Chicken Tequila Burgers

When I saw this recipe on Pink Parsley I knew my husband and I had to try it out – and I will tell you know this is one delicious and healthy burger! Oh, and remember my first recipe post that said I would teach you at a later date how to make your own ground chicken? Well, the time has come! I promise you this will be one burger you find very easy to make and mighty tasty!

Chicken Tequila Burgers

adapted from Pink Parsley

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, roughly chopped
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup parsley (or cilantro)
Juice of 1 lime
1 ½ ounces tequila
Dash of soy sauce
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
½ cup panko bread crumbs
½ teaspoon honey

Burger buns, brushed with oil and put on the grill for light marks
Sautéed peppers and onions (I buy frozen and just heat through to save time and money)

Instructions for cooking:

Process the garlic, parsley, and jalapeno in the food processor until finely chopped.

Cut the chicken breasts into chunks, and add to the food processor. Add the lime juice, tequila, soy sauce, honey, panko, salt, and pepper. Pulse until the chicken is uniformly ground and all the ingredients are well mixed. (Making your own ground chicken for this recipe saves you a ton of calories and fat. If you buy your own ground chicken at the store most likely the meat has extra stuff such as skin to add flavor to the meat but what you don’t realize is the additives also add fat and calories that boneless skinless chicken breasts don’t have.)

Form into 4 patties.Prepare grill, and grill 5-7 minutes per side, or until burgers are cooked through. Serve on toasted hamburger buns and topped with peppers and onions.

My husband added sliced white American cheese to the other burgers – they were good but next time I’d like to try sliced pepper jack cheese to add a little kick to the burgers. I also recommend serving this delicious burger with a margarita – it’s the perfect pairing!

Enjoy!

Om nom Chicken Enchiladas!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I bring you some of the best chicken enchiladas I’ve ever had! If you know my husband and me personally you know how much we LOVE Mexican food!! So with this holiday I took full-advantage of this enchilada recipe I’ve been holding onto for a couple of months now. And ya’ll, these enchiladas really do taste authentic. The home-made sauce is so simple you won’t believe it. I do have to say this is a time-consuming dish so I wouldn’t decide to make this dish at the last moment. I recommend making these with the fiesta rice recipe that is to follow.

My resident taste tester said he'd keep me around a little while longer if I continue to cook like this. I dare you to NOT make these tonight!!

Chicken Enchiladas
Adapted from Annie’s Eats

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped fine

2 teaspoon vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons mexican chili powder (or you can use plain chili powder – this will cut down on the heat level)

2 teaspoons cumin

1 ½ tablespoon sugar

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 cup water

1 tomato, seeded and chopped

Salt (and pepper if not using mexican chili powder)

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese, divided

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese, divided

½ cup minced fresh parsley (or cilantro)

12 (6-inch) soft corn tortillas

Cooking spray

Instructions for cooking:

Add oil to large saucepan and heat to medium. Add the onion and jalapeno to the heated oil. Cook, stirring often, until the onions and peppers are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and sugar, and cook just until fragrant, less than 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato sauce, water, and chopped tomato. Bring the sauce to a simmer, lower the heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Nestle the chicken into the sauce. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the chicken is completely cooked through to 160 degrees, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside to cool.

Strain the sauce through a large mesh strainer into a medium bowl, pressing down on the onions and tomatoes to extract as much liquid as possible. Transfer the reserved solids to a large bowl and set aside. Season the sauce with additional salt (and pepper if you aren’t using mexican chili powder) to taste.

Shred the chicken into bite size pieces and add to the bowl with the onion mixture. Add in ¼ cup of the enchilada sauce, ½ cup of each of the shredded cheeses, and the parsley. Stir to combine.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Oil a 13 x 9″ baking dish with cooking spray. Stack the tortillas on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 40-60 seconds, until warm and pliable. Spoon 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture evenly down the center of a tortilla. Roll up the tortilla around the filling tightly, and place in the prepared baking dish, seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining filling and tortillas.

Lightly spray the tops of the enchiladas with cooking spray. Place in the oven, uncovered, for 7 minutes (with mine I didn't feel like this was long enough so I'll add more spray and brown for 10 minutes) or until the tortillas start to brown slightly. (This is a big step...make sure they are browned so that they hold up to the suace.)

Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Remove the enchiladas from the oven and pour the sauce (reserving 1 tablespoon of the sauce for the fiesta rice!) over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is browned. Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for Fiesta rice!!

Margarita Grilled Chicken

It's spring time - and do you know what that means? It's grilling time! And my number one grilling item is chicken. So this brings me to one of my husband's favorite dish's from Chilis - Margarita Grilled Chicken. I'll admit it too - it's delicious! But honestly, it's so much better when you can make it at home.

Margarita Lime Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients

¼ cup tequila
½ cup olive oil
2 limes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium jalapeño pepper (or half of a large), ribbed, seeded and diced
Parsley, small handful chopped
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
Sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Instructions for cooking:

Combine the tequila, olive oil, jalapeno, garlic, parsley, dash of sugar, chili powder, salt and pepper in a bowl or zippered plastic bag. Zest one lime into the mixture then cut both limes in half and squeeze out all of the juice. Mix well; add the chicken breasts to the container. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least for 8 hours.

When you are ready to cook the chicken, heat a grill to 400 degrees. Take chicken out of refrigerator to take the chill off the meat. Once the grill is heated, cook the chicken until nicely browned and inside temperature of chicken is 180 degrees. Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Pioneer Woman's Chicken with Tomatoes and Garlic

Wow, oh, wow! Ya’ll, you HAVE to try this dish! If you don’t, you will never die happy. I’m just sayin’.

I came across Pioneer Woman’s website just last week. I usually cook only boneless, skinless chicken breasts but I can tell you now I didn’t know what I was missing. (Oh yeah, the calories!) The chicken and the garlic were like butter. I can and will promise you I will have many, many more of her recipes to share. This recipe will be on our menu for many years to come.

Chicken with Tomatoes and Garlic
Adapted from Pioneer Woman's Recipe
Serves 4

Ingredients

8 pieces chicken legs
Salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
1 can (28 Ounce) diced tomatoes
1 can (14 Ounces) whole tomatoes
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
8 cloves, peeled whole garlic
Cavitappi pasta (16 ounces)
½ Cup red wine (I used a Shiraz)
Grated parmesan cheese
Fresh Herbs:
Basil, handful of leaves
Parsley, handful of sprigs
Sage, handful of leaves
Oregano, handful of sprigs

Instructions for cooking:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and butter. Generously salt and pepper chicken legs. When oil/butter is hot, add chicken legs to the pan. Using tongs, brown on all sides, about 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.

Pour in wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits. Cook for 1 minute. Pour in tomatoes with their juice and add tomato paste. Add salt and pepper to taste, stirring to combine. Bring sauce to a boil, and then turn off heat. Add plenty of fresh herbs, 8 cloves of garlic, and the chicken legs. Put lid on pot and cook in the oven for 1 hour.

Remove pot from oven and allow it to sit on the counter with the lid on while you boil the pasta.

Cook the pasta to al dente, drain and add to a large serving bowl.

To serve, pour sauce over cooked pasta, and then arrange chicken pieces over the top. Sprinkle generously with fresh Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

And here is the husband’s bowl, “The Manly Bowl”…he said to tell everyone “See, it’s manly, it’s got cross bones!”

Chili Suizas Bake

I have around 5 or 6 Rachael Ray cookbooks – I do love to watch Rachael’s show but I must admit I haven’t found much recently that makes me want to jump up and run to the grocery store for items just to cook the meal immediately. However, my husband and I have several recipes that are a staple in our household.

The first being Rachael’s Chili Suizas Bake. I believe we saw this on her show in early 2008 and it literally had us salivating as we watched the show. I am not a huge fan of Salsa Verde (green salsa) but for some reason this recipe just spoke to me. I promise if you like Mexican-American food you will love this recipe! It is YUM-O!

I have made some changes to the recipe to suit our taste. Also, I've linked the original recipe in case you decide to try it Rachael’s way! (Which I will do from here on out when I feature a recipe – it is rare that I don’t change something in a recipe.)

Chili Suizas Bake
Adapted from Rachael’s Chili Suizas Bake

Ingredients:

2large/medium poblano peppers
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 pound ground chicken (You can make your own ground chicken and I will show you how in a later post)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
½ large onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 large or 10 medium to small tomatillos, peeled, rinsed and halved
1/8 cup parsley
½ - 2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoons honey
Salt and pepper
½ lime, juiced
¼ cup sour cream
Tortilla chips
1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese


Heat the broiler to high. Place the poblanos under hot broiler and char until blackened an all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Leave the door of the oven cracked to allow the steam to escape. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to cool enough to handle.

While peppers char, heat extra-virgin olive oil in a high sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and lightly brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in onions, jalapeno, garlic, cumin, coriander and chili powder and cook to soften onions about 5 minutes. While onions cook, place tomatillos and parsley in the food processor and process until smooth but slightly chunky. Pour the tomatillos into the chicken mixture and stir to combine. Stir in chicken stock and honey, season with salt and pepper and simmer chili 10 minutes.

When poblano peppers are cool enough to handle, remove seeds and chop, stir into chili. Add sour cream to the mixture and stir until completely incorporated. Remove chili pan from heat and stir in lime juice and transfer to baking dish. Cover the dish with cheese. Place under broiler until brown and bubbly. Spoon chili into dinner bowls and serve with chips. Enjoy!

Note: My husband and I both like ours to have a good bit of “sauce” to where it is soupy and the chips will sop-up the juices. If you don’t like this cut the stock back to a cup.