Meal of the Day: Chicken Cacciatore

What a beautiful day to spend time at the beach.  My little family took a small trip to Sandy Hook, NJ and enjoyed the waves and cool water at the shore.  Since I live right next to the George Washington Bridge, I knew that I'd be too tired to whip up dinner once returning from the shore.  Plus we're trying to cut out fast-food.  So I decided to make use of my favorite kitchen appliance, the slow cooker.  I picked out an easy recipe from the small cookbook that was provided.  I already had most of the ingredients for this dish.  I did a quick run to ShopRite last night and prepped everything so that once we headed out of the door this morning, I could throw everything into the slow cooker and let it cook.  I think that's the best thing about the slow cooker: you can walk away from this appliance and let it do all the work.

If you like to make dishes that doesn't leave you in front of your stove for hours, scroll down for the ingredients and how to make this.  This filling dish will leave you happy and content that it only took you 10 minutes to put together, but 8 hours (or 4 hours) to cook.

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cans (6 oz each) tomato paste
1 can (4 oz ) sliced mushrooms, drained
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp oregano leaves
1/2 tsp basil leaves
1/2 tsp celery salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry white wine (or chicken stock, water)
1/2 box cooked spaghetti

STEP 1: Place sliced onion in bottom of stoneware.  Add chicken pieces on top.

STEP 2: In a bowl, stir together tomato paste, mushrooms, salt, pepper, herbs and white wine.  Pour over chicken.

STEP 3: Cook; cook on Low for 8 hours or on High for 4 hours.

STEP 4: Prepare spaghetti as directed.

Serve chicken on top of spaghetti and enjoy!

Angelina playing with the sand at Sandy Hook, NJ