Whole 30 Salsa Verde Chicken

WHOLE30 SALSA VERDE CHICKEN

This recipe is such an oldie but a goodie, given it takes very few ingredients you probably already have in your pantry and is soooo simple to make. Consistently in my meal prep rotation even when I’m not doing a Whole30, you gotta make this ASAP.

Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

For the Whole30 Salsa Verde Chicken:

• 4 chicken thighs* (I used straight from frozen! But of course you can use fresh too, just reduce the cook time by 5 minutes)

• 1 16 oz jar of salsa verde (Trader Joe’s version is compliant)

• 1 can fire roasted green chillies (Trader Joe’s version is compliant)

• 1 tsp cumin

• Pinch of cayenne

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 2 cups cauliflower rice

• Juice from 1 lime

• Cilantro

• Ghee

• Compliant hot sauce for topping

*You can use chicken breasts, but it will be a lot more flavorful and tender to use chicken thighs

Directions:

For the Whole 30 Salsa Verde Chicken (Instant Pot & Slow Cooker):

• Place your chicken, salsa verde, roasted green chillies, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper into an Instant Pot (instructions for CrockPot below).

• Close the lid and set the valve to sealing. Set to manual (or high pressure, depending on your version of Instant Pot) and cook for 20 minutes (or 15 minutes for fresh chicken).

• Once the 20 minutes are up, your Instant Pot is going to start counting back up from 0. Do not open it until it gets to 10. This is called natural release, and it allows a lot of the pressure to release naturally (you can think of it like resting a piece of steak).

• Once the 10 minutes are up, set the valve to venting, keeping a kitchen towel handy to cover as the steam will be hot.

• Open up the lid and remove your chicken to a cutting board or bowl and shred the meat with two forks.

• Place the chicken back into the sauce and serve with the cauliflower rice below, topping with your favorite hot sauce.

• If you are using a crockpot, follow the same recipe for the ingredients, but turn your CrockPot to high for 4 hours or low for 8.

For the Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice:

• Melt a tbsp of ghee in a large skillet and add the cauliflower rice on high heat. Salt and stir and then don’t touch it for at least 3 minutes, or until you start to see some brown bits and charring.

• Stir and cook for another 1-2 minutes until fully cooked.

• Remove from heat and stir in lime juice and cilantro. Enjoy!