Spinach, Artichoke, Chicken...Heaven.

God bless you, Wellness Mama. This Spinach & Artichoke Chicken is perfection. I really thought I'd miss the appetizery goodness of digging in with toast points or chips. Miraculously, the empty carbs didn't even cross my carb loving mind thanks to the filling combo of chicken and everything else that is good in this world (cheese).

I didn't have the patience to wait out the full crock pot method and for some reason I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to cooking down my own spinach. So here's how I did it, but if you want the ease of the abbreviated version check out the link above.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp coconut oil or bacon grease

1-2 tbsp butter

2 lbs chicken breasts

3 (12) oz bags baby spinach (or one 10 oz bag frozen spinach)

14 oz artichoke hearts, drained & roughly chopped

1 (8) oz package cream cheese

3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup Greek yogurt (or sour cream)

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

1/8 - 1/4 cup chicken broth if needed

Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces, season with the garlic, salt, and pepper. Heat coconut oil or bacon grease in nonstick pan over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until almost done. I place the lid on for a minute or two. Just don't overdo it. You don't want rubbery chicken here - it's going to spend another hour or two in the crock pot.

In a large sauce pot, heat 1-2 tbsp butter and start dumping in the bags of baby spinach. Press down with a wooden spoon, stirring and turning as it wilts. It's going to take a while, so I'd work on this step while cooking the chicken. The spinach is going to wilt and release moisture and the plan is to get rid of as much moisture as possible. If you find a decent size pool of liquid in the bottom on your pot, drain it off and keep on cooking the spinach down. Tyler Florence says cook that spinach until it's dry. That's never going to happen. Eventually you'll need to take the spinach out and drain it well. Once drained, roughly chop your gob of cooked spinach. Stand back and marvel that the roughage that was once taking up the entire bottom drawer of your fridge is now the size of your fist. Or you could defrost a bag of the frozen kind. Again, drain well.

Throw the chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, greek yogurt & 1/8 cup chicken broth into the crock pot. Cook on high for an hour until melted and creamy. Stir everything together, then taste it and give it a once over. Add salt if needed and if it's not quite as creamy as you envisioned, add a bit of chicken broth. Go ahead and throw in 1/2 cup of mozzarella and work it in to the mixture. Serve topped with additional mozzarella.

Verdict: This is taking up permanent residence in my fridge.

Alterations: I pre-cooked the chicken, added a little more cheese & greek yogurt, and a threw in a splash of chicken broth. I also unnecessarily cooked down my own spinach.