Tomato Basil Crock Pot Chicken

As far as weekday thrills go, I'm not sure there are many things that make me happier than coming home to dinner already cooked and waiting on me.  But since I don't have a personal chef, this means my crock pot has become one of my best friends.  Even though I'm usually not a morning person, I believe it is totally worth getting up 30-45 minutes early to get dinner in the crock pot and check that off my list for the day.

You probably could just throw all of this in your crock pot and turn it on with no problems, but I like to do a little stove top prep.

Here's what you need:
1 whole cut up chicken
Salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped vegetables (usually onion, garlic, bell pepper and parsley)
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
2 cup chicken broth (divided)
1 package cherry or grape tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped basil leaves

Heat some olive oil in pan on stove over medium high heat, season your chicken. When the oil gets HOT, add chicken to brown a bit.


In the same pan you browned the chicken, add some more olive oil and the vegetable mix.
***A note about the vegetable mix - this is just onions, bell pepper, garlic and parsley pre-chopped.  You can find it in the produce section.  You can absolutely just chop your own.  However, this doesn't sound like something I want to do at 6am, so I buy the pre-chopped.***  Cook until clear.

Add to crock pot.

Again, in the same pan used for the chicken, then the vegetables, add about half of the chicken stock (you just need enough to wet the pan and un-clump the tomato paste, think of this as a useful pre-rinsing of your pan) plus tomato paste. Using a spatula, scrape the good stuff off the bottom of the pan, and stir until the paste is no longer clumpy. Add this to the crock pot.

Add the rest of chicken stock, cherry tomatoes and basil leaves to crock pot.  Oh. My. Wow.  that looks yummy.

Put lid on the crock, set it and forget it.  When you get home, your house will smell fantastic.  Best of all, THIS will be waiting on you...

Now, everytime you start to panic over dinner for the rest of the day, you can calm yourself knowing it's already ready already.  Which means you have time to do extra laundry, scrub bathrooms or something else equally as glamorous.

Have a great day - and go make friends with your crock pot!

Get the printable here.

Crock pot cooking works for me.  Check out what works for everyone else!