slow cooked mexican chicken

I am in love with slow cooking. The crock pot I received as a christmas gift from my sister-in-law a couple years ago -- a large dark-green ceramic dish nested within a camouflage heating base -- gets used more than any other corded item in my kitchen.

Each Saturday, I plan a couple crock pot meals, at least. On Sunday, I assemble these dishes and stick them in the fridge, then dump them into my crock pot before leaving for work. Sticking a pot of anything on low at 8am makes for a ready-to-eat home-cooked dinner by the time I get home around 7pm.

By incorporating slow cooked recipes into my weekly meal plans, I take a lot of the hassle out of end of the day culinary efforts, which seem doable all day until the moment I'm standing in my kitchen come evening, and I just cannot bring myself to execute tasks less simple than pour into pan, shove into oven, scoop into bowl, spoon into mouth (repeat until full).

Instead of being shameful of this work-induced laziness, I account for it with prepared meals: the slow cookables, the marinated chicken and precut veg, the packets of sauce and tins of staples that can be opened and heated and mixed to satisfaction.

I based this slow cooker mexican chicken off of this recipe  from The Kitchn, one of my standby food blogs. I absolutely adore this site, and this recipe is effortless and adaptable to any discerning palate. The prep is ridiculously straightforward: shove in some raw chicken, rinsed black beans, a large tin each of green chiles and crushed tomatoes, some frozen cubes of homemade chicken stock (or water, whatever I have on hand).

I season this dish with chili powder, cumin, oregano, some onion and garlic I chopped up real quick, and some cayenne pepper. If the pot is more solid than liquid, add more water/broth before setting on low and walking away for a few hours. Come dinner, I rinse and cook up some rice in my rice cooker (basmati pictured here), and ladle some of the chicken mixture on top. A bowl of this is fragrant and flavorful and leaves you feeling full, three things that are an absolute joy to come home to.

I recommend adding this dish to your easy weeknight meal circuit. I could even precook some rice and freeze it flat, then just nuke a bag before serving the chicken, to make this process all the more receptive to bouts of that day-end laziness I seem to be so prone to.

Are you also too lazy to cook some evenings? How do you manage feeding yourself on nights like these? Do you rely on the modern standard of quick corporate takeout or premade delivery? Do you eat cereal or corn right out of the can? Let me know how you handle these i-can't-bring-myself-to-cook evenings. I'd love to learn more about how you eat when you're REALLY not feeling getting in the kitchen at the end of the day.

Stay Hungry!
~HMW