Fried Chicken Tacos, Mexican Rice & Salsa

I've fallen a bit behind on the blog due to coming down with a bad stomach flu which knocked me out for about a week. Then, it took a little while for me to come back to life and catch up on well, everything. It took even a bit longer for me to like eating again or even talking/thinking about food again too! So, here come the recipes and I'm starting with this one. This meal was fantastic and can't wait to make it again with different toppings/variations. It's some work but man it's worth it. Q also filled me in on a little family tid bit, that Sharon used to make taco shells much like this when he was growing up and he just loved it. I just love hearing new family stories on a whim like that. So yes you can omit frying your own shells but I'm tellin ya - it's worth giving it a whirl. We did it together so it made it that much more fun but we are silly like that. :-)

Fried Chicken Tacos

makes 8 servings

ingredients

• 1 tsp each of Chile powder & ground cumin

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 cup canola oil, plus 1 tbsp

• 1 to 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

• 3-4 roasted green chiles

• 16 small corn tortillas 

• 1.5 cups finely grated cheddar cheese

• plain greek yogurt or sour cream

• hot sauce

• 2 cups thinly sliced romaine letter

• 4 roma tomatoes, diced

directions

1. Mix the Chile powder, cumin and salt together in a small bowl.

2. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken and chiles for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken is mostly opaque. 

3. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken and cook for another 3 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

4. Wipe out the skillet and add 1 cup of canola oil over medium high heat. You can also use a different skillet if needed. 

5. Spoon some of the chicken mixture into (1/4 cup) a tortilla and using tongs grasp the tortilla closed and gently add the tortilla into the oil on it's side (you can also use a toothpick here to keep it closed as well or just use the tongs to keep it closed. Cook until golden brown only about 30 seconds, then flip over for another 30 seconds. You can do 2 or 3 at a time just be very careful when frying with oil as it could splatter on you during the process. When you remove the taco, using the tongs let the excess oil drip off and immediately place on a paper towel lined plate, put some cheese inside and wrap in a paper towel and set aside. Top with hot sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, Greek yogurt/sour cream and any other toppings you may like. They are ready to serve!

This recipe might sound intimidating but once you do one or two of them you will get the hang of it and it's nice if you have a helper like I did to assist when frying them. You could also omit making your own taco shells and pick up ready made taco shells but I bet they won't taste as good :-)! 

Mexican Rice

makes 6 servings

ingredients

• 2 tbsp canola oil

• 1 medium white onion, chopped

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 cups long grain rice (rinse with cold water)

• 10 oz can diced tomatoes

• 14.5 oz can whole tomatoes

• 1 hot green Chile, chopped

• 1 1/2 tsp cumin

• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

• chopped fresh cilantro

directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add the rice. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes stirring constantly to make sure the rice won't burn. Add rotel, tomatoes and spices and cook for 2 minutes, stirring. Add 2 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes until rice is done. Add more liquid if necessary, the rice should not be sticky. Top with cilantro for each individual serving.

I made this rice a month or so ago and it was definitely delicious, however, the recipe indicated it cooked within a short amount of time and it was way off for me. I had to triple the amount of time it needed to cook just to get the rice done all the way. I was using brown rice so I am not sure if that had anything to do with it. This time I used white rice and rinsed it prior to cooking with it. This has helped me in the past with cooking rice. This time around I didn't have anymore rotel around so I just used diced tomatoes and one hot green Chile which proved to be plenty of heat.

Hot & Spicy Salsa

ingredients

• 14.5 oz can whole tomatoes

• 10 oz can Hot Rotel

• 1/4 large red onion, roughly chopped

• 1 fresno Chile, roughly chopped

• 1 garlic clove, smashed

• 1/4 tsp each of sugar, salt & ground cumin

• Juice of half of a lime

• handful of cilantro (stems and all)

directions

Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until blended to the consistency that you like your salsa. 

Enjoy!