Slow Cooker Creamy Italian Chicken!

This is absolutely one of the easiest yet most delicious recipes you will ever try!   My son has decided it's in his top 10 favorites!   Either he was just really hungry for some home cooking on the night I served it or it's amazing!   This is very tasty and a real family pleaser!

 Here is all you need:

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

black pepper

seasoned salt

1 pkg. dry Italian dressing mix

2  (10.25 oz,) cans cream of chicken soup

1  (8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1 cup water

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

6-7 slices of bacon cooked crisp

Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of a large slow cooker you have sprayed with nonstick spray. You can even use frozen chicken if that is what you have or use fresh chicken.  Sprinkle with a little black pepper and seasoned salt to taste. 

Go light on the seasoned salt because of the sodium in the soup.   Sprinkle with the dry Italian dressing mix.   You can used something like Good Seasons or I just used a Kroger brand and it was really good.

In a separate bowl, mix the soups and cream cheese and pour over the chicken.  Sprinkle the top with half of the Parmesan cheese.  Pour the one cup water around the edges of the slow cooker.  

Place the top on and set to cook for 8 - 10 hours on low or 4 -6 on high.   All slow cookers cook at different temps so go by your experience with yours.  If it's older, it might take the longer cooking time.   The newer ones will be fine with the lower cooking time.  

When it's done, break the chicken into large pieces and stir the gravy to blend well.  If you want it with a little more gravy, add a cup of milk and heat through.   Right before serving sprinkle with the rest of the Parmesan cheese, the shredded mozzarella cheese and bacon.  

Serve over pasta, rice or with mashed potatoes!    This is also good served over a baked potato.


 I served by placing penne pasta on a large pasta plate and then spooning the chicken and sauce over it and finished it with the shredded mozarrella cheese and bacon!  

 It was wonderful!  Add a salad and garlic bread and dinner is complete!  Hope you enjoy this!!! 



Country Swiss Steak!

This is a recipe I always get asked about a lot.  It seems so many grew up eating it, but not many make it anymore.   It has always been one of my favorites.

 I am fairly sure it has nothing to do with Switzerland or the Swiss.  I doubt they even know what this is all about.   I am not sure where the name came from, like so many of our recipes that seem sort of out of place here in the South that are nonetheless delicious. 

I do know that this takes a fairly inexpensive and usually less tender cut of beef and turns it into a mouth watering piece of meat you can cut with your fork.   Also, even though it's does take time to cook, it's not a difficult recipe.

 Here is what you need:

1.5 to 2 lbs. of round steak, cut in serving size pieces
1 cup flour (You won't use all of this, but need it to dredge each piece in to cover)
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 medium size sweet onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 32 oz. can of diced stews tomatoes
1-2 cups water
1 Tbs. beef bouillon granules

Dredge each piece of round steak in a the flour.   Heat the oil in a heavy deep skillet with a lid or if you have a cast iron Dutch oven, that is perfect for this.   Place the round steak in the oil.  Sprinkle with the seasoned salt, garlic salt and black pepper.  Brown on both sides.  Remove to a plate when brown.  The steak won't be cooked, just browned. 

Add the onion and bell pepper to the pan and sauté in the drippings from the meat, loosening any pieces of flour that have stuck to the pan.  When they are slightly tender, add the steak back to the pan.  Pour the tomatoes, undrained over all.  Add 1 cup water and the beef bouillon.  Bring up to a bubble and then reduce to simmer.  Cover and simmer for at least 1  1/2 hours. 

 About every thirty minutes, stir this from the bottom of the pan, because it does tend to stick....especially if you are cooking it on too high heat.  It needs to cook low and slow.  Add the other cup of water as needed as it cooks and thickens.  The flour from the meat will thicken the tomato gravy that meat cooks in as it simmers.