Slow Cooker Chicken in Tomato & Olive Sauce

I love all things olive. I even have a favorite olive outside black and green. Castelvetrano olives are the best olives in my opinion. They are a beautiful bright green Sicilian olive. The flavor of these olives is what I find so unique about them. They are not extremely salty and have a meaty buttery quality about them. The first time I had this olive was in Rome during an open air market. I was there with my friend Heather and my family for two week in 2009 and our apartment (read my funny story about Heather and I mixed with wine and the old door the first night) was very close to an outdoor market on  an off street by the Vatican.  There was a vendor that had tons of olives in bins and we tried these, and they were amazing! My favorite snack of the trip consisted of these olives, red wine and a cigarette….memories. I did not have them again in the US until they popped up on a salad at a local Italian restaurant. Since then, I have seen them a handful of times in different olive bowls.

Since I love all things olive I knew I needed to make Savory Tart’s recipe for Chicken Thighs inTomatoes and Olive Sauce when she posted it for our red and green Improv Cooking Challenge in December.  I opted to use chicken breasts over the thigh because my store did not have skinless and skin in the crockpot not a favorite of mine. The recipe calls for fresh herbs and delicious briny capers. I loved that the flavors of the fresh herbs came out in the dish because I was worried they would be lost in the long cooking time. The original recipe also called for fire roasted, but my store was out and I used regular tomatoes which produced a delicious result.

I served this with wild rice to soak up the sauce and a crisp green salad. It was a beautiful plate and full of color. The chicken was wonderful and the sauce so flavorful. If you are not an olive fan this may not be the dish for you, but the long cooking time mellows the strong flavor from the olives a bit.

Tonight,  we are hanging around the house and getting caught up on laundry and fun things like that. However, the best part of the night will be finally getting to watch the movie Fury. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Kellen got wore out at daycare and will be in bed early (or I will just be tired tomorrow!). 

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 medium yellow onion, halved and sliced thinly

4 garlic cloves, minced

28 oz can diced tomatoes

1 Tbl capers, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup pitted green olives, quartered

1 Tbl fresh thyme

2 tsp fresh oregano

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Add the onions, tomatoes, olives, capers, and fresh herbs to the bottom of the slow cooker. Place chicken on top of tomato mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Cook on low 7-8 hours. To plate, remove chicken from slow cooker and spoon the sauce over the top. The sauce will have lots of liquid and you mat want to use a slotted spoon.