Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken and Rice

In a world of quick and easy recipes, this slow cooker salsa chicken and rice deserves a place among the quickest and easiest. Your favorite salsa deserves to be enjoyed this way.

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Slow cooker salsa chicken

Chicken and rice show up as staples in many different cuisines, and for good reason. While each ingredient is great on its own merit, the combination basically acts as a blank slate for delicious spices and flavor combinations.

From curries to cream-of-mushroom casseroles, the chicken-rice duo is certainly versatile. This slow cooker recipe takes your favorite salsa and turns it into a full-on meal.

If you're skeptical that this is a winning combination, hear me out for a second. Do you like chicken? What about rice?

Now imagine your favorite salsa. Mouth watering yet? Just throw it together, add some broth to nail the consistency, and you're on your way to dinner (and lunches/dinners for the week, if you meal prep)!

Slow cooker salsa chicken ingredients

Salsa. Chicken. Instant Rice. Broth.

In bullet form:

• Chicken Breast
• Salsa
• Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
• Instant Rice

Still looks the same right? Yeah. Just those ingredients.

Those form the core of the recipe. You can serve this with cilantro, chips, cheese, tortillas, avocados—whatever you want! Toppings make this awesome, but it's also perfectly good as-is.

How to make slow cooker salsa chicken

You'll sometimes see this category of recipe called "dump and bake" because, well... you dump it all together and then bake.

This is basically one of those recipes but for whatever a slow cooker does. So... "dump and cook," I guess! Dump and cook. It's a thing.

Here's what's going to happen:

• Gather ingredients.
• Add chicken breast, salsa, and chicken broth to a slow cooker.
• Cook on high for 4 hours.
• Shred chicken and place back into the slow cooker. Cut the heat of the slow cooker to warm.
• Add instant rice to slow cooker and cook for about 10 mins.
• Stir together well. Serve with tortillas, cilantro, chips, cheese, avocado, or whatever you want!

Not too bad, right? The most work you'll do is shred the chicken, which isn't that much work at all, especially if you follow the hack I share below.

What can I do with a lot of salsa?

Imagine you find yourself with about 24 ounces of salsa. Perhaps you bought a giant jug of the stuff at the store and only used a little bit at the party. Maybe the farmer's market had some extra masons jars.

Whatever the reason, even the most dedicated struggle to down a ton of salsa with tortilla chips alone. Sometimes, you need to call in the heavy hitters, like this slow cooker salsa chicken recipe, to get the job done.

How do I thicken slow cooker salsa chicken?

Sometimes, in recipes involving chicken and some kind of liquid, it's hard to know whether you're in for some tender meat or a full-blown soup (not that soup's a bad thing). I've tried to set up the ratios in this recipe so you don't have excess broth/salsa hanging around after the cooking is done, but your mileage may vary.

The rice sets the textural tone here. If you've got an extra thin salsa, you may need to use less of it to avoid excess liquid. If it's chunky, maybe add some more broth.

Generally stick to the ratios here and you should be in the ballpark.

How long do you cook boneless skinless chicken breast in crock pot?

Four hours on high is plenty to cook this chicken breast all the way through, but it's a good idea for you to check the temperature using a thermometer to make sure it's come up to 165F, the recommended temperature for chicken.

Food safety. It's important!

How do I shred a chicken breast?

This depends on how much chicken you're making. For small recipes, I'll pull the chicken out onto a baking sheet or into a large bowl and shred it with forks.

If you're making a larger batch of chicken, it's possible to shred it using your stand mixer. Yes, I'm serious—I do it all the time! You still might want to go in stages so as not to overwhelm your KitchenAid.

Looking for more recipes?

Check out one of these Jordo's World staples:

• Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
• Chicken Parmesan Casserole
• Simple Side Salad