Slow Cooker Sante Fe Style Chicken (with 5 ideas on How to Use It!)

Recipe repost for Joy who said she was so sad she didn't have this one printed out. Hey Joy! I found it! 🙂

Originally posted in October 2011.

I made this TWO weeks ago and forgot to post it. Ok, that’s a lie. I had to psych myself up to sit down and get it all out of my head. I knew it was going to be a long one!

This was a total winner of a dish. We ate it two nights in a row, and I had it for lunch twice. Now that’s getting your money’s worth out of a crockpot meal!

Both Husband and child were fans too. I purposely made it mild so it would be a family pleaser. I even ended up pureeing some for Little Bean. Just a few nibbles. Enough to give him a taste.

The idea hit me when I simply did not want to bother with dinner, but I knew if I didn’t get something going we’d end up eating out AGAIN. Lately, we’ve been trying to avoid that for more than one reason, but mostly financially.

Instead, around 2:30 PM I pulled out the crockpot and threw a bunch of stuff in it.  Who knew I’d end up inventing a family favorite. Well, sort of, I’ll explain when I get to how I used the chicken. First, let me tell you how I made it.

📖 Recipe

Here are a few fun ways to use this versatile recipe!

Use 1. Chicken Enchiladas

I am SO glad I took a chance and made these. I didn’t think the husband would go for them, but he loved it! Here’s what I did.

• 2 cups of the Sante Fe Style Chicken from the Slow Cooker above
• 5 of your favorite low carb/cal tortillas
• 2 oz fancy shredded Mexican cheese blend
• dried cilantro

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Lay out a tortilla and fill with a scoop of the chicken/bean mixture leaving as much of the liquid as you can. Roll and place in a casserole dish sprayed with a bit of non-stick spray.

Repeat for all tortillas.

Pour the remaining liquid from the 2 cups of Sante Fe Style Chicken on top of the rolled tortillas. Top with cheese and a bit of dried cilantro.

Bake about 20 minutes.

As I said, a big hit with the Husband and of course, I LOVED IT. I wasn’t ready to try them on Little Guy, so I did make him something else. I’m not usually a fan of this approach, but he still ate the base of the meal just in a kid-friendly form. May I present…

Use 2. Sante Fe Chicken Quesadillas

Using two tortillas, I put some of the Sante Fe Chicken minus most of the liquid, some cheese, and even some chopped baby spinach and made him a quesadilla.

He ate the WHOLE thing.

Use 3. Sante Fe Chicken over Rice

This is how I would have served it for dinner initially if I married anyone who remotely liked food, but honestly, if I would make it like this NO one in my house would eat it except me, which sucks because it’s my favorite type of meal.

Use 4. Sante Fe Chicken Stuffed Peppers

I decided to give this a try with the leftovers to see how the family would react. I mixed about 2 cups of the Sante Fe Chicken with 2 cups of brown rice then stuffed five bell peppers and topped with cheese.

I baked for about 30 minutes until the peppers were just softening.

The husband ate two but said he preferred the enchiladas. After some convincing that what was IN the peppers was the same stuff IN the quesadilla, Little Guy ate one too!

Use 5. Sante Fe Chicken over a bed of Baby Spinach

After all that I had about 1 cup left and no rice. So for lunch, I decided to take a bunch of baby spinach, top it with the chicken, and pop it in the microwave. It was delish! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture!

Overall this idea was a pleasant surprise. It was the first time in a long time I was able to make a one-pot meal the whole family enjoyed. I could eat stuff like this every day!