As much as I love to cook from scratch, there are days that I just need a quick meal to throw together and be done with it. Ben and Judah appreciate these days because it means more time with them during the rushed after-work hour, and less mess in the kitchen to clean up after dinner. 🙂
This meal is one of our favorites. I have another variation that uses French dressing and I'm tempted to keep trying other flavors of bottled dressings just to keep things interesting.
The hardest step in this recipe is waiting a few hours to let it cook in the crock pot. You literally dump everything in and just let it do its "thaaang." Throwing some peas into the finished dish completes the meal and eliminates any pressure to put together a side dish.
Let me know what you think! Got ideas for other easy crock pot recipes I need to try?
Recipe Card
Easy Apricot Sesame Crock Pot Chicken
Ingredients
- 4-6 skinless , boneless chicken breasts (fresh or frozen)
- 1 package dry onion soup mix
- 1 cup Asian Sesame dressing
- ½ cup apricot preserves
- 1-2 cups frozen peas
- 3 cups cooked rice
Instructions
- Place the chicken in a large crock pot. Sprinkle the onion soup mix over top. Add the Asian sesame dressing and apricot preserves. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. If using frozen chicken, I like to cook on high for 4 hours, then low for 2 hours. The chicken should be tender and shred easily.
- When the chicken is done cooking, allow it to sit so the sauce can thicken a little while you prepare the peas. Cook the peas according to the packaged directions. (I cook them in a saucepan with a thin layer of boiling water for about 3-5 minutes.)
- Serve the chicken and sauce over the rice and peas.
Kristina says
Do you think it would work if you made the sauce then marinated the chicken and baked it?
Nikki says
You can give it a try! I would bake for about 50 minutes at 350, depending on the size of the chicken breasts.
Angela says
The chicken shredded and sliced easy enough but was somewhat dry inside, however adding sauce over it helped a lot. But I really didn't care for the flavor of the sauce as the apricot preserves, onion soup mix and sesame dressing just didn't meld together to make it one cohesive sauce. It looked good but it didn't seem to taste all that great to me and the sesame dressing gave an off putting after taste.
Nikki says
Sorry to hear that, Angela. It's definitely one cohesive sauce when I make it. One of my husband's most requested meals! 🙂
Angie says
I just made this tonight and my house smelled wonderful all day!! And the dish tasted even better!! We will definately be making this again and soon. Thanks Nikki!
Ryan Katzmayr says
Nikki,
I can't wait to show my girlgriend this site....but my waistline may not be so happy 🙁
Scott Larsen turned me on to this...small small world
Nikki says
haha! Hi Ryan! 🙂 Your waistline will do just fine. 😉
Sweetsugarbelle says
Cookie gals can ALWAYS use a crockpot meal!
Michele says
That sounds seriously yummy!! Thanks for the great idea.
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy says
You had me at Crock Pot!
Jessica of My Baking Heart says
This looks amazing, Nikki! I keep a bottle of that dressing in the fridge at all times, so this is definitely going on the 'to-do' list! 🙂
Gerry @ Foodness Gracious says
Easy peasy, love days like that!
Cookbook Queen says
There are many days (MANY!!) that I can totally use a crock pot meal. This one looks fab!! Can't wait to try it.