The Crockpot Cooking Continues: Chicken Parmesan meets Chicken Marinara

I couldn't decide between chicken parmesan or chicken marinara so I mixed the two. I used breadcrumbs to give my chicken texture like CP but adding a simple marinara sauce like CM. I also skipped the fancy cheese that both recipes suggest. I love good cheese but I can't bring myself to buy it so shredded off-brand mozzarella is what I use for italian recipes.

This meal is a takeoff of a recipe from one of my current favorite food bloggers. I like her blog because a lot of people cook her recipes and leave their suggestions to improve the recipe. I usually read comments from the middle of the thread and make my changes based on those comments.

For this particular recipe I took the advice from another reader and browned my chicken (after breading) in a pan. I think I left it on too long because the chicken had started to cook not just brown when I put it in the crockpot. I love how tender the crockpot cooks so I would suggest leaving it on medium (not turning it up past like I'm always tempted to do) and lightly browning. I get so carried away.

So here's what I did:

6 small thawed chicken tenders
1 beaten egg
1 cup bread crumbs
dash of oregano
dash of italian spices
dash of garlic salt (looking back I wish I would have crushed a clove of garlic to go in the skillet while I browned the chicken and then added it to the marinara. Mine was missing a kick.)
1 jar of cheap marinara sauce

Coat the chicken in egg then bread crumbs and spice mixture (add all spices to bread crumbs). Fry in skillet lightly coated with olive oil until browned (a few minutes, no more). Place in bottom of lightly sprayed crockpot. Add jar of sauce and cook on low for 6 hours. After a couple hours it got too hot so I would recommend not leaving this one unattended all day.

I served this on whole grain angel hair pasta with fresh corn on the cobb (I like to microwave my corn on the cobb unshucked with a couple tablespoons of water). I would cook this again but would definitely spice it up a little and add sauteed mushrooms and onions to the sauce.