Continuing my kick to master my crock pot and craving the amazing green chile chicken stew I had at Big Island Brewhaus, I decided to give the Spicy Chicken Stew from Cooking light a try.

While it didn’t satisfy my craving (I’m going to need to find a green chile stew recipe, hit me if you have one), it wasn’t bad for an easy Sunday night dinner. It had a lot more liquid than I expected so I might cut down on the broth next time. Plus, I’d like it a bit hotter, so I might use a hot instead of medium salsa too. Definitely worth playing with and making again.

Spicy Chicken Stew

Ingredients

  • 2 baking potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into chunks (3 1/3 cups)
  • 1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole-kernel corn
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks (1 cup) – I used baby carrots and cut them in half
  • 1 onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup bottled salsa
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast (or skip the thighs use 1 3/4 lbs chicken breast)
  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 10.5 ounces)
  • 2 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth (I’m trying just 1 can next time).
  • 4 (6-inch) fresh corn tortillas, cut into strips

Directions

1. Place first six ingredients in slow cooker. Stir in salsa and next three ingredients (through pepper). Place chicken on top of vegetables, and add broth. Cover and cook on high for four hours. Funny enough, while my slow cooker cooks hot when it’s on low, on high, this four hours was pretty accurate. When I checked after three, the chicken was done but not the potatoes or carrots (I could cut them smaller next time).

2. Remove chicken from slow cooker; shred with two forks. Return chicken to slow cooker. Stir tortilla strips into stew.

By the way, if you leave out the tortilla strips, this dish is totally Simply Filling on Weight Watchers.

Also, you use the adjustments above and leave out the tortillas, it serves 6 and is 6 smart points a serving.