Thanks to everyone again for their constructive suggestions on what to do
with a big package of chicken thighs that somehow ended up in my shopping
basket.

I ended up freezing them and the first half of the pack (six of various
sizes) got cooked up yesterday.

Someone on a LJ food group had done crockpot 'fiesta chicken' and that,
combined with the input I got here, is what finally got me moving. The LJ
post said that you could start the chicken frozen, so I had no further
reason to delay .

The original ingredients are definitely a "can of this jar of that":

4 boneless skinless breasts, frozen or not
1 15-16 oz jar salsa (type not specified)
1 can black beans
1 can/package corn

Instructions are to dump it in the crock and cook it until the chicken is
shreddable, shred it, then hold on warm and mix in 1 block (that's 8 oz
for our non-US friends) cream cheese.

Since I had the chicken in the freezer, some cooked beans in the fridge,
and four ears of aging corn from my farm box, as well as avocadoes for
garnish, I decided this was it and started rummaging through my cabinets.

Salsa appeared in the form of a 24-oz jar of salsa verde left over from
the last time I made enchiladas en masse. I thought, okay, let's roll.

I covered the bottom of the crock with a thick layer of salsa verde and
then put the chicken parts on top. I then scooped in about three cups
worth of cooked beans (they were the small white "rice beans" I cooked a
little while back ... so subbing that in for black/pinto) over the chicken parts, put a
little salt on (the beans were undersalted, qv other threads), and put the
rest of the salsa verde on top. Cover, set on high for five hours.

In the meantime I cooked up the corn on the stove. I probably could have
done it in the crock as well but it was pretty seriously dessicated and I
knew I would have good results on the stove by bringing to a boil and then
covering and letting sit for about 20 minutes.

I gave the crock contents a couple of stirs. When the chicken started
getting to the falling-apart stage at hour 4 or so, I fished out the skin
as much as possible (if you start with fresh, I highly recommend skinning
them first) and spooned off the top of the sauce in an effort to seperate
the oil out.

I added sliced red bell peppers and sliced zucchini (also Musgovian) with
the cut-up corn then recovered the crock. After 1/2 hour I uncovered it
and gave it all a good stir to shred the chicken (and fish out the bones as much as
possible).

Then I put some in a bowl and topped with sour cream, avocadoes, and fresh
tomatoes (cubed). It was pretty tasty. It needed a little black pepper
for balance, so I added it. It reminded me in a lot of good ways
of a New Mexico-style "bowl of green". It would be awesome over rice.

The beans I used were slightly undercooked and slightly undersalted when
they went in but were tender, savory morsels when they came out.

So I can heartily recommend the practice of crocking chicken in a
base of salsa verde. Pork would work nicely as well. Corn and zucchini
optional but tasty (you could serve them on the side as traditional
NM-style calabacitas). Sour cream/crema is a very nice garnish with
this, especially if your base salsa was a little on the zingy side.

It makes quite a lot, so I will probably be packaging portions up and
freezing it.

Charlotte
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