crock pot wednesday: chicken cacciatore.

I made Chicken Cacciatore today.

It was a backup plan. I decided in Publix last night that I would put off what I really wanted to cook until later. This was less work.

And when I say less work, I mean I got everything together in LESS than FIVE MINUTES.

Now, I did omit two ingredients -- one because I didn't feel I had time to open the can, and the other because I forgot -- but I got it done right under the wire before I had to be out the door.

Here were my ingredients.

Chopped onion and chopped bell pepper. I bought pre-chopped veggies again for convenience's sake.

A jar of pasta sauce. I love vodka sauce. 

And a small can of mushrooms.

Oregano and fresh basil.

Chicken.

And the omitted ingredients were minced garlic (not pictured), and the can of tomato paste.

And darnit, I did it again. Picked up the WRONG kind of chicken. Bone-in chicken thighs. I hate it when I do that. But not the end of the world.

I put the chicken in the pot, dumped the onion, peppers and mushrooms on top of that, seasoned with the oregano (I eyeballed it, but could have added more) which was supposed to be about two teaspoons worth, added the basil leaves (all of them), and dumped the jar of vodka sauce on top of that. Cooked it on high for six hours.

Got home, and cooked some penne pasta. Once it was done, we ate.

It was pretty good. I will definitely cook it again, because it's easy and quick. And I will be sure to add the omitted items, season more liberally with the oregano, and probably even add some dried basil as well as the fresh.

Here is my food bill.
chicken: $4.58
onion: $2.50
peppers: $2.99
pasta sauce: $2.78 (and it was BOGO this week!)
mushrooms: $.95
basil: $1.99
(The oregano I already had on hand, and I did not include the price of the tomato paste, since I didn't use it.)
TOTAL FOR WHAT WENT INTO MY CROCK POT: $15.79

Next week I won't be doing a crock-pot meal. I'll be preparing to cook my Thanksgiving dinner. I will resume the crock-pot-goodness next week. However, it will probably be on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, as Wednesday will be my birthday and I think I'm gonna take the kids out to eat.

[And yet again, my Crock Pot Wednesday isn't done until Friday, because I'm too stinking lazy to finish writing the darned thing. Definitely gonna get better about that, since this is indeed what I did two DAYS ago and ideally should be shared THEN.]