TIO Tuesday - Zesty Italian Chicken

This is another crock pot recipe. I've had such great success with the last few I tried, this sounded like a good one, and super easy. I think I had saved this before as well, but who knows what happened to it and just like the last one, I found it again on Pinterest. I love, love, love that site, but I digress.

I started off with frozen chicken breasts, threw in the rest of the ingredients and there ya' go. Super easy and very tasty over top of penne pasta. The original recipe used bow tie pasta, but you can substitute pretty much anything, including rice. We don't do rice, so penne it is.

This is the link to her recipe over at The Girl Who Ate Everything (love her blog name):

Zesty Italian Chicken (she calls it Crockpot Italian Chicken, but I like "zesty" in the title)

4 chicken breasts

1 packet dry Zesty Italian dressing (Regular is fine but I like zesty better. Sometimes I use a packet and a half.)
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1-2 cans cream of chicken soup (depending how cream cheesy you want it)

Place the chicken in a crock pot and sprinkle Italian dressing over it. Combine cream cheese and cream of chicken soup in a small pot over low heat and pour over chicken. Cook on low in the crock pot for at least 4 hours. You can leave it in there all day. Once chicken is done you can leave the chicken breasts whole, cube it, or even shred it. I always cut the breasts into tenderloin size strips. Once you have cut up the chicken, throw it back in the crock pot and stir into the sauce.

If you feel the sauce is too thick you can thin it to your preferred consistency with a little milk. Serve over pasta or rice.
 
*** My notes, I used one packet of seasoning but next time, I'll use two. I used two cans of cream of chicken. When it was done, I just shredded all the chicken. Even though I started with frozen chicken, they were done in about 3-4 hours, much quicker than I had anticipated. I threw a little mozzarella on top after I had it on the plate.
I might try it over fettuccine, or maybe tri-colored rotini next time? And if you're a veggie person, I imagine you could throw in some broccoli or zucchini at the end? It was really good, and best of all the kids and Brad liked it.
Enjoy!