You can easily impress your guests (and/or yourself) with this Slow Cooker Beer Chicken that takes minimal effort to make. Throw it on a bun with some BBQ sauce, or eat it plain with some rice and veggies. Your call.
All you need to get started are two key ingredients:
Lunches are tough to plan for the week, not to mention actually prep and cook. It can be hard to find the motivation some Sunday’s to spend time in the kitchen making food for the work week instead of enjoying the last few hours of the workday. This past week, I was feeling especially uninspired. Just what you want to hear at the beginning of a recipe post.
I had already made Basil Quinoa and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing, Healthy Buffalo Chicken Bites, Slow Cooker Avocado Chicken Salad, and Spicy Soy Sauce Basil Chicken, I was running out of ideas, to be honest. Then hit it me, I remembered a simple classic from my childhood – BBQ chicken with rice. I had BBQ chicken and rice every night throughout middle school and high school. Okay, not every night, but once a week easy. The idea made me excited to whip up my own version.
When revisiting this childhood classic I wanted to keep it easy and simple, and nothing is easier than the slow cooker. You could make BBQ chicken with two ingredients – BBQ sauce and chicken. I was looking for something a bit more flavorful, so I added some onion, garlic and vinegar to the slow cooker to spice up this Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken while still keeping the recipe simple with only 5 ingredients.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, chicken is a healthy protein choice, but can also be extremely bland and boring. I’m always looking for ways to spice up this healthy protein. In the past, I made Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken and Spicy Soy Sauce Basil Chicken, but this time I created a new chicken recipe utilizing balsamic vinegar and honey, both of which I had handy in my pantry. The result – Spicy Honey Balsamic Chicken. It didn’t disappoint.
This recipe is perfect when made and eaten fresh (obviously), but also works great as a meal prep recipe. I made 1 pound of chicken on Sunday night and enjoyed it all week long with some rice and cooked vegetables. The tangy and spicy chicken would also work great in a simple stir fry recipe!
Chicken is healthy, but can also be bland and boring. This cold winter night I decided to go with something spicy for dinner, and this Spicy Soy Sauce Basil Chicken is anything but bland. It will give your weeknight dinner routine the shake up it needs. Earlier, I shared a recipe on how to make chicken in a slow cooker, this time I am going to marinate chicken and “grill” it on the stovetop. If you don’t have a grill pan, a regular frying pan will work just fine.
For the past two years, I have been taking a turkey sandwich to work for lunch nearly every day. It just never got old for some reason and was quick, easy, affordable and relatively healthy. We had a good thing going, me and those turkey sandwiches.
Well, the other day, my relationship with turkey sandwiches came to a grinding halt. I was sitting (like all office workers do too much) eating lunch and had a sudden realization – I was officially sick of turkey sandwiches. It took two years, but I finally broke.
I needed to act fast because buying lunch in downtown Chicago is not an option for me. At the very least, it’s a rare treat. They’re thieves down there I tell you, there is no way to eat lunch for less than $9!
I decided to take baby steps and not steer too far from what I know and once loved, and opted for a simple solution, a better sandwich. I opted for this Slow Cooker Avocado Chicken Salad between two slices of bread.
Any hesitation I had regarding switching away from my bread and butter sandwich was washed away as soon as I tasted this glorious sandwich. The chicken was moist from the slower cooker, the avocado was creamy and the red onion brought a fresh and spicy bite to tie everything together.
As you read in my Slow Cooker Avocado Chicken article, I recently gave up eating deli meat sandwiches for lunch. It just became too much to handle – eating a cold sandwich every day. Don’t get me wrong, I loved them for 2+ years and will probably eat them again, but in the meantime, I need to switch it up. I’m opting for hot lunches for the first time since elementary school. Except this time hot lunch doesn’t mean pizza and corn dogs, this time it means Healthy Buffalo Chicken Bites. They’re spicy, savory, easy to make and heat up beautifully so you can bring them to work every day for lunch. They go great in a wrap, with some brown rice and vegetables or on top of a salad. The best part is that a complete lunch featuring these Healthy Buffalo Chicken Bites will run you less than $3.
That’s fast food cheap.
Making this recipe is extremely easy too, and takes less than 30 minutes. I had some help along the way from some useful kitchen tools; my Le Creuset and wooden turner:
