Cans and Packets Need Not Apply

You know that creamy, delicious Crock Pot Italian chicken recipe that your mom/neighbor/sister-in-law makes? Do you want to know how to make it without opening a single can or packet and only taking 5 extra minutes? Here you go:

"Homemade" Crock Pot Creamy Italian Chicken.

1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp. chicken base (If you want to avoid all processed foods, you can leave this out. It just mimics the flavor of the cream of chicken soup, but the dish would probably taste fine without it.)
4 oz. cream cheese
2 chicken breasts
1 Tbsp. homemade italian dressing seasoning mix (recipe follows)

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Add milk and bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally. Once thickened, add chicken base. (At this point in the recipe, you have a wonderful substitute for cream of chicken soup that you can use in pretty much any recipe. That's right, if you can make a simple white sauce, you never have to buy condensed creamed soups again. Awesome, huh?) Add the cream cheese and whisk until smooth.

2. Meanwhile, place chicken in crock pot and season both sides with Italian dressing mix.

3. Pour sauce over seasoned chicken and cook on low for 4 hours. (I put the chicken in frozen and it was perfectly moist in 4 hours. Overcooked crock pot chicken is the worst.)

4. Shred chicken and serve over rice or noodles. I had it with brown rice and the chicken was so delicious I didn't even notice the brown rice.

Celebrate! You have broken free of Cambpell's! (Campbell's, please don't sue me.)

I found a copy-cat recipe for Italian dressing mix here, but after a couple trials and due to not having all the ingredients I made a few changes. Here is my version:

Homemade Italian Dressing Seasoning Mix

1 ½ tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp ground oregano
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground basil

1. Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.  If you want to make dressing: Mix two tablespoons of the mix with ¼ cup vinegar, 2 tablespoons of water, and ½ to 2/3 cup olive oil or canola oil.