Tag Archive | mexican

Chicken Verde Enchiladas

Jun17

Chicken Verde Enchiladas are a super easy recipe that is deliciously creamy, satisfying, and kid-friendly. This is my go-to recipe to whip up when a friend has a baby or I’m asked to bring a main dish for a potluck. It transports easily and freezes and reheats so well. It’s also a great recipe for using up any leftover cooked chicken you have.

Plated Enchiladas

 

Chicken Verde Enchiladas
Makes 8 enchiladas

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 cup mushrooms, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken, shredded
  • 3 cups cheddar cheese, divided
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 (15.8 ounce) can Great Northern beans
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 (10.7 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 cup salsa verde (Find in the salsa aisle or Hispanic foods section of your supermarket)
  • 8 flour tortillas, taco size

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium-high heat skillet, sauté onions and mushrooms in olive oil for several minutes, until softened. Add minced garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes and remove from heat. Set aside.

Grilled onions, mushrooms, garlic

In a medium bowl mix together shredded chicken, 1 cup of the cheddar cheese, sour cream, beans, and pepper. Add the grilled onion and mushroom mixture and mix together. Set aside.

Filling

In another bowl, mix together cream of mushroom soup and salsa verde until creamy.

Salsa Verde

Spread a cup of the mixture onto the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish.

Casserole

Liberally fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture.

Filled tortilla

Roll up and place in the bottom of the casserole dish. Continue with remaining tortillas and filling mixture.

Enchiladas without sauce

Pour remaining mushroom soup/salsa verde mixture all over the filled tortillas.

Enchiladas without cheese

Top with remaining 2 cups of cheddar cheese.

Cheese on enchiladas

Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starts to brown.

Finished enchiladas

Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.

Plated Enchiladas

Chicken Tostadas

Jun11

I love TexMex and try to make it a TexMex night at least once a week. Chicken Tostadas are super tasty and a quick and easy dinner option. Paired with a guacamole salad or fiesta rice, a flavor-packed TexMex dinner can be on your table in 30 minutes or less! I always make extra of this tasty filling to have for lunch the next day, wrapped up in a burrito or as a taco salad.

chicken tostadas

Chicken Tostadas
Makes 12 chicken tostadas

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 8 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup chunky salsa
  • 1/2 packet taco seasoning
  • 1 16 ounce can refried beans
  • 12 tostada shells
  • 1 large tomato, diced
  • 8 ounces Mexican blend shredded cheese
  • 8 ounces sour cream
  • 1 jalapeño, diced optional

Directions:

Add olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat and sauté chicken and onion for 2-3 minutes or until chicken is mostly cooked but still a little pink.

Chicken and garlic

Stir in garlic cloves, salsa, and taco seasoning and cook for an additional 5 minutes to finish cooking the chicken and for the sauce to thicken.

Salsa chicken

Remove from heat.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the refried beans.

To assemble tostadas, spread a thin layer of beans on a tostada shell.

Beans on tostada

Add a few spoonfuls of the chicken mixture.

Chicken on tostada

Finish by topping with cheese, tomato, sour cream, and jalapeño. So easy and so yummy!

chicken tostadas

Easy Cheesy Steak Taquitos

May22

My boyfriend, Tom, has an unequaled love for taquitos. If he had to eat one meal for the rest of his life, taquitos would happily be on his menu. Unfortunately, the frozen variety are fried and filled with preservatives and all sorts of junk. While frozen are super quick and easy, homemade are actually almost as quick and easy but so much better for you and even better tasting. This is also a super kid-friendly meal so you can get your little helpers in the kitchen. My favorite thing about this meal is that you can use up leftovers to make them by substituting out the meat and veggies for practically anything you have that you need to use up.

Cover

Makes 12 taquitos

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small onion
  • 6 ounces steak, chopped into bite-size pieces
    • I used strip but you can use also use  flat iron, top sirloin, London broil, etc,
  • 1/2 cup of corn
  • 1 cup of Mexican blend cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onion
  • 1/2 cup salsa
  • 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
  • 12 (6-inch) flour or corn tortillas
  • 12 toothpicks
  • Sour cream, guacamole, or salsa for dipping, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium sauté pan, add olive oil and cook onion for 1-2 minutes on medium high heat. Add chopped steak and cook until no longer pink in the center. Remove from heat and allow to cool while you work on the rest of the filling.

Grilled steak and onions

In a small bowl, mix corn, cheese, green onion, salsa, and taco seasoning  until well blended.

Filling mixture, without steak and onions

Mix in the cooled onion and steak mixture.

Filling mixture

To ensure your tortillas are nice and pliable for rolling, wrap the tortillas in a couple damp paper towels and microwave on a plate for 30-45 seconds. This is also a great tip for taco and fajita night!

Working on a cutting board, lay out a tortilla and spread 3 heaping tablespoons of filling all over the tortilla.

Tortilla with filling

Roll up tightly, from bottom to top and fasten the seams with a toothpick. Continue rolling up the rest of the tortillas and then place on the baking sheet, about an inch apart.

Spray the tops of the taquitos with olive oil cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes, or until brown and nice and crispy.

Remove from baking sheet and cool for 5 minutes.

Don’t forget to remove the toothpicks before serving!
Plated Steak Taquitos

I serve with a side of Spanish Rice and little bowls of sour cream, salsa, or guacamole so guests can pick their favorite condiment. This will definitely be a huge hit and is also a great recipe idea for game day nibbles.

Rosa de Jamaica Hibiscus Tea

May9

While visiting my boyfriend’s family in Guatemala last Christmas, I fell in love with the most amazing drink, Rosa de Jamaica, or Hibiscus Flower Tea. In Spanish, it means the Rose of Jamaica. The drink it produces is tangy, fruity, and sweet, all wrapped up in a vibrant berry red color. It took only one sip to convert me to its magical powers and I was absolutely shocked to hear it was a tea made from flowers and not a local Kool-Aid of sorts.

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Turns out the hibiscus flower actually has many medicinal properties to it and is loaded with Vitamin C. Consuming hibiscus helps:

  • Digestion
  • Lower Blood Pressure
  • Coughs
  • Reduces the absorption of UV radiation in the skin
  • Slows hair loss
  • Slows hair turning gray

See, it is magic!

So delicious and definitely a drink I wanted to make back home. After consulting a few family members, I had the recipe in hand. I made a pitcher of it yesterday and it was like being teleported right back to Antiqua. So here’s the recipe:

Rosa de Jamaica

  • 1 cup hibiscus flowers* These can be found at most Latin or Asian supermarkets, tea shops, or you can buy them online. Below is what the loose flowers look like:
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  • 16 cups of boiling water
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 limes, quartered
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

1. Place hibiscus flowers, sugar, and spices in the bottom of a pitcher and add boiling water.

2. Squeeze in the lime juice and stir until well incorporated.Image

3. Let steep for 20 minutes.

4. Strain out the flowers and limes and chill.

Enjoy!

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I hope you’ll try this recipe! It’s also a fabulous mixer for cocktails. 🙂