The Best Crock Pot Shredded Chicken

Whether you love your crock pot and use it all the time or are thinking "I never remember to use that thing... isn't it only good for chili?", you SHOULD make this crock pot recipe. It is super simple so you cannot mess it up and it tastes delicious. This is a dish to please everyone.

Below is a double batch recipe. If you are going to chop a few things and get your slow cooker out, might as well make more so that you don't have to do it as frequently. It freezes wonderfully. That being said, feel free to cut in half if you choose.

The Best Crock Pot Shredded Chicken
serves 8-10

Ingredients:
- 3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 cups zesty Italian dressing
- 6 minced garlic cloves or equivalent of minced garlic in a jar
- 2 tablespoons of chili powder
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1/4-1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (you can leave this out or use parsley instead)

Put everything into the crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Note: It will not hurt for it to go longer. I have left it on low for 10 hours before with no problem (eventually I will get a new crock pot that has a timer and switches to warm).

Shred chicken with two forks.

Before cooking

After cooking and then after shredding

We usually have chicken tacos or chicken taco salad with this chicken but it would also be wonderful over rice, over pasta or on a bun with some cheese, lettuce and tomato. You could even add some BBQ sauce for BBQ chicken sandwiches. Or this chicken would go great in anything else Mexican food related... burrito, enchilada, nachos, you name it.

We love this chicken and others I've served it too like it as well! I've had many requests for the recipe so it was about time I posted about it. It is a staple in our house and I make a batch about once a month. It is also great for parties as it can serve a lot of people and can even be adjusted to make more as long as you have a big enough crock pot.

If anyone finds any other delicious ways to use this shredded chicken, please share!

What I Wore

A few years ago, when I first bought this light brownish color of pants for work I wasn't quite sure what colors would look good with them but they were a thicker material which I wanted for cooler days. Turns out they go great with orchid, magenta, dark blues, black, purple and as you can see orange. Clemson was playing basketball on this day so I decided to incorporate some tiger pride into my outfit!

Orange sweater: Banana Republic Outlet, similar, similar
Light brown pants: The Limited, similar
Multicolored chevron scarf: Julie's Boutique, similar
Brown boots: really old Aerosoles, similar, similar
Orange chandelier earrings: Towne and Reese, similar


Linking up to: What I Wore Wednesday, What I Wore to Work, Because Shanna Said So

The BIG snow

Since it still feels like winter around here (with sleet and freezing rain yesterday), it seems fitting to post about our huge (huge for Charlotte that is) snowstorm several weeks ago.

The news had been predicting at least 6 inches for us over the course of two days (Feb 12th and 13th) but anyone around here will tell you they can tend to overreact and overestimate the change of snow. Nevertheless, my work sent an email telling us to work from home on Wednesday if we could. There had been a few flurries I saw swirling about from my cube on the 30th floor the previous evening but it was rain on the ground level. When I woke up Wednesday I expected to see snow on the ground... well there was nothing. I remember thinking there is no way we will get 6 inches if there is nothing now. Then about 10am it starting coming down and continued the whole day.

After I finished working Wednesday I went outside to get a few shots while the snowing had paused for a bit.

The crazy thing is it continued to snow through the night and the next day (they once again told us to work from home). It was the hardest snowfall I'd ever seen. Granted I haven't spent time up north growing up in FL but I've been on a few West Virginia ski trips and a NC mountains ski trip where it has snowed but never snowfall like this was. Around 2pm it stopped snowing and the sun came out so Eric and I ventured outside. We had at least 8 inches of snow... 9 inches probably in some places! Wow! Usually the most we ever get in Charlotte is 2-3 inches.

Thank goodness I have these super fab velcro snow shoes/boots from high school (for a couple of those ski trips I mentioned). Looks like I'm about to hop in my Delorean and head back to the future!

All the kids in our neighborhood were having a great time. This was the perfect snow for sledding, snowball fights and making snow angels. I tried to talk Eric into making snow angels but was unsuccessful.

Clearly tigers love the snow.

Temps at this point were above freezing so the snow was starting to very slowly melt but things were icy too. We decided to make a quick Walmart run with Justin who had been working up here/staying with us through the storm. Let's just say we had quite the interesting time getting out of our neighborhood on the snowy/icy roads even in his monster vehicle.

We saw that Walmart was closed (you know its a big snow when Walmart closes) as well as any other businesses/restaurants we had passed (McDonalds, Chickfila, etc.) but our favorite pizza place, Tony's, was luckily open and probably doing quite well for being the only place open. At 4:30 it was pretty busy. So we grabbed a pizza for dinner later and made the drive back to the house. Since a few others must have ventured out too, the neighborhood roads were a little easier to navigate.

Of course it got below freezing again that night and everything that was beginning to melt iced over so I worked from home again. They did a great job plowing the main roads so we had no issues making a trip to Columbia the next day to see Eric's family. Wouldn't want to miss making cupcakes with this adorable girl, now would I? Blue icing and all.

Even though temps continued to climb (even up to 60 degrees one day) and the snow was slowly melting, I could still see snow a week later... that's how much snow there was! I'm sure any of you who live like this all winter or see snow all of the time don't find this exciting but we thoroughly enjoyed our beautiful wintry wonderland. Although we were really ready to get back into the office the Monday after!

What I Wore

What I wore to work. I had to take this photo myself using a mirror (the mirror that we had to return) since Eric wasn't around... he must have been working late. I've mentioned before that I'm not big on red so this is one of the few red items in my closet but I liked it with the gray and the leopard. Winter is pretty much the only time of year I wear the few red items (other than maybe the 4th of July). I've noticed that I've never tending toward red in decorating either... guess I just like other colors better and sometimes red seems like a harsh color. Do you have any colors you tend to steer clear of?

It's a great time of year to grab a pair of boots on sale. I love wearing comfortable flat boots throughout the fall, winter and into spring. I think brown/cognac is the best color to start with and then black is next!

Gray sweater dress: Kohl's, similar, similar
Red cardigan: Loft Outlet, similar, similar
Fleece lined black leggings: Marshalls, very similar, very similar - this is the brand I have my fleece tights in, similar not fleece-lined - I have these too!
Leopard belt: Target, similar
Black boots: Andrew Gellar, similar, similar, similar
Black scarf: shop in London, similar
Clear and gold chandelier earrings: Towne and Reese, almost exact, similar


Linking up to: What I Wore Wednesday, What I Wore to Work, Because Shanna Said So