Monday, March 19, 2012

Puttanesca Chicken

Another day, another hard-to-pronounce, impossible to spell (yet delicious) meal. Maybe the harder to say, the better the meal? Hmm...Unless they figure out a new way to pronounce "Reeses Peanut Butter Egg," I'm going to say it's just a theory.


This might be one of my husbands new favorites. He loves tomato saucey meals and this was was just about guaranteed to please. It has just a little bit of capers for a kick and turns out I love orzo.

This is another great freezer/crock pot meal. Just put all the ingredients in a bag; put the bag in the freezer; and when you're ready to cook, defrost, and put it in the crock pot.


I will say it could have used a little more sauce. The chicken had great flavor, but I wanted it to be a little more of a sauce and pasta meal than flavored chicken and pasta meal. Does that make sense?

This made so much too, probably about ten 1-cup servings. We ended up eating it for a few days before putting the rest in the freezer for next time. When I put it back in the freezer, I added mushrooms and another jar of sauce to next time.



Ingredients (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Slow Cooker magazine)

2.5 pounds chicken breasts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
one 26-ounce jar of pasta sauce with olives (I couldn't find sauce that specifically had olives so I just used regular spaghetti sauce)
1 tablespoons drained capers
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 cups orzo, cooked according to package directions

Directions (ready-to-eat version)
  1. Place chicken in crock pot. Sprinkled with salt and pepper. 
  2. Mix sauce, capers, and lemon peel in a large bowl and pour over chicken in slow cooker.
  3. Cover and cook on low-heat for 6-7 hours or high-heat for 3-3.5 hours. 
  4. Serve chicken and sauce over hot-cooked orzo.
Directions (freezer version)
  1. Combine all ingredients (except pasta) in a 1-gallon freezer bag. Freeze until ready to eat.
  2. When ready to cook, allow to defrost completely.
  3. Empty bag into crock pot and cover and cook on low-heat for 6-7 hours or high-heat for 3-3.5 hours. 
  4. Serve chicken and sauce over hot-cooked orzo.

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