Shredded Chicken Tacos

When you live in New Orleans, Mexican food is hard to come by. After searching for days for a place that had tacos, I came up short. So, I thought I would take it upon myself to bring Mexican food to my New Orleans' kitchen. This may not be true Mexican food, but it definitely fills the gap of what I have been missing since living here. 

While some of my recipes may take some skill and precision, I can assure you that this is one of my easiest recipes that I will ever post... Unless I make cereal ;-). This can even be a meal where you can set it before work and it's done when you come home. In order to make the chicken for the shredded chicken tacos, you only need three things... 

Chicken, taco seasoning, and a Crock-pot. 

To make things even easier, I used frozen chicken and it works just the same. To start, throw 4-6 chicken breasts into the crock-pot along with the entire packet of seasoning. Once those two are in the crock-pot, add 2 cups of water and turn your crock-pot on low. This will cook for 6-8 hours. I like to check on my chicken every couple of hours just because I am antsy. 

After 2 hours...

After 4 hours... I like to flip my chicken halfway through just so everything cooks evenly.

After 7 hours...

Once time has elapsed, bring each chicken breast into a big bowl. Try to bring as little water with the chicken as you can.

Start shredding the chicken with two forks.

Once completely shredded, this is what your bowl should look like.

Now that all your chicken is shredded, you can start to make your tacos.

I dressed my tacos with shredded cheese, salsa, jalapenos, and guacamole. I will be posting my recipe for guacamole soon. For this recipe, I only used four chicken breasts and Patrick and I had a ton left over. Shredded chicken can be used for so many different meals. We have already decided to use the leftovers for chicken nachos for tomorrow night's dinner. 

Recipe:

Ingredients

4-6 chicken breasts, thawed or frozen

1 packet of taco seasoning

2 cups of water

Tortillas

Shredded cheese

Shredded lettuce

Chopped onions

(Or whatever toppings you decide)

Directions

1. Place the chicken breasts in a crock-pot on low. Add water and keep covered for 6-8 hours.
2. If you feel necessary, turn chicken halfway thru.
3. Once time has surpassed, remove the chicken breasts into a large bowl. Begin shredding the chicken with two forks. 
4. Place chicken in tortillas and add your toppings.

Crunchy Baked Onion Rings

Once in awhile, I try to take some of my favorite unhealthy foods and make them semi healthier. What better snack to try and start with than onion rings! With this favorite, I was also able to incorporate potato chips which is a small, unhealthy addiction of mine. You can pick almost any flavor of potato chips for this recipe! Add spices to be creative and make new flavors of onion rings. I chose to use a store brand bag of spicy potato chips to give my onion rings a little kick.


Recipe:


Ingredients
4 cups of spicy potato chips
2 large white onions, peeled
1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour plus 2 tablespoons
Cooking spray


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450º.
2. Slice onions into 1/2 inch circles. 
3. Finely chop the potato chips.
4. In a bowl, add milk and 2 tablespoons of flour. Whisk together until smooth. 
5. In a separate bigger bowl, combine the sliced onions and the rest of the flour until every slice is covered. 
6. One by one, add an onion slice into the milk mixture and then immediately into the chopped chips. Make sure chips completely coat every slice. After coated, add each onion slice to a greased baking pan. After each slice is moved to the pan, lightly apply cooking spray evenly to each onion ring. Cook for 20 minutes or until rings are golden brown. 

Shrimp Tacos with Traditional Toppings

After living in New Orleans for just over a month now, I decided that it is about time that I start making more seafood. A market down the street brings in fresh seafood daily and I thought that I would take full advantage of it. So, from looking at the fresh crawfish, lobster, etc., I decided to start off easy. I picked shrimp, so I grabbed a couple pounds and took off. Preparing the shrimp was fine until I had to devein. Word to the wise, if you are doing something simple like fish tacos, buy the peeled and deveined kind. It will certainly make dinner and cleanup much easier.

While I would have chosen to make a fresh mango salsa or guacamole to top these tacos, the fiance is extremely picky. So, if you check back at more recipes and say, "Darn it Heath, you could have spiced that up," just know that more likely than not, I wanted to. That aside, today I went with the basic toppings for a regular taco, but decided to semi-fry the shrimp. 

If you want to get to this,

you have to start with this...

A little wine for yourself, but for cooking, you may need some of this...

 (along with with a couple of other ingredients)

To start, season your shrimp with salt and minced garlic. Add just enough lime juice to completely cover each piece of shrimp. Set aside to marinade for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat up a frying pan and to start grilling the onions. Add whatever spices you like. I chose to use sea salt and a lemon and black pepper seasoning.

Once the time has surpassed for the marinading of your shrimp, drain the lime juice. Immediately add breadcrumbs to each side of the shrimp. Keep in mind that you are not using a sticking agent, so breadcrumbs will not completely hold. Warm the olive oil in a pan then gently add each piece of shrimp. I used the same pan I used for the onions so I could incorporate the onion flavor into the shrimp.

Let the shrimp cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until the bottom turns golden brown. Once done, add your shrimp, onions, cheese, and lettuce to your tortillas. I chose to side these tacos with a basic salad of romaine lettuce and cucumbers. Enjoy! 

Recipe:

Ingredients

10-15 pieces of shrimp, peeled and deveined

4 teaspoons of salt, divided

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 limes

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon of lemon and pepper seasoning

1 onion, chopped

1 cup of breadcrumbs

1 cup of cheese, shredded

1 cup of lettuce, shredded

tortillas

Directions

1. Marinade shrimp by adding garlic, sea salt, and juice of the limes. Set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Grill onions over medium head. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and the lemon and pepper seasoning.
3. Drain the juice from the shrimp and cover the shrimp with breadcrumbs. Gently add the shrimp to a pan over medium heat. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
4. Stuff the tortillas with the shrimp, cheese, grilled onions, and lettuce. 

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Spinach

Ingredients

1 box(13.25-oz.) rotini pasta

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

2 cups of milk

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

2 cups of cheese(I used cheddar) shredded and split into 1 1/2 cups and 1/2 cup

1 package of frozen or dried spinach.

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. If using frozen spinach, thaw and drain. Once dried, chop and set aside.
3. Cook pasta until al dente and set aside.
4. In a large saucepan, melt butter on medium heat. Once butter is melted, add flower and whisk constantly until smooth. Gradually whisk in milk and cook until thick(~5 min.). Remove from heat and stir in spinach, salt, pepper, and 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Dump over pasta and stir.
5. Spread pasta mixture into a greased baking dish. Top with the remaining cheese.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese starts to brown.

***For lighter option: Use skim milk or even 2%, reduced fat cheese, and instead of using butter, heat milk first and whisk in flour until smooth.