Crockpot Spinach Artichoke Chicken

Stephanie
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 162 Posts

A dish of crockpot spinach artichoke chicken. I had promised friends I would make them Spinach Artichoke Chicken for dinner last Wednesday; but on Wednesday afternoon I discovered that I had lost track of the recipe, somewhere between using it to write my grocery list and actually making the recipe. I checked through my cookbooks and checked online and none of the recipes I found matched up with the ingredients I had purchased. So, it was time to get creative. Luckily, my Crock Pot Spinach Artichoke Chicken experiment turned out very tasty and got compliments from all our guests (phew!). Tastes like a very good spinach artichoke dip without the extra oil layer you often find with artichoke dip.

Total Time: 6 1/2 hours

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

4 large chicken breasts
1 Pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 Pkg (10 oz.) frozen spinach
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large can artichoke hearts (I used packed in water, but marinated artichoke hearts would be better)
2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
jarred jalapeno peppers, to liking (optional)
Italian Mix Giardiniera, pureed (optional, I just happened to have it on hand)
salt and pepper, to taste
4 oz Parmesean cheese, finely grated

Steps:

Place thawed chicken in crock pot and cook on high for 1 hour (I do this because I like to remove the extra fat without removing the juice of the chicken.

Once chicken is partially cooked, remove fat from crock pot. Cut chicken into cubes and return to crock pot.

Add quartered artichoke hearts, frozen spinach block (no need to thaw and squeeze), cream cheese, sour cream, diced garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. If you want a little kick, chop and add jalapenos (I did this as an afterthought after the ingredients photo was taken). I put in at least 4 tablespoons of diced canned jalapenos and it still wasn't too spicy.

Since the artichoke hearts I had on hand were not marinated, I was worried that the recipe wouldn't have any "zing", so I added some pureed Italian Mix Gairdiniera (these are Italian marinated vegetables - we blend them to make a spread to put on steak sandwiches (yum!) so I happened to have this in the fridge. Using marinated artichoke hearts would have been much easier.

Let everything cook in crock-pot on high for another 4 hours. I stirred it after about 2 hours and checked the flavor since this was for company.
Using a microplane if you have one, grate fresh Parmesean cheese over the top. Place lid on top for about 5 minutes to allow it to melt.

We served with homemade peasant bread brought by our guest and baby carrots. The meal was enjoyed by 5 hungry adults and I had a hearty serving leftover for lunch the next day.