8 oz penne or shells pasta
½ to 1 lb of Tyson boneless, skinless chicken thigh strips
1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 tsp Italian seasoning
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups frozen spinach
1 1/2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
4 oz cream cheese
1 Tbsp tapioca
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Combine chicken, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, garlic, sugar, and red pepper in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours (until chicken is cooked through). Place spinach in a strainer. Run hot water over it and drain as much water as possible. You may need to blot with a paper towel. Add spinach, cream cheese, and tapioca to slow cooker and stir. Cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Add cooked and drained pasta and pine nuts and stir and serve. Salt and pepper to taste. Makes 4 servings.
Review:
This is a wondeful pasta dish. The use of spinach and pine nuts adds an interesting flavor and texture. I loved mine even more for lunch the next day. Make it meatless, if you desire. 4 stars
This was SO YUMMY! We loved it! I love that you can make a pasta dish in a crockpot! I would never take the time to make something like this on the stove.
this is tagged at meatless?
This is in my crock pot right now and smells DELICIOUS. I'm just wondering about the addition of the tapioca. I assume it's to thicken it, but all I could find at our market was tapioca pearls, I'm assuming that's not what you mean? Should I crush up the pearls and add that, or could I use cornstarch instead? Or leave it out altogether? Can't wait to have this for dinner tonight, thanks for the recipe!
Hi Emily,
I'm not sure about the pearls. I bet you could crush them up. If you need to thicken at the end you could add cornstarch…hopefully it turned out okay.
It did, it turned out fine and SO delicious!! Rave reviews all around. I just added the same amount (1 Tbsp.) of cornstarch, and mixed it with a bit of cold water before I added it to the dish so it wouldn't get clumpy. Thanks for the recipe, I've had many requests for it since! I doubled the recipe when I made it too, worked out fine in my crock pot, and plenty of leftovers…