A MI ME GUSTA TACOS CON POLLO

With all the tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onions in the farm box how could we not make our chicken tacos.  We changed them up a bit this time and added some ancho chili powder and some smoked paprika.  It was a great success (say with Borat accent). We've made this in the past but it was so much better this time with the local fresh produce.  Seriously!

The tomatoes might look ugly but they taste pretty. 

Ingredients:

Disclaimer:  I made up this recipe and I don't measure my spices so I have no clue how much you should use. Sorry!

Oil (I used Canola)

4-5 Tomatoes, diced

1 Onion, diced

2-3 Jalepenos, finely diced

3-4 Cloves of Garlic, minced

4 Chicken breasts (we buy bone-on and then remove the bone)

5 limes

Cumin

Smoked Paprika

Ancho Chili Powder (chili powder if you want, but your missing out)

Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

Cilantro

Lettuce

Asiago Cheese (shredded, but do it yourself)

Manchengo Cheese (shredded, but do it yourself)

Okay, let's get started.  Heat up a couple of Tbls of oil in a dutch oven.  I used Big Blue!  She's a real beauty. 

Throw in the onions, garlic, jalepenos and tomatoes and let the tomatoes stew.  About. 6-8 minutes.  Stiring occasionally. 

Now that the tomatoes have released their juices we can start adding some flavor.  Now it's time to add the salt, pepper, cumin, ancho chili powder, and smoked paprika.  Give it a taste, if it tastes like tacos BRAVO!  If it doesn't then add some more cumin.  Be generous with your spices as this makes a lot of tacos.  Simmer for a couple of minutes. 

Bring on the citrus.  Squeeze the juices of 5 limes into the mixture.

 

Place the chicken in the pot.  Cover it and put it in the oven at 375 degrees for an hour and 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and shred the chicken in the pot using two forks. 

Put it back in the oven for 10 minutes and let the shredded chicken soak up the juices.  Remove from the oven , let cool for 10 minutes and assemble your tacos as you wish.

WAIT IT'S NOT OVER YET.  MAKE A TACO SALAD USING YOUR LEFTOVERS!  The only thing better than these chicken tacos is leftover chicken tacos. 

Muy Bien!

PICKED A PECK OF PURPLE PEPPERS....

We made stuffed peppers tonight with some amazing purple and green peppers, tomatoes all from the farm box, along with fresh herbs, onion, and my very first home ground chicken! 

We always buy chicken on the bone because it's cheaper by the pound and is so much better when roasted with the bone on skin on, but for tonight, I used my sharp MAC knife and boned, skinned, and yes..oh yes, I even ground it myself using a sweet meat grinding attachment that my very much appreciated in-laws gave to me for Christmas...thank you again!

 

 

Made a tomato puree by blanching four tomatoes then quickly getting them into an ice bath.  You blanch them to get the skins to release to make for easy peeling.  To start the process, score a cross into the bottom of the tomatoes before you throw them into the boiling water, after 35 seconds get them into the bath, let them cool, peel the skins, core, cut in half get the seeds out, and squish them in your hands into a bowl until they resemble a puree.

A teaspoon or so each of fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, and basil finely minced

I've never really seen a purple pepper, but there it is...right there and it seems to be a little thinner skinned than the green

Mix together one chopped onion (or in this case, three little farm box candy onions), three cloves of minced garlic, 1 cup of cooked rice and the fresh herbs that we chopped earlier.   Oh and salt and pepper of course!

Side bar:  I don't like minute rice...and neither does anyone else. 

The only reason anyone eats minute rice is because it's easy..

.well you know what, cooking great rice is easy too...

.2/1 ratio of water to rice, bring to a boil and simmer for

40 minutes with the lid on.  Do that first and finish everything else

 while the rice is cooking...it's worth it...

the taste and texture of good long grain brown rice

 cannot even be approached by minute rice...shame on you uncle ben!

I fill each pepper with the stuffing and top with some of the mashed up tomatoes that we blanched earlier. Top with the puree and into a pot.  I filled with water so that it comes about 1/4 of the way up the peppers, cover with foil and bake for about 30-40 minutes

Onto the plate...it's tough to get them to stand, but boy were they good!