With school back in and having to do a million and one things, I’ve been using my slow cooker a lot (lately). Mainly on days when I don’t even want to take x amount of time to throw things into the pressure cooker. Gosh, that makes me sound just super lazy but it’s the truth. My kids are normally hungry and ready to eat and they have homework to do and showers to take and some evenings extracurricular activities going on or yikes – doctor appointments! So, walking in and smelling dinner wafting through the house as we come up the stairs makes me smile with pride. Yes, I did that. I put that on this morning while packing your lunch and getting you ready for school and myself ready for the day too. My pat on the back comes from daughter eating all of it – or most of it and sometimes not even needing to say the words: “mom, that was good”. My son, on the other hand, well, y’all know what his dinner consists of six out of seven nights and it is not from the slow cooker *lol* but I’m able to get him to eat at the same time as us since I’m already ahead of the game so-to-speak when it comes to having his dinner ready. So, I’m basically cooking for me and my daughter, sometimes my mom is included and a I try and have something that we’re able to reheat the next day or use it for/with something else. Easy peasy. Just the way I like it.
I have made Chicken Cesar sandwiches in the past but it had been forever and a day since I had used the slow cooker to do it. I had a couple packs of boneless/skinless thighs and it popped into my head. Plus it was going to be a hot day that day. The less I needed to do when we were home; the better. You noticed I put (and ranch) in the title. Let’s just say I did “not” plan for this meal, as I said I had a couple packs of the thighs. I just naturally assumed I had plenty of Cesar dressing. That would be a huge N.O.P.E haha! I have to say though that using (a small portion) of ranch really made it better for us. My daughter loved it even more. Then again, she is a huge ranch fanatic though! So all in all it worked out and we ate and ate until we could not eat anymore. She took half a sandwich with her to school the next and I was able to give my mom a couple sandwiches and still had one for myself and my girls’ half left. So feel free to double up or even do less. Or as I did the next night: put on a bed of lettuce and not on a bun. Yum!
- 8-10 boneless/skinless chicken thighs
- 1cup Chicken BrothI use low/reduced sodium
- 2cups Cesar dressing
- 1/4teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- lettuce leaves or bibb lettuce leavesoptional
- 1Tablespoon fresh basil leaves (chopped)optional
- 6 buns of your choiceor use on bed of lettuce
- Before using your slow cooker make sure you either use an insert or spray it with a non-stick spray. I usually spray and always add in a tad/touch of EVOO. If you spray, coat well.
- Place your chicken thighs in the slow cooker and pour the broth over. I made sure all were dipped in the broth and spread out and around (depending on the size of your cooker).
- Add in 1 cup of Cesar dressing. I mixed it around - spreading on all of the thighs and coating them. Then I placed the lid on my slow cooker.
- I was not going to be home and I wanted this ready after we got in from school. So I chose to use LOW heat. I wanted the chicken to cook all day long for 6 to 7 hours and basically fall apart when I went to remove them later in the day so they would shred/cut easily.
- About 6.5 hours later I took the chicken thighs out and placed them on a large plate (they were falling apart so I used a slotted spoon to retrieve some. It was super easy to shred the chicken just using my fork. I did go back over a little with a knife as I didn't want any large shredded pieces that my daughter could choke on.
- I used a ladle and removed the broth mixture from the slow cooker. You can pour it out if it is easier for you. I then put all the chicken back into the slow cooker and added the fresh ground pepper. I didn't measure this - I just do it by sight and mix it around and felt good with the amount I had. I did take a little bite and it was delicious and not too hot from the pepper - just a enough to get a bit of a boost from. If you want to add any other spices, feel free to do so. Or add some salt at the beginning - I don't normally as I don't do a lot with salt and some of that depends on which broth I'm using. In this recipe I did not add extra salt at the beginning or end.
- Next it's time for the remaining 1 Cup of Cesar dressing. Oops. I didn't have enough! I used what I had of the Cesar dressing and then I pulled out my Ranch dressing and used it. I would say I basically used 1 cup of Cesar and 1 cup of Ranch. I was not disappointed at all - it tasted great! My daughter loved it. Anyway, after adding in the Ranch I stirred it all together in the slow cooker and then placed the lid back on. I turned the temperature up to high and I let it cook about 20 more minutes. You can do 30 minutes to 40 minutes if you feel it is needed. If you're wanting to stay on low heat then I would do a minimum of 45 minutes and a max of an hour to no more than an hour and 15 minutes. You just want to make sure your mixture is hot or very warm. If you're not serving right away you may want it really hot and since we were eating straight away I wanted mine just really warm.
- I had some extra-large rolls that I had picked up looking for some Kaiser buns. I had bought for a different recipe but they worked find for this - a wee bit big especially since I don't at a lot of bread but they were nice and fresh and oh so soft. You can broil them a little with some butter if you'd like or be like me and just warm them quickly in the microwave (lol) and then scoop out the chicken onto the bottom roll. Then add some lettuce (if you want - you don't have to) and place the top roll and enjoy!
- We had leftovers as I mentioned above. I made a couple sandwiches for my mom and one for my daughter. She wanted croissants by-the-way (oh well) and she took half the next day. I took the chicken that was still left and placed in a container and put in the fridge. The next day I heated mine up (I could have eaten it cold but I love it warm) and scooped it onto some lettuce and had that for dinner. Super simple. Super easy. Super yummy!
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