Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken

Plus, 5 Dinners in Real Life

Hi!

I’m writing this in the car, parked at my daughter’s swim practice. It’s been a busy week, as the end of the school year tends to be. The kids have state testing and projects to complete, a theater performance and a looming science fair. We’ve had appointments and sports practices and one kiddo home sick with a sore throat.

I spent most of Monday debating whether or not to take Josie to the doctor. I thought that this type of decision would be easier now that my kids are older, but it turns out that a 9 year old can’t articulate how ill they are all that much better than a 3 year old can. They still need you, the parent, to make the decision.

But what if I don’t know the right decision? We all want to make the “right” decisions for our kids, but often, we’re just doing the best we can at any given moment. There is still a younger version of me that believes adults know exactly what they’re doing, and I’m always a little shocked to remember that I’m the adult now.

On Monday I looked down Josie’s throat with a flashlight at least six times, as if I actually knew what I was looking for. I hemmed and hawed. Finally, at 6pm I took her to Urgent Care. Diagnosis: no strep throat, just let the kid rest and eat ice cream until her throat feels better.

So, did I make the right decision, just for the peace of mind? Or was it the wrong decision to waste two hours in Urgent Care for nothing? Who knows!

Luckily, her throat did feel better by Wednesday and she was back at school. I’m still playing catch-up with work, but I’m glad to be getting this newsletter written so I can share this very easy recipe. I have no doubt that your days are as busy as mine right now!

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This Week’s Recipe: Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken

I’m not usually a fan of chicken breast, especially in a Crock Pot. I make an exception for this recipe because it’s incredibly easy and makes moist, flavorful shredded chicken that’s perfect for tacos or burritos.

To make this chicken, you just dump three ingredient in your Crock Pot and let it cook for 3 hours. A neat trick I learned is that you can shred the chicken directly in the slow cooker, using a hand-held mixer on low speed (or shred it with two forks).

You could also call this salsa chicken, because it’s flavored entirely by salsa verde, also known as tomatillo salsa. The chicken soaks up the flavor of green chiles with a slightly smoky, tangy edge. The spiciness is up to you; salsa verde is sold in mild and hot versions.

My favorite way to eat green chile chicken is in a bowl with brown rice, shredded cabbage, black beans, cheese, cilantro, sour cream and tortilla chips crumbled on top. You can also stuff it into tortillas for tacos or burritos.

Find the full recipe here: Slow cooker green chile chicken

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Dinner in Real Life

I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? I hope that my week of real life dinners will provide a few helpful recipes & cooking ideas for your family. Here’s what my crew ate last week:

Monday: As the weather gets warmer I’m starting to lean into cold salads for dinner. On Monday we had Green Goddess salad (with croutons, of course). I also tried Alison Roman’s slow cooked salmon in olive oil. Make sure to watch her video first, otherwise you might be overwhelmed by the amount of olive oil (also, pay attention to the way she seasons the salmon with salt and pepper: hint, generously)

I'm not cooking this week

Tuesday: Speaking of summer, I’ve really been craving pesto and have been making it every week. I like pesto more than the rest of my family does, which is fine by me because that means I get more 😉. It also means that I need to set a jar of marinara on the table, so everyone has an option they like for pasta.

I served pesto and marinara with frozen ravioli and roasted zucchini, which should’ve been a simple meal but it felt like it took forever to make. I realized later that this was because I started with a dirty kitchen that I had to clean up first. Then I cooked dinner and cleaned the kitchen again.

Cooking dinner involves so much more than just cooking, which is what makes it such a chore!

Wednesday: Slow Cooker chicken taco bowls (recipe above)

Thursday: We feasted on whole roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, which felt fancy for a weeknight but was surprisingly hands-off. I’d forgotten how easy it is to roast a whole chicken and how good it makes you house smell!

I kept the chicken really simple and seasoned it with a rub down of olive oil, salt and pepper, plus fresh thyme and lemon slices in the cavity (make sure to pat the chicken dry with paper towels first). I roasted it in a cast iron skillet for a little over an hour at 425F. Plan on about 15 minutes per pound and make sure to check the temp with an instant read thermometer. The thighs should reach at least 165 degrees and aim for at least 160 degrees for the white meat.

For the mashed potatoes, I made Instant Pot mashed potatoes.

Friday: I threw the chicken carcass in the Instant Pot with an onion, carrots and celery and covered the chicken with water. I think it cooked for about an hour, plus a natural release, which made fairly flavorful broth. I added a little more flavor with Better Than Bouillon and turned the broth into matzo ball soup using Streit’s matzo ball mix.

Green Goddess Salad, Green Chile Chicken and Mashed Potatoes

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Where to find Kitchen Skip Recipes: Most of the recipes I share in this newsletter can be found on my blog Kitchen Skip. You can also search the newsletter archives to search past newsletters. If you’re a paid subscriber, all of the ad-free bonus recipes can be found in the Substack recipe index.

Cookbooks

I think of Salad Freak as a lunchtime inspiration cookbook, filled with gorgeous salads that many of us wish would magically appear in a Tupperware that we packed for lunch.

Who wouldn’t want to eat Charred Corn with Tomatoes & Chili Crisp or Snoop’s BBQ Chicken Cobb? (The author, Jess Damuck, worked in Martha Stewart’s test kitchen, and therefore, is also friends with Snoop)

The flavor, color and texture combinations that Jess Damuck puts together are new and inventive - there is not a single boring salad in this cookbook. It’s a perfect cookbook to pick up now, so you can try all the amazing summer salads that showcase tomatoes, fruit and summer produce. At the very least, you can pick up a few new salad dressing recipes to perk up any simple green salad that you make at home.

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That’s it for this week! What do you have planned for the weekend? We’re going to a potluck on Memorial Day (I’ll let you know what I bring!) but the rest of the weekend will be spent moving into our “new” bedroom downstairs.

For the past decade our lower level has been a studio apartment that we rent out. We’ve finally reached a point where our kids are too big to keep sharing a small bedroom with bunk beds and having a second bathroom felt really necessary. We’ve slowly been converting the lower level back into our home and after this weekend the girls will each have their own room upstairs and Sorin and I are re-claiming the lower level. It’s exciting and has been a long time coming, but it also involves A LOT of sorting, cleaning and re-organizing.

Here’s hoping that your weekend will be a little bit more restful and relaxing than mine will be!

Jenny