Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Chicken Recipe

Thank you to Revolution Foods, purveyors of fresh and nutritious meals to San Francisco public schools, for sponsoring this post.

I made the most delicious slow cooker Mexican shredded chicken as a part of #MyNewGoal to come up with easy and healthy dinner ideas for the upcoming school year. Of course, I’m going to share it with you but first a little backstory.

Before I had kids, I was the kind of person who would loudly and confidently announce, “When I have kids, they will eat whatever it is that I make them. None of this making special foods for them nonsense.”

HA! The Universe threw its head back and laughed loudly in my face when I gave birth to two picky eaters. I tried the whole put-it-on-their-plate-and-when-they-get-hungry-enough-they’ll-eat-it routine. Mealtimes became a standoff. I’m stubborn, but eventually, I realized that things needed to change and that I would have to take their tastes into consideration.

I’m happy to say that meals are no longer standoffish. Now, it’s just a matter of coming up with healthy options that are both nutritious and delicious for my kids.

During the school year, breakfast and lunch are a breeze. We keep breakfast simple and typically lunch is packed for my daughters by their dad. But when their dad can’t pack them lunch I feel at ease knowing that my girls are still eating nutritious, well-balanced meals because their school lunches are provided by Revolution Foods. Revolution Foods proudly designs, produces and delivers over 2.5 million kid-inspired, chef-crafted meals to communities nationwide, including the San Francisco Unified School District, where my daughters attend school. The company uses fresh local produce, high-quality proteins, rBST-free dairy products and no high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors colors or sweeteners in the meals. They also include kids during every step of the development process to ensure that their menus consist of meals kids will love. Duh! I still can’t get over how naive it was of me to think that I could unilaterally dictate what my kids would eat.

Another thing I love about Revolution Foods is they believe proper nutrition and healthy food can drive positive academic outcomes and help children achieve their true potential, which I completely agree with. They recently conducted a survey of students and parents and found that both the majority (88% of parents and 66% of students) agreed that healthier meals would help them do better in school, and studies also show that nutritious foods create improved health and academic outcomes. According to a recent paper published by UC Berkeley, students at schools that contract with a healthier school-lunch vendor perform better on tests. Revolution Foods even brings nutrition curriculum, cooking classes, gardening lessons and other educational events to students in partnership with community partners, including FoodCorps and Share Our Strength. Oh, and I should mention that the school meals provided by Revolution Foods are affordable, which is always a plus.

Between my husband and Revolution Foods, I know lunchtime is covered, but things get harder during dinnertime. I’m not great at meal planning and I’m also not great at whipping up a nutritious meal without any forethought. Enter #MyNewGoal to come up with easy recipes that are healthy and require very little effort or forethought on my part – like this slow cooker Mexican shredded chicken recipe that came about because I was being lazy and just threw two chicken breasts into the slow cooker with other ingredients that I always have in my kitchen. The results are so good, that my kids have requested that I make this meal once a week. They have NEVER done that before.

And now for the sharing the recipe part!