Easy Santa Fe Chicken — The “Just Put It in the Pot” Recipe I Froze for the Finish Line

Third trimester. The home stretch. The finish line is visible and it's shaped like a baby. Everything hurts. My back hurts. My feet hurt. My hips hurt. My sleep is a joke — I wake up every two hours to pee and then lie in bed trying to find a comfortable position, which doesn't exist because there is a human being inside my abdomen and he has opinions about every position. He likes it when I lie on my left side. He hates it when I lie on my back. He is indifferent to my right side but kicks harder when I eat cheese, which could be a preference or a digestive comment. The midwife says everything is progressing normally. Caleb is head-down, which is good. My blood pressure is fine. My weight gain is 'appropriate,' which is medical code for 'you're getting bigger but we're not going to make you feel bad about it.' Thank you, military healthcare. You're cold and efficient, but at least you're not rude. I've been batch cooking — a new strategy inspired by Mom, who froze meals before every deployment because 'you won't have energy to cook when he's gone.' Now I'M the one who won't have energy — not because of a deployment, but because of a newborn. So I'm filling the freezer: chili in quart containers. Chicken soup in bags. Meatloaf, wrapped and frozen. Meatballs in marinara. The crockpot chicken. Mom's beef stew. The freezer is a library of meals. Each one is labeled with a date and a name in my handwriting that looks more like Mom's every day. Jen saw the freezer and said, 'You're prepared for a siege.' I said, 'I'm prepared for a baby. Same thing.' Ryan's leave has been approved. He's coming home for the birth — arriving November 15th, two weeks before the due date. It's not guaranteed (military), but it's approved (also military, but the good kind). He'll have three weeks. Three weeks to meet his son, to hold his son, to be in this apartment and this nursery and this life. Three weeks. Then back to Okinawa for the last month of deployment. I'm not thinking about the last month. I'm thinking about the three weeks. Mom called tonight. She's making a list of things to bring when she comes for the birth. The list includes: her slow cooker, a supply of freezer meals, her famous chicken broth, and — I quote — 'the good towels, because your towels are terrible, Rachel, I raised you better than those towels.' She's coming. Ryan's coming. Caleb is coming. Everyone's coming. I made the crockpot chicken tonight — the deployment recipe, the 'just put it in the pot' recipe. Frozen now. Labeled. Ready. The freezer is full. The nursery is yellow. The baby is head-down. We're ready.

This is the one I keep coming back to — the recipe I think of when I say “the crockpot chicken.” It’s not fancy. It doesn’t need to be. It’s the meal that goes in the pot in the morning and comes out as dinner, or in my case right now, goes into a labeled freezer bag and waits patiently for the chaos that’s coming. When you’re 36 weeks pregnant and building a library of meals for a newborn you haven’t met yet, you need a recipe that doesn’t ask anything of you — and this one never does.

Easy Santa Fe Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 6–8 hours (low) | Total Time: Up to 8 hours | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles (such as Ro-Tel)
• 1 cup salsa (mild, medium, or hot — your call)
• 1 packet (1 oz) taco seasoning
• 4 oz cream cheese, cubed and softened
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Optional for serving: shredded cheese, sour cream, flour tortillas, rice, or tortilla chips

Instructions

1. Layer the base. Place chicken breasts in a single layer in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Season lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
2. Add the good stuff. Pour the black beans, corn, diced tomatoes with chiles, and salsa over the chicken. Sprinkle the taco seasoning evenly over the top.
3. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours or on HIGH for 3–4 hours, until the chicken is fully cooked and tender enough to shred easily with two forks.
4. Shred the chicken. Remove chicken from the slow cooker and shred using two forks. Return shredded chicken to the pot and stir to combine with the juices and vegetables.
5. Add cream cheese. Drop in the cubed cream cheese and stir until fully melted and incorporated into the sauce, about 5–10 minutes on the LOW setting with the lid off.
6. Taste and serve. Adjust salt and seasoning to taste. Serve over rice or inside warm tortillas, or with tortilla chips on the side. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream if desired.
7. To freeze. Cool completely before transferring to labeled quart freezer bags or airtight containers. Freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low heat, adding a splash of chicken broth if needed to loosen the sauce.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 315 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 21g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 790mg