Sunday, November 13, 2011

Chicken Tacos with a Kick...Our Favorite Recipe!

It's been just over 6 months since I've posted anything...but life's been changing a lot! In the last 6 months, there has been college graduation, relocating 400 miles away from home, starting a new job, traveling, etc! But that's not to say that I haven't been using our beloved Crock Pot. In fact, I have, and almost every weekend ;) We have made this at least every other weekend since I first made it up about 2 months ago! It's delicious and leaves you with tons of easy to make leftovers for the rest of the week!

CHICKEN TACOS























Ingredients
Packet of Taco Seasoning
4 Chicken Breasts
4 Habanero Peppers
Chicken Broth, low sodium
Cheese (optional)
Black beans (optional)
Lettuce (optional)
Taco Kit, including shells and taco sauce (optional)

Directions
Place chicken breasts in the Crock Pot. Make sure they are not overlapping to ensure they all get cooked thoroughly!



















Sprinkle half the taco seasoning packet onto the chicken breasts and rub it in. Flip the chicken breasts over and do the same to the other side. Tip: We tried the low sodium taco seasoning because it's healthier but it really does take away from the taste. It was surprising how much more bland it tasted! However, we made up for it by using Organic Low Sodium Chicken Broth and Low Sodium Black Beans.

Add in the chicken broth so that it just about covers the breasts. Don't go much higher than that otherwise you'll have soupy chicken!


















Dice up the habanero peppers (including the seeds, they carry the heat)! You can add or remove some of the peppers depending on your spice tolerance.

Toss the habanero peppers into the crock pot and mix it around so it's evenly distributed!


 


Turn the Crock Pot on LOW for 7 hours. After 7 hours, it should look like....



















YUM! Not to mention that your kitchen/house/apartment will smell amazing all day! Now take two forks and shred that chicken up! After cooking for 7 hours, it should just fall apart like flourless cookies. You'll notice there is still some liquid in there, so we're going to make the chicken soak up that extra liquid. This will make the chicken even juicier and prevent dripping, messy tacos!


















To do this, turn the Crock Pot lid so that the dish is only partly covered. Turn the Crock Pot on HIGH for 1 hour.



After 1 hour, your chicken will be ready to eat!



Jason likes hard shells, so he toasted those and topped it with black beans, cheese and taco sauce.


For a healthier, lower calorie variety, I made lettuce shell tacos! I laid out two pieces of Organic Romaine Lettuce and put in the chicken, black beans, cheese and taco sauce just like I would a normal taco. It wraps nicely (if you have strong pieces of lettuce) and are delicious (and lacking the unnecessary carbs!)





Bon Appetit! Let me know what you think when you make them :)