Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken Over Angel Hair Pasta

In the past couple of years I've really started enjoying experimenting with some great fusion recipes. Fusion food is simply combining two more traditional cuisines and coming up with a great new take on a couple classic dishes/ingredients.

Tonight's dinner is a fusion of Italian pasta dish similar to a Cacciatore with Mexican ingredients like salsa and lime juice. What makes it even better is that 90% of this is done in the slow cooker with the last 5 minutes in the oven under the broiler.



**tips** I started used medium salsa recently because my husband and kids all like a little kick. I am a big weenie though and that much medium salsa is almost more than I can take. If you or your kids don't like much in the way of spicy then I would definitely stick to mild salsa. Also, I normally prefer the Herdez brand of salsa but for this recipe you really need a chunky salsa and the Herdez is a lot thinner. For the salsa chicken I normally buy the biggest jar of Pace Picante chunky salsa I can find.

This fed a family of 4 with no left overs but can easily be doubled for a larger family or if you have teenagers ;)

Ingredients

FOR THE slow cooker:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 32 oz Chunky Salsa 
• Juice of 1 lime or 3 Tbsp lime juice

FOR THE Chicken:

• 2 cups Mozzarella 
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Utensils you will need:

• Slow cooker
• Knife to cut lime
• 9x13 baking dish
• Slotted spoon
• Non-slotted spoon

Directions

FOR THE salsa chicken:

1. Place you frozen chicken breasts in bottom of crock pot.
2. Add salsa and lime juice                                         
3. Cook on low heat for 5 hours.                             
4. When cooked and you are nearly ready to eat dinner, start boiling water for your pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions. 
5. Using slotted spoon, remove chicken carefully. It will easily fall apart which is fine in large chunks but be careful not to shred the chicken.            
6. Transfer the chicken to 9x13 baking dish                                 
7. Using slotted spoon again scoop out the chunky parts of the salsa and cover the chicken with it. This will later be your pasta sauce.                            
8. Cover with as little or as much mozzarella as you like. I like LOTS of cheese!
9. Turn Broiler on. 
10. Place chicken on the middle rack to melt and brown cheese. This step won't take but 3-5 minutes so keep a close eye on the cheese.                            
11. Once cheese is browned and pasta is cooked, cover pasta with sauce from the baking dish and the cheese smothered chicken. 
12. Enjoy!!!

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