Spicy Shredded Slow Cooker Chicken with Avocado Salsa

I love my crock pot. I love it when dinner is all ready when I walk into the kitchen. It is like a little present I wrap up in the morning to give myself in the evening. My crock pot really needs to get more use from me though since it does make life easier. In fact I would love to have a whole tab on my home page for healthy slow cooker recipes. Some for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and some that are vegetarian and some that are not would be great. Maybe that should be my new project.

Anyway back to the day I gave myself a present. I completely stole this recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen. So here is the link if you would just prefer to get right to business and skip all my babbling. I only made two small changes.
 Slow Cooker Spicy Shredded Chicken Lettuce Wrap Tacos with Avocado Salsa

If you like my babbling then please continue on........Okay so maybe just endure it so you can get to this very simple recipe and give yourself a present too.

You will need 1 cup of your favorite salsa or use your homemade. Mine is sadly all gone. Then you will also need a can of chopped green chilies, juice of one lime, a teaspoon of onion powder and hot sauce of your choice. This was one of the changes I made from the original recipe. Mainly because Franks is what I had. Kalyn used Cholula hot sauce. I didn't add too much because I wanted the kids to eat it.

Mix that all together in a small bowl.

Place your chicken in a 3 quart crock pot. This is approximately 4 chicken breasts I cut up into smaller pieces.

Pour the salsa mixture over the chicken and put the lid on. I didn't even stir it!

Turn it on low and cook for 5 hours. A smaller crock pot does work best for this but if you only have a big one go ahead and use it. I might suggest just making a bigger recipe of it in that case. We really would have liked to have more left over anyway and you could always freeze some for another day and make your life even easier.

Pull the chicken out with a slotted spoon to drain and shred it with two forks or your fingers if you prefer. It really fell apart on me. I think it took me all of 30 seconds to shred because it was so tender.

Put the chicken back into the crock pot with the sauce to soak up some more goodness and to keep it moist and tender.

Pause what you are doing when your friend Margaret comes over to show you her new camera she got for her birthday because she knows you will appreciate a new camera! Funny thing was she came in and said where is your camera. I said right here on the counter because I am cooking! I took her picture while she took mine.

 (P.S. Her camera is better than mine. I am slightly jealous.)

(P.P.S. Ignore those 1977 kitchen cabinets or donate to my fund to replace them. Take your pick.)

While the chicken is soaking up a little more goodness whip up some avocado salsa to go with this delicious chicken you magically made appear in what feels like 10 minutes.

It was so delicious! You just need some red onion, cilantro, lime juice and 1-2 avocados. Stir it gently so the avocados stay in nice chunks.

I served it on Bibb lettuce which was my other small change. Kalyn served hers on iceberg lettuce because it works better as a boat for this kind of thing. I don't love iceberg lettuce. Not enough nutrition for me so I picked Bibb. For the kids I rolled the meat up in a tortilla with some cheese. We skipped the carbs because honestly we prefer it this way. But it would also be good on top of a tostado the way Kalyn suggested on her blog. I would have done that with the leftovers for lunch the next day but I didn't have any and Miles was making lunch! Hooray!

We just ate some simple fruit on the side. It was a wonderful dinner!! Even the non- meat loving child enjoyed hers. It helped that her friends were playing in our yard waiting for her to finish so she could come outside too.

Now here is what I love:

1. It took me less than 10 minutes to mix up the sauce and throw everything together in the crock pot. I did it while I made lunch actually.

2. I walked away and did lots of other things for 5 hours.

3. My friend Margaret stopped by and I had time to talk to her and give her a quick lesson on ISO speeds because all I had to do for dinner was mix up the avocado salsa.

4. It took me less than 10 minutes to shred the chicken, mix up the salsa, and cut up the fruit. I like meal prep broken up into 10 minute increments.

5. LEFTOVERS! Cook once eat twice, or thrice!

6. Flavor..........YUM, YUM!

7. Something new for a change and pretty healthy too!

Now like I said at the beginning, I must get to work on some more crock pot recipes.

I like presents!

Enjoy your weekend!

Spicy Shredded Slow Cooker Chicken with Avocado Salsa

4-6 chicken breasts cut in half or thirds

1 cup salsa

1 can diced green chilies

1 tsp. onion powder

juice of one lime

hot sauce of choice (I used only a tsp. but make it has hot as you like)

Lettuce, tortillas, or tostados for serving

Avocado Salsa

1-2 avocados diced into small pieces

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 - 1/2 cup red onion diced

juice of one lime

Directions: Clean and prepare chicken and place in a 3 quart crock pot sprayed with cooking spray or olive oil. Mix salsa, green chilies, onion powder, lime juice, and hot sauce together in a small bowl. Pour over chicken. Place lid on crock pot and cook on low for 5 hours. Shred chicken with two forks or with fingers and place back into crock pot with sauce and stir. Prepare avocado salsa by gently mixing all ingredients together.

To serve: Prepare lettuce. (or tortillas or tostados). Using a slotted spoon remove shredded chicken from sauce and place on top of lettuce cup. Top with avocado salsa.

Note: If you use closer to 6 chicken breasts you may not have extra sauce and therefore won't need a slotted spoon.