Dinner Time Tuesday: Salsa Chicken

Hey y'all!  It's Dinner Time Tuesday.  I'm super excited to share this delicious recipe with you today!  I used my Bean Pot for this.  Have you joined my Blog Party yet?  You can get yourself a Bean Pot (and maybe even win one)!

Remember the rules:
1. Follow me via GFC or Bloglovin'
2. Grab the button to use in your post.
3. Snap a picture and tell us what you had for dinner and/or share a recipe.
4. Link up below from now until Sunday night at 11:59 PM EST.

This recipe is so easy and so yummy.  You're going to love it!

Salsa Chicken
Ingredients

• 1-2 lbs. chicken breast tenders*
• 1 can rinsed black beans
• 2 c. chunky salsa
• 1 bag frozen corn (10-12 oz.)

*Or 6-9 chicken thighs or drumsticks (use 1 to 1 1/2 c. salsa)

1. Put your chicken in the Bean Pot.  (Chicken CAN be frozen)
2. Top with black beans, salsa, and corn.
3.  Cook at 300* for 6-7 hours.**

**Cooking times can vary greatly.  One variable is if your chicken is thawed or frozen.  I thawed my chicken a bit in the microwave, but parts were still frozen.  The original suggestions for cooking were 250* for 6-9 hours or 350* for 4-5.  Mine was just a little overcooked, but it was still super yummy.  Mine ended up cooking for 7 hours at 300*.

 

The chicken is super tender and juicy.  It pulled apart really easily, which isn't necessary, but it was a bonus!

Anything good cooking in your kitchen this week?  Remember, you have until Sunday night to link up!

Bean Pot Chicken Pot Pie

I love my Bean Pot. If you've been around here for awhile, you know a couple of things. 1) I used to blog on WordPress.  Yes, I am still moving posts over from there.  This is one.  2) I am a designer with the company Celebrating Home.  3) A bean pot is not just for beans.  In fact, I've never even made beans in my bean pot.  4)  You can check out recipes for the Bean Pot in my Celebrating Home tab. 

This is what my bean pot looks like:

This Bean Pot is from our Simply Summer Collection.  It is a 3.5 qt. bean pot.  Cost $39.

Bean Pot Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients
-2 lbs cooked chicken (I bought a rotisserie chicken and tore it apart.)
-2 cans cream of potato soup (only 1 can of water)
-1 small bag frozen veggies (mine had peas, corn, carrots, and green beans)
-1 can crescent rolls

1. Preheat the oven to 375*. If you saved yourself time and hassle, like me, and bought a rotisserie chicken, cut it/pull it apart/mutilate it, and throw the chicken into the bean pot.

2. Put the rest of the ingredients in the bean pot (make sure you only add one can of water for the potato soup), and mix well.

3. Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on.

4. Place the unfolded crescent rolls on top of the mixture. (I think this recipe was actually asking you to use Pillsbury Crescent Rolls because it refers to all 6 of them fitting. I bought a generic brand and there were 8. I still used all of them. But also let me caution you. If you haven't already experienced enough terror from opening the crescent roll can....

 

...you now need to place the dough in the bean pot without burning yourself. I didn't get burned, but I just wanted to give you my safety warning!)

5. Bake without the lid until the crescent rolls are golden brown. If you overlap them too much, you may need additional time. Some of my more layered spots didn't quite cook.

This is the after AFTER picture. In other words, I had already taken out my serving when I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of the final product.

That's it! I'm loving the bean pot because it's so easy just to throw ingredients in and let it go! If you don't have a bean pot....you should. Follow my link under the bean pot picture if you'd like to change that!  haha :)

Garlic & Lemon Pepper Chicken

So I had this chicken sitting in the freezer.  The thing I love about buying whole chickens is that they're usually SOOOOO cheap.  I believe this one was $0.99/lb, and since it was around 4 pounds, it was about $4. 

However, I make these decisions because it's so inexpensive, and then I don't know what to make.  I knew that I wanted to make it in my Bean Pot.  I got online and searched for a recipe.  I wanted to make something that included ingredients that I had on hand.  I find that so many recipes always have SOME ingredient that I don't have, and I was running into that problem.  I did see some promising ideas, and so.....

I got brave.

I took the inspiration, and made it up on my own.

You don't have to have a Bean Pot.  You could make this in a slow cooker or however you normally cook a whole chicken. 

Garlic & Lemon Pepper Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 whole frying chicken (about 4 lbs)
• 1 14.5 oz. can chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 5 cloves garlic
• Lemon Pepper seasoning
• Salt, to taste

1. Pour chicken broth and water into the Bean Pot.
2. Peel and toss in 5 cloves of garlic
3. Remove innards of chicken and rinse thoroughly.  Then sprinkle liberally with lemon pepper seasoning.
4. Place chicken into Bean Pot, and sprinkle in a little salt.  (Do not add too much salt because of the chicken broth.)

5. Bake at 200* for 5 hours.

You CAN cook this at a higher temperature for less time, or lower for longer.  I ended up making this on Wednesday when I was home for a snow day.  I had gotten everything ready the night before. (Go figure.  I'd actually be prepared a day early and wouldn't need to be.)  I just popped it in the oven at noon, and let it cook until 5:00.  When I went to cut into it, I didn't even need the knife.  The meat just fell off of the bone.  Quite literally.  We did have to be careful not to bite into a small bone because it just fell to pieces.  It was so tender and juicy, and honestly, it was the best chicken I'VE ever made.  I do like chicken, but whenever I make my own chicken, it just doesn't taste as flavorful, and it's usually a bit dry.

You should totally make this.  It's so easy and delicious!