Chicken Tacos

Greetings blog readers! I feel like I’ve been a little behind on my blogging lately, but I’m back today with a great recipe for chicken tacos.

I love this recipe because it incorporates three of my favorite things: a crockpot, laziness and Pepper Jack cheese. Plus the tacos are relatively low-fat and taste great with a Corona. My main squeeze told me that these tacos were better than the version served at our local Mexican restaurant so I will take that as a big old compliment. Now if I can just learn how to make pizza we’ll really be in business! So, anyone have any good pizza recipes?

Chicken Tacos

16 oz container salsa

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
15 oz can black beans
1 package of 6" corn tortillas
Sliced Pepper Jack cheese
Tomatoes, chopped
Avocado, chopped

1. Place chicken, salsa and black beans in crockpot. Cook on low for about 8 hours or on high for about 5 hours (adjusting temperature as needed for frozen chicken).
2. Using a gas stovetop, char the tortillas slightly by placing each one individually on a burner for a few seconds until it's slightly blackened around the edges. Please use caution when doing this and watch your tortillas closely to make sure they don't go up in flames!
3. Make the tacos by layering the tortillas with the cheese on the bottom, followed by the chicken mixture with the tomatoes and avocado on top.

Enchilade Fiesta!

We've had a recent tragedy here in our happy neighborhood.....our local Tex-Mex restaurant has closed.  Gasp, oh no! Some of you non-city dwellers might be thinking, "So what?! You live in NYC, you have tons of options." And, you would be right BUT you just don't really understand unless you've been faced with walking 10 blocks in a freezing, driving rain for a measly enchilada and cheap margarita.  So, I've decided that instead of torturing myself with a painful walk, I'll just figure out how to make my favorites at home so that we won't miss feel the loss quite so much.  Thus, I bring you today's recipe for low-fat turkey, black bean and corn enchiladas. We had ours with chips & salsa, Mexican beer and salad (I accidentally bought the Asian salad so our dinner was Mexican-Asian fusion, oops).

Dinner came out great and we had a nice little mid-week fiesta plus we've also got a freezer full of margarita concentrate so I'm seriously considering inviting the neighbors and charging admission to our living room.

Turkey, Black Bean & Corn Enchiladas

1 turkey tenderloins, cooked and shredded

1 10 oz. can enchilada sauce

1 15 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed

1 15 oz can corn, drained

1 4.5 can chopped green chiles

8 6 inch corn tortillas

1 c. low-fat Mexican style cheese

Low-fat sour cream or Greek yogurt, to taste

1 avocado, chopped

1. Mix shredded turkey with black beans, corn and chiles.  Can be made in advance and stored in fridge overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 7 x 11 inch casserole dish.  Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and microwave for 30 seconds or until warm.
3. Assemble enchiladas by putting a heaping spoonful of turkey mixture on the side of tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and place in casserole dish seam side down.
4. Pour sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining ½ cup of cheese.  Cover with foil and bake until bubbly (about 45 minutes). Garnish with sliced avocado and lowfat sour cream or Greek yogurt if desired.

Then do your Casa Bonita happy dance:

 
image via examiner.com