Crockpot Mexican Chicken

From time to time, I get a craving for chicken tacos. Usually when we have taco night at my house, I cook up a pound of ground beef (for Dylan) and a pound of ground turkey (for me). That's good and all, but sometimes what I really want is a chicken taco. For some reason, I love fresh ingredients on my chicken tacos, so that's even more of a plus. But, alas, I have never really found a really good way to make taco-seasoned chicken. I did it really well once, but I used canned chicken, and found it more difficult to do with fresh chicken breasts.

So, imagine my amazement when, one day, I was surfing on Pinterest and found a recipe for chicken tacos. It only used three ingredients and was cooked in the crockpot. I followed the link and it lead me here. I decided to put it on my constantly-growing "cook this" list. Let, lemme give you the recipe and then I'll talk more about it. :)

Ingredients

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 envelope of taco seasoning
• 1 16 oz jar of salsa

Directions
Dump everything into a crock pot and give it a little stir to blend the seasoning with the salsa. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. When done, the chicken should shred easily when stirred with a fork.


My Take
Oh. My. Goodness. These were soooo easy and soooo amazing. I actually eyeballed everything as I only had 3 (albeit quite large) chicken breasts. That and I have one of those large taco seasoning jars, so I never buy the packets. I cooked it on low for 5 hours and then shredded the chicken and let it cook for another hour, letting the flavoring get in the chicken really well.


I actually just finished off 2 tacos and am thinking of going back for seconds. I may also make some tortilla soup with the leftovers or maybe make my Mexican casserole again but this time with chicken! Oh the possibilities! I haven't used my crockpot that much in the past, but that is totally going to change. :)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go stuff my face with more of this wonderful stuff.

Baked Buffalo Wings

I personally do not like buffalo wings. I think it's because of the hot sauce used in them, but whatever the reason, I've never been a big fan. Dylan, however, is. So when I came across this recipe for baking buffalo wings as opposed to frying them, I was intrigued. This was something I could make at home and it would be healthier than the fried version (not that Dylan cares. :p) The recipe that I'm going to give is the original recipe for 20 wings. I adjusted it for 8 wings (as that's all I had, since just one person was going to be eating them). Also, I did a few things that aren't in the original recipe, so after I do the recipe and "My Take", I'm going to post an adjusted recipe with all my changes (except for the serving size change). So, here we go!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 20 chicken wings
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®)

Directions

• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and lightly grease with cooking spray. Place the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt into a resealable plastic bag, and shake to mix. Add the chicken wings, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the wings onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
• Whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the wings into the butter mixture, and place back on the baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes. Turn the wings over halfway during cooking so they cook evenly.

My Take


As stated above, I don't like buffalo wings, so I didn't even try these. Just the smell of the sauce was just icky to me. But, I feed them to Dylan (my taste-tester) and he loved them. I was worried about them being soggy, but he said that the texture was perfect. I was also worried about them drying out, but he said they were fine.


So here's what I changed in the recipe to make them all good:

• I made sure that the wings were nice and dry by squeezing them with a paper towel before I dredged them in the flour mixture.
• Instead of cooking them on a baking sheet, I baked them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet to keep them out of the juices to keep them from getting soggy.
• Instead of immediatly putting the sauce on them, I first baked one side for 25 minutes, flipped them and cooked them an additional 25 minutes. Then I put the sauce on them and baked them for 5 additional minutes. 

I didn't change any of the ingredients, so I'll just list the "new" directions.

Revised Directions

• Squeeze and pat the chicken wings dry with a paper towel, making sure all excess moisture is gone.
• Mix the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt into a resealable plastic bag and shake to mix. Add the chicken wings, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the wings onto a baking sheet and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
• Spray a cooling rack with cooking spray and place over a cooking sheet. Place the wings on the cooling rack and place in the oven. Cook on one side for 25 minutes. Flip and cook for another 25 minutes.
• Whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the wings into the butter mixture and place back on the cooling rack. Bake for an additional 5 minutes. If desired, drizzle or coat the wings with remaining sauce.

As always, lemme know if you try out this recipe. Comments are always appreciated! :)

Southwest Chicken Wrap and Baby Update

Okay, so this "recipe" is really quick and easy to make. Sorry that I don't have exact measurements for some of the ingredients, but they are really up to taste. (You'll see what I mean when I get there) So first, the recipe, then, the gabbing. :)

Ingredients

• 1 can of canned chicken breast
• 1 can of corn
• 1 can of black beans, no sodium added
• Taco seasoning
• Fresh cilantro, finally chopped

Directions
Put everything in a bowl and mix together, adding taco seasoning and cilantro to taste.

My Take
Well, that was easy, wasn't it? And it's pretty healthy as well. If you're worried about adding too much taco seasoning, just start with a little bit at a time, mixing well and then doing a taste test. I personally like quite a bit of the flavor, so I add a good bit. As for the cilantro, I would err on the side of too little rather than too much. Cilantro, in my opinion, has a very strong taste, so you probably don't want to add too much, unless you really love the flavor it brings.

The best way to eat this, again, in my opinion, is to heat up the mixture and then serve it in a flour tortilla with sour cream on top. My mom, on the other hand, eats it cold. Either way works since the canned chicken is already cooked. You can probably come up with other toppings that would be delicious with it. Tell me about them!


Baby Lucy!
Today marks my halfway point in my pregnancy. It's crazy thinking that I'm already this far along. At this point, I'm getting really anxious about becoming a mother. I know that before I found out I was pregnant I was really wanting a child, but now I'm terrified that I don't have what it takes. Probably most first time mothers go through this stage of anxiety, but I dunno....sometimes you feel like you're the only one going through something. Selfishness, I guess.

She's been moving around a lot recently, more so tonight. Guess that's another thing I have to get use to. It's only going to get worse as she grows. lol

But, with all this anxiety, there also comes a sense of happiness and joy. Yes, it's coming from the fact that in about 20 weeks I'm going to have a baby girl, but it's also coming from the fact that I'm hoping to be a (mostly) stay-at-home mom. Because of finances and the like, I'll have to work some, but I'm hoping it'll only be 15 hours a week (3 hours a day, Mon-Fri). That's what my job is technically suppose to be, but I get more hours since I work out on the sales floor as well. This has me really excited 'cause my whole career aspiration right now is to be like Mrs. Beaver from Leave it to Beaver. I dunno, I've just always had this fantasy with me staying at home and raising the kids and cooking things from scratch. *sighs* How great would that be. What would make it even more amazing is if the house would just clean itself. lol.

Well, I'm going to call it a night, on the blogging front anyways. I think my next post is going to be showing my geekiness and be about video games. Let's see how many people I can scare away from my blog, shall we? lol.