Thursday, October 6, 2011

Chicken Taco Filling

I am often disappointed by the shredded chicken that Mexican restaurants serve in their tacos and enchiladas. It is so easy to add some spices to your chicken to make it more flavorful. This is a great use for leftover chicken and makes for some really flavorful tacos, enchiladas or quesadillas. The recipe is pretty versatile too so feel free to improvise with what you have on hand. It's a great dish to make a lot of too since you can easily freeze leftovers to use for a quick meal. This is my own recipe - enjoy!



Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients
  • 1 cup of cooked, shredded chicken (from a rotisserie chicken or anything you have leftover)
  • 1 can of RoTel
  • 2 TBSP chopped onion 
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 pepper from a can of chipotle in adobo
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 cup of water or beer 
  • 1 TBSP vegetable oil
Prep
  1. Peel and finely chop your garlic.
  2. Peel your onion and chop part of it so you have about 2 TBSP of onion.
  3. Shred your chicken. I used about 1/2 white meat and 1/2 dark but really anything will work.
Cook
  1. Heat your 1 TBSP of vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet.
  2. After the oil has heated for a couple of minutes, add your chopped onion, followed by your chopped garlic and chipotle in adobo. Cook until the onion is soft, about 3 minutes as you squish the liquid out of the chipotle with the back of your spoon.
  3. Add your shredded chicken, can of RoTel, 1 tsp of chili powder, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tsp of cumin and stir together.
  4. Add your 1/2 a beer or 1/2 cup of water to the mixture and turn the heat to high to boil the liquid.
  5. Once the liquid boils, turn the heat back down to medium and simmer for about 10 minutes, until much of the liquid has cooked down. Remove what's left of your chipotle pepper before serving.
  6. Serve immediately in warm tortillas and don't forget to freeze the leftovers in a ziploc bag!

1 comment:

  1. thanks for the recipe. I've prepared it twice now. I added 1tsp of fresh ground nutmeg and cinnamon each.

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