Cranberry Onion Chicken

This is part of my freezer meals series... or what keeps us eating in the few weeks after we have a baby!

I can't remember where I found this chicken recipe (nor did I keep the link with it - I hate it when I do that!), but after searching for the recipe... it looks like the origin is actually from kraft foods... I loved how simple and easy this recipe is. It only has 4 ingredients! How much more simple can a recipe get?!? I also love that it is a slow cooker recipe - not hassle (at least not if you get a slow cooker liner... yep tried them for the first time after having our baby and it makes clean up so much easier. They may not be as environmentally friendly, but they did help keep my sanity for the first few weeks!)

I have to admit that I had some reservation when I made this - I didn't expect it to taste very good... but I was surprised! It actually is really good despite the interesting combination of ingredients.

Another interesting tidbit - this is the first time I've used onion soup mix in cooking. I had a bugger of a time trying to find it in the store (silly me - it was on the soup isle ;).

Cranberry Onion Chicken

So this is a pretty simple recipe: You'll need 1 cup Catalina dressing, 1 can whole berry cranberry sauce (I'm sure you can substitute pureed cranberry sauce as well.) You'll also need 1 envelope (1 oz) Onion Soup mix.

 Add all the ingredients into a bowl.

 Yep, all three of them.

 I divided mine into two separate freezer bags (but if you want to make a bigger batch, just dump it into one.. Or if you want to make this immediately -  you can just place the whole thing into the slow cooker.

 For half of the mixture, add 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

 (for the whole batch you'll just double it to 4.) Close the bag(s) and work the cranberry mixture all around to coat the chicken.

Label with the date, contents and to add 1/4 cup water to the slow cooker. Freeze until ready to use.

You can make this in either of two ways - remove from freezer and thaw in fridge, or remove directly from freezer and place in slow cooker. For thawed chicken, cook on low for about 6 hours or until chicken is 165-170 degrees. For frozen chicken, cook for 8-10 hours on low.

You can also cook on high for part of the time if you need it done quicker... but make sure the center of the chicken reaches 165-170 degrees. (If the chicken is falling apart it is done!)

We served it with rice and veggies.

Enjoy!