This hearty chicken and bean stew simmers all day in the slow cooker and gets a ton of flavor from jarred salsa. The recipe for this stew originally appeared on Taste As You Go in 2008. It appears here with slight modifications and updated photos.
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Believe it or not, this recipe was one of the very first recipes I ever shared on Taste As You Go. In my first few months of blogging, I relied quite a bit on stock photos. I knew my posts needed photos to break up the text and add interest, but I had no way of creating photos for myself. I didn't yet own a digital camera.
So, already, this updated version is ten times better than the original.
The more I made this dish, the more comfortable I got with it. Over time, I started tweaking ingredients to better suit my personal tastes... and this version here represents my favorite iteration of the recipe.
I upped the amount of chicken to even out the ratio between chicken and pinto beans. I also used a larger jar of salsa to add a bit more liquid to the dish. And, because I loved what it did to the overall flavor of the dish, I continued to use ground coffee. For me, the addition of the coffee helped tamp down the smokiness of the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
This Slow Cooker Chicken and Pinto Beans is great served all by itself as a hearty stew. But it's also delicious served over rice and/or with tortillas on the side.
