When I was a kid, we often ate Chicken Cacciatore, which is a basic comfort food classic of chicken pieces in tomato sauce with lots of mushrooms and other good stuff. We also enjoyed Chicken Giambotta quite a bit, which was similar but had sausage and potatoes—among yes, more good stuff!

These types of meals were super satisfying, especially in the winter months and Italian-American staples, with the recipes always varying a little from family to family.

The following chicken recipe combines elements of both the above dishes. Well, to tell you the truth, my Rival Crock Pot did a lot of the work. Did you ever make too much Sunday sauce/gravy in anticipation that you'd have a full house but the cold weather kept a lot of those visitors from coming, leaving you with enough for the following Sunday? Growing up, we never ate the same sauce a week later when this happened, we usually had it on Wednesday or Thursday night and then made it fresh once again come Sunday. Well, this past Wednesday I utilized the extra sauce for what I call Chicken & Potatoes in Tomato Sauce - Slow Cooked.

Wash and season 8 chicken drumsticks with salt and pepper. Rough chop a large yellow onion and peel 4 large potatoes and cut them into cubes about 1 ½ inch in size. That is going to be the most of your prep-work!

Slow Cookers/Crock Pots come in handy for those extra busy days. You can go out and do what you have to do while dinner simmers away and is hot and ready by six. If you don’t have one you can do this recipe in a Dutch Oven. We are going to fill the crockpot in layers. The onions will be the bottom layer in the pot. Next, toss in 2-3 garlic cloves, a cup of cut Italian green beans (string beans), ladle in some sauce with the potatoes, and then place in your chicken. Top with the rest of the sauce to fill the pot. Sprinkle in some parsley and a bay leaf.

Depending on the thickness of your sauce, you may want to add in a can of tomato paste. To spice things up, a palmful of red chili flakes work perfect here. If you don’t have leftover Sunday sauce you can simply pour in 4 cans of whole peeled tomatoes that you crush by hand, plus one can of tomato paste.

Set your timer to HIGH and then six hours later you can dig in! The potatoes will be nice and soft and the chicken will be fall-off-the-bone tender. If you have it in the house, feel free to add in some sliced zucchini, carrots, cannellini beans, mushrooms, crumbled sausage, bell peppers or really anything else! It’s totally up to you. The main thing in my book is to have a warm stew-like bowl of Italian-American goodness ready to eat after a long day’s work!

For these dog days of January, treat yourself by letting this kitchen appliance lend a hand. Imagine coming home from the office and your entire house is smelling like nonna’s basement. If that doesn’t warm you up, nothing will!