This school year, Henry and I are attempting to stick to a $100 food groceries budget and that means eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at home 5-6 nights a week. This revolution in our married life has forced me to seek out ways to make meals that are nutritious, fresh, and relatively simple to put together.
We have never been “big” about using our crockpot. I’ve been consistently disappointed by crockpot recipe books that frequently utilize canned goods. We enjoy organic meats and fresh vegetables in season, so finding a recipe that works with out diet has been difficult!
Two nights ago I was researching chicken recipes and came across chicken cacciatore. Seemed easy, so I read up on the crockpot recipes. I adapted the recipes I read for what I could get on sale this week Fresh Market and what would fit in my crockpot.
Last night, I chopped 1/2 a large green pepper, 1/2 onion and 2 celery sticks and stored them in a plastic tupperware container. I heated a little olive oil in my non-stick frying pan. Once heated, I added one double chicken breast (skinless and boneless, about 1 lb) to the pan. I sprinkled celery salt, pepper and kosher salt on the chicken. Once that side was seared, I flipped it over and sprinkled the spices on the second side. I had a little extra basil I wanted to use up, so I pureed it in the blender with a little water and added it to the chicken. It only took a few minutes to sear each side. Once the meat was seared, I took it out and sliced the chicken.
I placed the chicken in the crockpot and dumped the vegetables on top. On top of THAT I filled in the rest of the space with the tomato sauce. I used Newman’s Own Sockarooni Pasta Sauce (about 1/2 the container).
Overnight, I refrigerated the crockpot meal. I took it out this morning at 6:00am and let it sit out for a little while. Around 7:00am I turned the crockpot on LOW. It cooked all day until I called my husband and asked him to check on it, at about 3:15 p.m.
It was DELICIOUS. Great basil and tomato flavor and the chicken wasn’t too dry; it shredded with the light pressure of my fork. We will be using this recipe again! Henry’s on the paleo diet right now, so he ate his meal plain. I ate my portion over elbow macaroni and topped with a pre-shredded blend of Italian cheeses.
OUR SHOPPING LIST
- 1 lb double breasted antibiotic-free boneless skinless chicken breast ($7.10)
- 1 green bell pepper ($1.16)
- 1 small onion (we bough the 3 lb bag of organic onions at Whole Foods for about $4)
- 1 package of organic celery hearts (3.99) We usually buy whichever celery option is cheaper; this week it was the celery hearts!
- 1 jar of pasta sauce
- Basil ($2-4 for basil leaves at Fresh Market or gather your own from the backyard!)
- Italian Blend Cheese $4
- Grated Domestic Parmesan Cheese ($3.77)
THE RECIPE
1. CHOP: 1/2 green bell pepper, 1/2 small onion, 3 celery hearts. Conserve the pieces you don’t use in a freezer bag to make vegetable broth at a later date.
2. PREPARE THE CHICKEN: Tenderize the meat. We use a device similar to this one. Heat olive oil in the frying pan. Add chicken. Sprinkle with salt, celery salt and pepper. Brown on each side.
3. BLEND THE BASIL with water. Pour over chicken in the frying pan.
4. SLICE THE CHICKEN.
5. LAYER the chicken, then chopped vegetables, than pasta sauce in the crock pot.
6. COOK on LOW for 6-8 hours.
7. SERVE over pasta or steamed zucchini. Top with parmesan cheese and/or an Italian blend.
FYI we cooked all this in a 2 qt mini crockpot and we have at least 1-2 more meals we can get out of it. If I were to approximate the total cost of what we USED in the meal, it would total about $16. Considering we’re getting nearly 4 meals out of it, at $4 a serving it’s a great bargain! Especially if you get the chicken on sale.
Catherine
Pots & Patterans 