Chicken Enchilada Chili

This has become one of our go-to meals. It's so simple to throw together and I usually have all the ingredients on hand.

Chicken Enchilada Chili

In a crock pot add:
2 chicken breasts (I add mine frozen)
1 can each:
Cream of chicken
Green enchilada sauce
Green chilies
Rotel tomatoes
Corn
Season with:
Salt & Pepper
Garlic
Onion powder
Cumin

Cook on low for about 5 hours (I've cooked this longer than that and it's just fine too)

Serve with cheese and tortilla strips on top or tortilla chips to dip.

Buffalo Chicken Taco's

I know, I’ve been M.I.A. It’s sad really…

But I’m back with some more. I get these fabulous emails from bettycrocker.com that are filled with new recipes and ideas. I LOVE when they arrive (you should all sign up if you want the recipes to come to you).

I couldn’t pass this one up – I am a sucker for buffalo sauce and these sounded so easy and simple and perfect for our simple minded taste buds.

Yummy Ranch Buffalo Chicken Taco's

Ingredients:

2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs

½ tsp salt

¾ C buffalo wing sauce

¾ C ranch dressing

Shredded lettuce

Flour tortillas

Directions:

-Cook chick in slow cooker for 6-7 hours on low (I guess with chicken thighs you don’t need to add any liquid, but I used chicken breasts and just added a can of chicken broth and some water so they didn’t dry out)
-Sprinkle with salt

-Removed chicken and discard the liquid

-Shred chicken with 2 forks

-In the slow cooker, mix ¾ C buffalo wing sauce and ¼ C ranch

-Add chicken and gently stir to mix with sauce (the chicken will continue to shred so if you want it more chunky, don’t shred too much initially)

-Let sit until heated through

To Serve: spread about 1 tablespoon ranch (or really as much as you want) on the tortilla, add lettuce and chicken and wrap.

Tips/Ideas:

• I’m kicking myself for not doing this, but I wanted to top with some crumbled feta (I could add feta to anything), I think it would be a nice compliment to the flavor. Any cheese would work if you would like that, but it really doesn’t need it.
• I might try flat bread next time. There is a lot of flavor in the chicken that I think it can handle a more substantial bread/wrap.
• We might try to add some kind of veggie to add a different texture – possibly red or green peppers or possibly even celery (maybe).

These were SO easy – I love those meals. The sauce really isn’t all that spicy and the ranch helps to tame it, but it does get a bit more spicy the more you eat. You can find extra mild buffalo sauce if you are particularly bashful of spicy things.

Chicken Ranch Taco's

We are huge fans of Taco’s in our house – a post to come I’m sure – we usually just do the Plain Jane ground beef but we spiced it up a bit last night. I would say it was a success.

Chicken Ranch Taco’s

Ingredients:

1 box hard taco shells (the Stand N Stuff one’s work perfect for this)

3 C cut up deli rotisserie chicken

1 pkg taco seasoning (due to the fact that we hate this – we substituted 1 tbs  Montreal steak seasoning – our favorite)

3/4 C ranch (I made homemade Café Rio-esque dressing – divine! Find here)

 Any desired toppings: cheddar cheese, lettuce, salsa, extra ranch, tomatoes, jalapenos, etc.

Directions:

Heat oven to 325 and heat shells as directed on the box.

Coat chicken with seasoning and microwave until hot – stir in dressing (you can do this before you head it up as well if you want it all warm)

Spoon chicken mix into taco shells and top as desired (I topped with cheese and put back in the oven to melt it before adding the other toppings)

Enjoy!

These are super easy – even with making the dressing and cutting up the chicken it took maybe 35 min start to finish.

Not Quite but Close

This isn't an exact duplicate of the Cafe Rio dressing - but it is close enough for me and we love it (thanks to Amy for perfecting this for us).

Sometimes I think I could just drink this – it makes everything taste better and is actually a danger to have in the fridge. But man do I love it.

Café Rio-esque Dressing

Ingredients:

3 tomatillos

1 jalapeno

1 packet Ranch dressing mix

1-2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp paprika

Cilantro to taste

Directions:

In a blender, blend the tomatillas and then strain the juices out.

Add everything else and blend until smooth.

Due to the produce in this – you may have to adjust the amounts according to taste.

South of the Border Wannabe

I'll be the first to admit this isn't a totally original idea (think Cafe Rio), but I made it my own and wasn't really trying to copy anyone.

The other night I made pulled pork (my FAVORITE meat - recipe here) and I separated some out before adding our BBQ sauce.

With this plain pulled pork I decided to make:

SALSA VERDE PULLED PORK BURRITOS

Prep Time: 10 min Cook Time: 35 min

Ingredients:

Pulled pork

Tortilla's (our favorite are the uncooked tortilla's that we can make fresh - I'll never go back!)

Salsa Verde (we like the Herdez kind - it is very mild and also pretty cheap - around $1.70 at Walmart) 

White Cheese (we used mozzarella but next time we want to use a stronger white cheese like jack cheese)



Directions:

Depending on how many servings you are making, get a rectangle baking pan (we like the small 7 X 11 but any pyrex, cake, brownie, etc. pan will work).

Fold the tortilla's like a taco to make them easy to fill.

Fill with pork, cheese, and sauce.

Wrap or fold the tortilla's so the edges are on the bottom.

Cover with more sauce and top with cheese.

Bake at 350 for 30 min and then broil for about 5 min or until the cheese is browned and bubbly

Serve on a bed of lettuce and top with ranch or salsa (or however you like it)

Ideas

• add jalapenos, pico de gallo, bean (yuck) or any thing else you might like into the burritos
• I am going to try a recipe for Cafe Rio type rice as well as their dressing