If you don’t use a crock-pot to cook your meals each week (or at least for a couple meals during the week), then you must invest in one and start using it immediately. Not only is it the bachelor cooking savior, but it’s also the easiest way to get the most bang for your buck (especially when you want to hit your macros).
Here’s the thing: with crock-pot cooking, you prep the meals in the morning – or even the night before – and pop in the crock-pot. Then, by the time you get home from work or settle down for dinner…
…BAM!
A hot, delicious, macro-friendly meal is sitting there waiting for you in a steamy sauna of flavor, all ready to go with zero work involved. And on top of that, you typically get multiple meals out of a crock-pot meal since it makes so much food.
This is why several of the recipes in my cookbook, Kino Chef, use crock-pots – they’re simple and make several servings, which is a win-win for any lifestyle.
On To The Recipe…
Emily Ness created this tasty recipe – she’s the coauthor of Kino Chef (she’s behind the Gourmet Recipes section in the cookbook) and runs CookingUpHappiness.com. She’s also probably going to be helping with the weekly recipes I’m going to start sharing on Kinobody here.
This Italian chicken bake is cheesy, satiating, and is completely packed with flavor. Oh, and it LOOKS amazing too… Definitely one of those recipes you can make when you want to impress people. It looks impressive, but is one that anyone can make.
Quick Tip: If you don’t have time for the crock-pot, you can cook the chicken on the stove or even grill it. Then, simply shred it, mix with the pasta sauce and build the casserole from there.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 jar four cheese pasta sauce (or any sauce you like)
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 8-0z. fresh mozzarella
- 1 container grape tomatoes
- oregano
- cooking spray
Directions:
- Start by trimming the chicken. Once the chicken is all trimmed, place into the crock-pot (sprayed with cooking spray) and cover with the whole jar of pasta sauce.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours.
- When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the crock-pot and shred (it should fall apart very easily).
- Add shredded chicken back to the crock-pot and combine with the sauce.
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Spray a 13×9 pan with cooking spray, pour chicken/sauce mixture into the pan. Top evenly with panko. (You can sub panko for gluten-free breadcrumbs.)
- Cut tomatoes and mozzarella into thin slices, then and place the tomatoes on top of the chicken in a straight line (widthwise). Do the same with the mozzarella. Repeat until you have filled the pan lengthwise.
- Sprinkle with oregano, cover with foil and cook for 20-25 minutes.
- Take foil off. Turn on broiler and cook for an additional 2-4 minutes depending on how crisp you want to cheese to be.
- Once it is all done, cut into 6 equal slices and serve.
Nutritional Information:
Servings: 6
Serving Size: 1 square (1/6 of a 13×9 pan)
Calories: 275
Fat: 9 g
Carbohydrates: 12 g
Sugar: 5 g
Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 34 g
