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 :)

Beef Enchiladas

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

I love this holiday...I love Mexican food, love the Mexican pride, and love the celebrations :) I wrote up a "history & fun facts" about Cinco de Mayo so if you want to read it let me know! Off topic. Anyways, this isn't a Crock Pot blog (sorry) but this is a delicious food blog...and I haven't written in a while! Things have just been so hectic - finishing college, packing, getting ready to graduate and move...basically, I haven't had any time to cook! Good thing my favorite restaurant (Plaza Azteca) is literally right next door to my apartment :) I'll miss them dearly when I leave Williamsburg (and so will J, hehe)!

Instead of celebrating Cinco de Mayo in Williamsburg, I ended up making a celebratory meal for my family. This was my first attempt at enchiladas and I have to say that I'm obsessed! It was so easy and so yummmy.

BEEF ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:

Flour tortillas (small)

1 pound lean ground beef (or turkey)

Small white onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 can diced green chiles

1 can (at least 20 oz) Enchilada Sauce

2 cups cheese (I used a Mexican variety, but you can use your favorite)

Shredded lettuce (optional)

Tomato, diced (optional)

Side Dishes:

1 box Old El Paso Spanish Rice

1 can black/refried beans

Guacamole

Okay, so it's not as pretty when it's not in a molcajete but it was pretty tasty nonetheless!

So back to making the Enchiladas...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, wrap 8 flour tortillas in aluminum foil and put them in the oven to warm up.

Heat up the olive oil in a skillet. Add in ground beef and brown.

Drain the fat from the ground beef. Add in garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is transparent.

Lightly coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with the enchilada sauce.

Take the tortillas out of the oven.

On a tortilla, layer cheese, ground beef, and a little enchilada sauce.

Roll the tortilla and place seam-side-down in the pan.

Repeat with all 8 tortillas.

Pour the enchilada sauce over the wraps until they are covered.

Layer the cheese on top of the enchiladas.

Bake for 30 minutes. When you take it out of the oven, take a big whiff because it smells delicious!

And when you decorate a plate with all of the sides, you get something that looks like:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, wrap 8 flour tortillas in aluminum foil and put them in the oven to warm up.

Heat up the olive oil in a skillet. Add in ground beef and brown.

Drain the fat from the ground beef. Add in garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is transparent.

Lightly coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with the enchilada sauce.

Take the tortillas out of the oven.

On a tortilla, layer cheese, ground beef, and a little enchilada sauce. Roll the tortilla and place seam-side-down in the pan.

Repeat with all 8 tortillas.

Pour the enchilada sauce over the wraps until they are covered.

Layer cheese on top of the enchiladas.

Bake for 30 minutes.

And if you want to make the dinner even better...here are some of our choice beverages ;)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Chicken & Potatoes Au Gratin

This is one of very few recipes I have tried from pure experimentation. I usually get my inspiration from my Crock Pot recipe book, foodgawker (most amazing food website ever, in my opinion), or allrecipes.com!

Also, just as an aside... I desperately want to get a recipe/photo onto foodgawker but they are so picky about the photos they choose, plus my lack of photography skills or equipment... I keep getting rejected! Any tips/hints/ideas? Or does someone want to be my food photographer? hehe. Also, if you go all the way back in their archives and click on the very first (or last) page...you will see such a huge difference in pictures - it's crazy how photography standards have changed!

My roomie made some delicious au gratin potatoes last weekend and that got me thinking...I should try to Gratin (is that even a verb?) a meal....and better yet, why not in my Crock Pot!

"CHICKEN & POTATOES" AU GRATIN

Ingredients:
4-5 medium Yukon potatoes, chopped into small 0.5-1" cubes
2-3 chicken breasts, chopped into 1" cubes
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
2 cups Colby & Monterey Jack Cheese (or whatever your favorite is!)
1 (12-16oz) can Cream of Chicken soup
1 cup Half & Half (or skim milk for a lower fat version)
1 tablespoon ground red pepper, optional
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
I tried to make this recipe with even parts potato and chicken, but you can alter that ratio to your liking!
1. Chop the potatoes into small 0.5"-1" cubes (they will cook faster if they're smaller).
2. Chop the chicken breasts into 1" cubes.

3. Finely chop the white onion.

4. Mix the potatoes, chicken, and onion in the Crock Pot.

5. In a large bowl, mix together cheese, soup, half & half, and ground red pepper.

6. Pour the liquid over top of the ingredients already in the slow cooker.
7. Make sure the liquid and cheese are evenly distributed throughout chicken and potatoes.

8. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.
At this point, my meal was very soup-y and liquidy. I scooped some of the excess juice out and then replaced the Crock Pot lid, but I left the lid cracked about 1". Cracking the lid will allow some of the extra moisture to evaporate! I learned that if any of your recipes are soupier that you'd like it to be, just take off the lid and let it cook for an hour or two; most of the liquid will evaporate.
9. Cook on LOW an additional 2-3 hours (after slightly opening the lid).

You'll be surprised to see a nice, crispy Au Gratin'd meal :)