300 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (10 page)

Wow. This is easy, delicious, low-carb, low-calorie, and reheats easily. What more do you want from a recipe?

2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) boneless, skinless chicken thighs

5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons (16 g) chili powder

2 tablespoons (28 ml) olive oil

2 tablespoons (28 ml) lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

1 large jalapeño, minced, or 2 teaspoons canned jalapeños

12 low-carb tortillas, 6-inch

1 cup (72 g) shredded lettuce

1 cup (120 g) shredded cheddar cheese

2/3 cup (154 g) light sour cream

3/4 cup (195 g) salsa

1/2 cup (8 g) chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Place the chicken in your slow cooker.

In a bowl, mix the garlic, chili powder, oil, lime juice, salt, and jalapeño together. Pour over the chicken and stir to coat. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 10 hours. (Or cook on high for 5 hours.)

When the time's up, stir the mixture with a fork to reduce the chicken to a big pot of tasty chicken shreds. Fill each tortilla with 1/3 cup (79 g) chicken and top with lettuce, cheese, 1 tablespoon (15 g) sour cream, a generous tablespoon (16 g) salsa, and a sprinkling of cilantro if desired. Wrap and devour!

This is a great meal for a family that has some low-carbers and some non–low-carbers, just give them regular or (preferably) whole wheat flour tortillas. The chicken keeps well in the fridge and reheats quickly in the microwave for a fast snack. (I find that 45 seconds on 70 percent power is about right for a 1/3-cup (85 g) serving.)

Yield:
12 servings, each with: 225 calories, 13 g fat, 22 g protein, 14 g carbohydrate, 9 g dietary fiber, 5 g usable carbs.

Seriously Simple Chicken Chili

The name says it all!

2 pounds (900 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 jar (16 ounces, or 455 g) prepared salsa

1 tablespoon (8 g) chili powder

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon concentrate

3 ounces (85 g) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

6 tablespoons (90 g) light sour cream

Put the chicken in your slow cooker.

In a bowl, stir together the salsa, chili powder, and bouillon, making sure the bouillon's dissolved. Pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 7 to 8 hours.

When the time's up, shred the chicken with a fork. Serve topped with the cheese and sour cream.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 263 calories, 9 g fat, 39 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 4 g usable carbs.

Chicken Chili Verde

This repeat from
15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes
is marvelous, and it's a really nice change from the traditional beef chili.

1 1/2 pounds (680 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups (384 g) prepared salsa verde

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon minced garlic or 2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 to 2 tablespoons (9 to 18 g) jarred, sliced jalapeño (I use 2 tablespoons (18 g), and it makes the chili pretty hot.)

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon concentrate

Guar or xanthan (optional)

Sour cream

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Chopped fresh cilantro

Place the chicken in your slow cooker and add the salsa verde, onion, bay leaf, pepper, cumin, garlic, jalapeños, and bouillon on top. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 9 to 10 hours.

When the time's up, shred the chicken with a fork. Stir it up, thicken the chili a little with the guar or xanthan if you think it needs it, and serve with sour cream, cheese, and cilantro on top.

Yield:
5 servings, each with: 190 calories, 2 g fat, 32 g protein, 7 g carbohydrate, trace dietary fiber, 7 g usable carbs. (Analysis does not include garnishes.)

Mean Old Rooster Chili

The name is no joke. We keep chickens, and I had a rooster who was a nasty, aggressive thing. We got tired of it and turned him into food. He was too old to be roasted or grilled, so I stewed him up and made him into this chili, a form in which he was far more agreeable. I know you're unlikely to have a mean old rooster around that needs dispatching, so I've started with the cooked chicken meat—or turkey, which will do fine, too. But if you happen to have a mean old rooster around, you know what to do!

2 pounds (900 g) cooked chicken or turkey meat

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium Granny Smith apples, diced

2 cups (475 ml) chicken or turkey broth

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tablespoon cumin

2 tablespoons (16 g) chili powder

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon concentrate

2 cans (15 ounces, or 425 g each) Eden Organic black soy beans

3/4 cup (175 ml) heavy cream

Dice up your chicken or turkey and throw it in the slow cooker.

Peel and chop your onion and core and chop your apples (don't bother peeling them). Throw them in the slow cooker, too. Add everything else but the cream. Cover the pot, set to low, and cook for 5 to 6 hours.

A little before suppertime, stir in the cream, re-cover, and let it heat another 15 to 30 minutes; then serve.

Yield:
8 servings, each with: 395 calories, 18 g fat, 45 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 6 g dietary fiber, 7 g usable carbs.

Dana's Kim's Kings Ranch Chicken

This is a great Southwestern-style casserole that serves a crowd. It started with an apparently popular dish (of which I had not heard) called King's Ranch Chicken. It included stuff like canned cream of mushroom soup and tortillas. It was also not a slow cooker dish. My friend Kim Workman Palmer posted her decarbed version on
Facebook
, and I took that and slow-cooker-ized it. By the way, I originally left out the canned tomatoes with chilies by mistake, and it was still mighty tasty. And it was a tad lower carb, too. But the tomatoes are canonical and awfully good.

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1/2 medium onion

1/2 cup (120 ml) chicken broth

1 can (4 ounces, or 115 g) mushroom pieces

1 can (14 ounces, or 390 g) tomatoes with green chiles

2 1/2 cups (350 g) diced cooked chicken or turkey

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lime juice

1 tablespoon (8 g) chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon concentrate

3 ounces (85 g) cream cheese

1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream

2 egg yolks

8 ounces (225 g) shredded Mexican 4-cheese blend

Core and seed the peppers. With the
S
-blade in place, cut them in chunks and put them in your food processor. Peel your half onion and throw it in, too. Pulse to chop fairly fine. Let them sit while you go to the next step.

Put the chicken broth, mushrooms, and tomatoes with chiles—don't drain either the mushrooms or tomatoes first—in a sauce pan and start them heating over a medium burner.

Cut up your cooked chicken. I just snip mine up with my kitchen shears right into a big mixing bowl. Drizzle in the lime juice and toss. Sprinkle everything from the chili powder through the cumin over the chicken and toss to coat evenly.

Okay, back to your chicken broth and veggies. Whisk in the chicken bouillon concentrate and the cream cheese and keep whisking until the cheese melts in and the bouillon is dissolved. Now whisk in the cream.

Separate the eggs and do something else with the whites. (I fed mine to my dogs.) Put the yolks in a cereal bowl and whisk them up. Now add a ladleful—about 1/2 cup (115 g)—of the sauce into the yolk and whisk them together well. Then whisk this mixture back into the main batch of sauce and keep whisking until it thickens. Whisk in a little guar or xanthan, too, if needed, to get a texture a little thinner than commercial condensed mushroom soup.

Okay, you are now ready to assemble your casserole! Spray the slow cooker with nonstick spray. Spread half the chicken in the bottom. Grab that bowl off the food processor and drain off any liquid that has collected in the bottom. Now put half the pepper/onion mixture over the chicken. Spoon half the sauce over that and then sprinkle in half the cheese. Repeat the layers with the rest of the ingredients.

Cover the pot, set to low, and cook for 5 to 6 hours.

Yield:
8 servings, each with: 398 calories, 31 g fat, 23 g protein, 7 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 6 g usable carbs.

Chicken Cacciatore

Here's a slow cooker version of an old favorite. It's easy, too, what I call a dump-and-go recipe.

6 skinless chicken leg and side quarters (about 3 lbs, or 1.4 kg)

2 cups (500 g) no-sugar-added spaghetti sauce (I use Hunt's.)

1 can (8 ounces, or 225 g) whole mushrooms, drained

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1/2 cup (80 g) chopped onion

1 green bell pepper, diced