There are only 5 ingredients in this healthy, easy slow cooker one-pot meal. The Italian seasonings used will have your house smelling amazing!
The next 5 slow cooker recipes I post are intentionally going to be extremely simple. I’m trying to show you how easy and healthy slow cooker meals can be. I will really try to use 5 ingredients or less in each recipe. Try being the operative word. For this recipe it is: chicken breasts, Italian seasoning, spaghetti sauce, green beans, and mushrooms. Without going into details, I didn’t intend on making this per say but it came out so good that rather than being a back up plan, it will be in regular rotation in my household. Do you have a favorite Italian seasoning? If you don’t have a favorite, here is one for you from Allrecipes.com:
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
2 tablespoons dried cilantro
2 tablespoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons dried savory
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
In a food processor, combine basil, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, cilantro, thyme, savory and red pepper flakes. Blend for 1 minute, or until desired consistency is achieved.
The veggies. I used frozen green beans rather than fresh because that’s what I had. No shame. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, frozen organic vegetables and fruit are just as good as fresh. You can of course substitute or add in other vegetables.
Onions, bell peppers, heck you can even throw in beansI thought I was done but at the last-minute I found some mushrooms in my produce drawer so I threw those on top of the green beans. I love love love mushrooms, especially in Italian dishes. A couple more sprinkles of seasoning on top of the veggies and now it is ready to set and forget it.
It was very hard for me not to pull the lid off this while it was cooking because my house started to smell so good. I didn’t do it though. Did you know lifting the lid off your slow cooker mid cooking session can add up to 30 more minutes of cooking time? Try not to take the lid off once you set it.
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce
- 1 lb green beans
- 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- Add spaghetti sauce to the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Add the chicken on top and season with your favorite Italian seasoning.
- Add green beans and mushrooms.
- Cook HIGH 2-3 hours.
Usually I try to include a starch with my slow cooker meals but this time I did not. My husband requested a side of couscous but I didn’t have the energy to make that instead I walked half a mile to my local Ralph’s and bought a couple of pieces of bread from their bakery. There were no complaints.
Other 5-ingredient slow cooker recipes in this series: Pot Roast, Jerk Chicken, Coconut-Cilantro Curry Shrimp, Apple-Dijon Sausage & Sauerkraut
How would you alter this recipe and use chicken thighs?
You don’t need to alter a thing other than swap out the breasts for approx 2-2.5 lbs thighs. If you’re gonna use skin-on thighs then I suggest browning them first or broiling after to crisp up the skin. Enjoy! xShannon
Love all of your recipes! I recently converted to Paleo and needed to find a quick and easy way to set myself up for success. Paleo crockpot is the way. Thanks and keep the yummy recipes coming!
Thank you so much for the kind words. I’m so glad to hear you’ve been enjoying my recipes! I’ll try not to disappoint you:-)
xShannon