Crock Pot Spinach and Artichoke Chicken

Do you like spinach and artichoke dip? I mean, really who doesn’t like it?! Now imagine that dip with big chunks of chicken served over piping hot fresh pasta.  That my friends, is what’s for dinner at my house tonight 🙂

I will be completely honest – I don’t really like my crock-pot (Gasp!) There. I said it. Okay, so I typed it, but yea the cat’s out of the bag. I get it. It’s fall, it will soon be winter and crock-pots everywhere are coming out from their long summer’s nap. They’re easy and convenient and still they just aren’t my favorite kitchen appliance.  But, I’ve had many requests for crock pot meals, so I decided I’d make one.

Believe it or not, this is actually a fairly lightened up dinner.  I skip the traditional heavy cream, sour cream and mayo and instead use 1/3 less fat cream cheese and grated Parmesan and Romano to get a creamy consistency.  I promise it’s still rich and delicious and you won’t even miss the extra fat and cream. Here’s how I made it:

Necessities:

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon butter

1 pound frozen spinach

2 cans artichoke heart quarters – packed in water not oil

1 (8oz) brick 1/3 less fat cream cheese

1/2 grated Romano cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon Organic Chicken Better Than Bouillon

Method:

First prepare your chicken by cutting into 1 to 2 inch cubes. Then season with the salt and garlic powder.

 

In a medium pan heat half of the butter and oil and cook 1/2 the chicken just slightly.  I know this is more work than throwing it into the crock pot raw, however it is an important part that will help produce better flavor and lock in some of the juices. You want to get some color on  the chicken, like this photo.

No need to cook the chicken all the way through, it will finish cooking in the crock 😉 Place the first batch of chicken into the bottom of your crock pot and repeat with the remaining butter, oil and chicken.  Ta-da!

Once all of the chicken is browned and in your pot, add in 2 cans of artichoke heart quarters that have been drained and rinsed.

Now top that with 1 pound of frozen spinach…..

Place the lid on and set at low for 2.5 hours.  Also remember to set your brick of cream cheese out on the counter at this time.  It needs to come to room temperature before you add it to the recipe.

 

Now, go run some errands, play with your kids, do laundry or read a book – whatever you feel like – because dinner is cooking away! After 2.5 hours your dish should look like this….

In a small bowl, mix together the softened cream cheese, Romano and Parmesan cheeses and the Better Than Bouillon – seriously I love this stuff.  The organic version is one of the cleanest and most flavorful products available to help boost flavor and is a great substitute for chicken broth. Side note: If you can’t find or don’t have Romano Cheese, you can use all Parmesan.

Add the cheese mixture to the crock pot, stir it around, cover and set for 30 more minutes on low. When the timer goes off, your dinner will look like this and smell heavenly!

You can eat it just like this or serve it over rice, pasta or better yet cheese tortellini.  Since my kids love tortellini I decided to go that route, but if you want to keep it lighter you could use brown rice or go super healthy and use cauliflower rice. To keep it gluten free, just make sure to serve over gluten free pasta 😉

So there you have it.  A successful, lightened up crock-pot recipe, that is as easy as it is delicious.  Hope you try it out and let me know what you think. Until next time – Happy Cooking!

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