This Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Makes the Best Leftovers
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The trouble with chicken breasts is that it’s very easy to overcook them. Maybe your oven is hotter than you think it is, or you didn’t hear the timer go off, or you had to run out of the room because your dog was suddenly being too quiet, and that’s never a good sign. Either way, it’s very easy to overcook a chicken breast, even if you cook them all the time. But cooking chicken breasts for several hours at a low temperature in a slow cooker is a good way to get tender, juicy chicken without having to spend 20 minutes peering through your oven window and trying to guess if they’re done or not.
This slow cooker chicken Parmesan pasta is a perfect dinner, and it’s just the sort of hearty pasta dish that reheats beautifully, so if you make a big pot this week, you’ll have a refrigerator full of spectacular lunches that will have you looking forward to your lunch break for days.
To make the chicken Parmesan pasta sauce, boneless, skinless chicken breasts go into the slow cooker with onion, dried herbs, and a generous amount of crushed tomatoes. The chicken cooks in the tomatoes for about four hours in the slow cooker, so the chicken takes on all that great tomato flavor while also flavoring the sauce. This is what slow cookers were made for.
Once the chicken is cooked, you can easily shred it with a couple forks and return it to the pot. Now you have a fabulous-looking chicken and tomato pasta sauce. Add cooked penne pasta to the pot and stir it around to combine. You could just eat it right then, but resist the temptation to skip the next step, because the next part is where the cheese comes in.
Once the chicken, pasta, and sauce are well combined, cover the whole thing with a thick layer of shredded mozzarella and freshly grated Parmesan. Cook it on low for 10 to 20 minutes, or until the cheese has fully melted. Now you have a chicken Parmesan pasta full of gooey, stringy cheese, and it will make a great dinner and even better leftovers.
Get the Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Pasta from Damn Delicious
