Erin has been telling me about a slow cooker recipe her family loves. I finally got around to making it. Her family calls it Yummy Chicken, so I’m calling it, Erin’s Yummy Slow Cooker Chicken.

It’s such an easy and great recipe. You know the kind I’m talking about. Five minutes to throw it together….six hours later you have a great meal the whole family loves. Yeah, it’s awesome!

I have to admit, when she first told me the ingredients I was a little nervous it would be too sweet for my taste. The ingredients are chicken breasts, Catalina dressing, a can of cranberry sauce and an onion soup packet.

I don’t know what I was thinking, I guess I thought the cranberry sauce would add a lot of extra sweetness. Nope, not at all. The combination seems kinda crazy, but it works. The chicken comes out with a great flavor that isn’t too sweet or too tangy, it’s just right and it pairs perfectly with white rice. We ate steamed garlic green beans with ours and it was delicious.

I decided to try making a Homemade Catalina Dressing for this recipe. Partly because I have been wanting to try making my own Catalina dressing, but mostly because I forgot to grab some at the store and didn’t have time to go get some. I shared the recipe on the blog and am very pleased with it. It’s a great option if you don’t have any store-bought Catalina on hand or if you are trying to stay away from extra preservatives and the like.

This recipe is gluten free and dairy free. It’s great, because when my sister comes I have to get a little creative with dinners since several members of her family have gluten and dairy allergies. If you have people to feed in your life that fall under either of those categories, this is a great go-to recipe for you.

I use this 6-quart Slow Cooker.

Like I mentioned before, this recipe literally takes minutes to throw in the crock pot. It’s awesome. It’s also nice because depending on when you need to eat it, you can adjust cooking time and temperature. If you are going to be gone all day, start with frozen chicken and put it on low. It will be fine to go a full 8 hours or even a little longer. If you forgot to put it in in the morning, no worries as long as you have four hours before dinner, you can still pull it off. Just make sure your chicken is thawed and set it on high for 4 hours. When I did it, I used thawed chicken and set it to low for six hours. It was perfectly shred-able at that point.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the slow cooker onto a cutting board or large plate. Use two forks to shred it.

After you have it all shredded, return it to the juices in the crock pot, and let it soak up all that goodness.

Serve it over white rice with your favorite steamed veggies on the side. We prefer broccoli or garlic green beans with this meal.

I hope you enjoy Erin’s Yummy Slow Cooker Chicken! Thank you for visiting my blog. It makes me so happy to share recipes with everyone on the Interwebs! I’m sincerely grateful for all the support I have been given over the last four years. Thank you for trusting me and coming here for recipes! I love that my job is something I feel so passionate about. EATING GOOD FOOD! Here’s to more and more and more!