Cloud 8½

With cooler weather coming to our neck of the woods, I’ve been on the hunt for heart-warming comfort food – preferably the kind that cooks all day in a crockpot while I’m at work!  I saw this recipe come through the cookbook blog I moderate for my local message board, and it caught my eye.  We’re big fans of Mexican-type flavors in our house, and it sounded so incredibly easy that I couldn’t not give it a shot!

The resulting stew was a little more wet than I preferred, making it more like a soup and less like a chili, which is what I had envisioned.  I turned up the heat and cooked some of the liquid off, which was perfect, but in the future I would drain the liquid off of the tomatoes to help combat that.

Depending on how your salsa is flavored, you may want to add some more spices to this one to kick it up a bit.  I splashed some hot sauce into mine to increase the flavor.

Enchilada Stew from Bailey1806
About 4 servings

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts
8 oz. salsa verde
2 cans black beans (I just get one large one)
1 bag or box (10-12 oz.) frozen sweet kernel corn (I use Bird’s Eye)
1 can diced tomatoes (no salt added, or just dice up a fresh tomato)
1 tsp. ground cumin
3-4 oz. cream cheese

Place chicken breasts (frozen or thawed work) into the bottom of your slow cooker.  Add all other ingredients except cream cheese.  Cook on low for 6-9 hours (less for thawed chicken).  Shred the chicken, add the cream cheese, and as it melts, stir it into the stew.  Turn the heat up if you would like to cook of some liquid at this point.  Serve with diced tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, tortillas, tortilla chips – whatever you want.