Red Pepper Chicken

The night before I served this, Kellen and I went out to eat at a fancy restaurant with his family. He said he would have rather eaten this than what we had there. It is basically an open and dump recipe to be cooked in the crock pot, as well as budget and figure friendly. My favorite kind!

4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 jar (15 oz) roasted red peppers, undrained
1 can (14.5 oz) Mexican stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Hot cooked rice

Place the chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, combine the beans, red peppers, tomatoes, onion, salt, and pepper. Pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until chicken juices run clear. Serve over rice.

I bought the roasted red peppers at the dollar store. Yes for only $1. It was a 12 oz jar instead of 15 oz but that's ok. I roughly sliced the tomatoes and peppers. I did not mix in a separate bowl but poured everything into the crock pot and gave it a quick stir. At the end of cooking, I removed about 1 cup of the juices to make the rice. If you add a little more liquid, maybe 1/2 cup liquid to 1 cup rice, you could probably add the rice in the beginning and cook along with the chicken (you might have to experiment with the amounts).

A trick I use almost always when I have juices with crock pot cooking is to add about 1-2 Tbsp of corn starch and turn on high for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking. The juices thicken just enough to give you a sauce that coats instead of a runny juice. I also grated a little cheese over the chicken breasts.