Praline Chicken

I've been making an effort to use our slow cookers (we have a six-quart for bigger things and a two-quart for smaller things) more often. Today's recipe utilizes both the stove and the slow cooker and is super easy to put together. The recipe is called Praline Chicken and it comes from the website A Few Short Cuts. I like this recipe because it's a fun new way to cook chicken and it requires few ingredients, many you probably already have in your fridge or pantry. The original recipe makes six servings but I halved everything because there's only two of us. I also used our two-quart slow cooker because this was a smaller meal. If you're making all six servings, you'll probably need a four- or six-quart slow cooker.

Here's what you need (remember, these measurements are for three servings):
1.5 chicken breasts cut into chunks
Creole seasoning (I couldn't find this at the grocery store so I bought Cajun seasoning, which I figure has to be close to Creole. Aren't they both from Louisiana?)
1 tbsp oil (I used vegetable oil because it was what we had on hand.)
1/4 cup maple syrup (We had just bought some of this a few weeks ago for gluten-free pancakes!)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

You can find the full list of directions at A Few Short Cuts. But here's a quick rundown. You simply coat the chicken chunks with the Creole seasoning and then brown all sides of the chicken in a skillet. Mix the maple syrup, brown sugar, and pecans in a bowl. Put everything into a slow cooker and cook on low for three hours or on high for 1.5 hours. (My times are different, too, because I was doing three servings instead of six.) That's it! We had ours with white rice and corn, but Amanda at A Few Shorts Cuts recommends serving on a bed of spinach with sweet potato fries. (The sweet potato fries recipe is in the same blog post. I married someone who does not like sweet potatoes, otherwise I would have totally made them because I LOVE them.)

This is one of A Few Short Cuts' Meal Deals, meaning you're not going to end up spending a lot to make this meal. And because everything cooks in the slow cooker, you're not going to spend as much time making it. That means more free time for scrapbooking! ;)