Love to Learn: June 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Okay, this is the last recipe for this week. Now y'all can go to the grocery store and think about what you've done. Next week, we'll be doing a bunch of Eastery recipes, so get your pretty little heads ready for springy yumminess.

Now...this isn't like the thick chicken tortilla soup that they have at Chili's; it's brothier (is that a word?) a la Cafe Rio or Costa Vida. It's full of fresh, nutritious ingredients and we actually prefer it to traditional chicken soup at our house when we're stuffed up because of the garlic, lime, and the spiciness that the jalapenos add, helping clear our heads. And now you get to use all the little tricks I posted earlier in the week!

The lineup:

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 recipe Taco Chicken
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
4 cans chicken broth
1 15-oz. can chopped or diced tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers (if you're scared, try serrano peppers; they're milder)
1/4 c. fresh lime juice (3-4 limes). Don't even think of buying the stuff in a bottle.
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

TOPPINGS:

Store-bought tortilla strips, or 2-3 corn tortillas, plus oil for frying
Avocado
Grated cheese
1/4 c. cilantro

Early in the day, begin marinating the chicken. Right before you start preparing the soup, start grilling it.

In a large stockpot, heat some olive oil (I can tell you right now that you'll never hear the words EVOO from my mouth. Or my fingers.) over medium heat. Add chopped onion and saute 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and minced jalapeno and cook a few minutes more until pepper is softened and garlic is fragrant. Add chicken broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer 15-20 minutes.

While soup is simmering, juice the limes and set aside. Start preparing the toppings: grate the cheese, chop the cilantro, cut up the avocado, and fry the tortillas. Right before serving, add lime juice and chicken to the soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle soup into the bowls and add desired toppings.

Taco Chicken

Okay. I'm being a board hog today. I'm also craving Mexican food. One of the major diadvantages to living in the South is that there is very little in the way of good Mexican food, so I have to make it myself. I'll be posting a recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup on Friday, but I wanted to share some tips with you today as well as a recipe for chicken that you can use for anything--fill small flour tortillas with this chicken, some cheese, a little cabbage, guacamole, and pico de gallo, and you'll think you've gone to heaven. Make taco salads with this instead of ground beef. The best thing about it is that you probably have (or will have) all or most of the ingredients in your house and that it's EASY.

Here's the lineup (other than chicken of course):

Taco Chicken
Click to print recipe text only

1 lb. chicken breasts or thighs (I can tell you right now that I'm a breast girl and Sara prefers thighs.)
A couple of juicy limes
A splash of red wine vinegar
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or coarsely chopped
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Juice the limes and combine with a couple splashes of red wine vinegar. Add garlic. Pour over chicken. This will not completely cover the chicken; just turn it occasionally as needed. Marinate for at least 4 hours, no longer than 8.

Heat an outdoor grill (you can also use a grill pan inside. Or your broiler in your oven.) Combine salt, chili powder, cumin, and black pepper in a small bowl. Remove chicken from marinade and rub the spices all over the chicken. Isn't raw meat disgusting-looking?

Grill about 7 minutes per side.

Remove from heat and allow to stand a few minutes so it doesn't lose its juiciness. You can either eat the chicken as it is, maybe with Mexican rice and beans, or use slice it up and use it as you would taco meat.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Taquitos! Just in time for Cinco de Mayo. One of my pet peeves is when people say that a healthier version of a traditionally unhealthy food tastes just as good. When it obviously doesn't. "You'll never know it's light!" Ya, maybe if you've never tasted real food, but most of the time that's just crap. Anyone who has followed counsel of the diet books to make spaghetti with spaghetti squash instead of pasta knows what I'm talking about. So when I tell you that a lighter version of something really does match up to it's calorie-dense cousin, you can believe me! That's why I was pleasantly surprised when I made taquitos at home for the first time. The tortillas baked up nice and crisp, and I found spraying the tops with a little cooking spray and a pinch of salt helped them have that deep-fried flair. And actually, I prefer this baked version because the deep fried ones tend to get so chewy and oily. These are super easy to make and even easier if you prepare the filling ahead of time. You could experiment with all kinds of filling--shredded beef or pork would be great, too. This particular filling is something I came up with for an entirely different recipe but I thought it might work well as a taquito filling and I think I was right. My family gobbled these up.

Make them with some sides for a fun dinner or for appetizers or snacks at a party. Whatever you make them for, this is totally "fun food"! And if you're viewing this in a feed reader, come on over and check out our Daily Bite section that's full of links to more fun food!

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos
print recipe text only

1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 C green salsa
1T fresh lime juice
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions
2 C shredded cooked chicken (for extra yumminess, use grilled taco chicken!)
1 C grated pepperjack cheese

small corn tortillas (and actually, flour ones are really good as well)
kosher salt
cooking spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges.

Then roll it up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.

The ones pictured below are actually flour tortillas- which I found out I like just as well (maybe even better!) than corn ones.

Dip 'em in salsa, sour cream, guacamole, or this dressing.

I forgot to write down how many this recipe makes, but I remember being happy that it made exactly the amount of tortillas I had and I think that was 16. I'll make sure to double check next time I make them!

Wanna make it a meal?
Serve with a side of Black Beans and a simple green salad with Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing. Wash it down with some Brazilian Lemonade!

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing

While food bloggers accross the internet are going crazy this week with things like corned beef, chocolate stout cake, and anything with Bailey's, we here at Our Best Bites are taking a much simpler approach to St. Patrick's Day and sticking with things that are green :)

This is my knock-off version of a Costa Vida/Cafe Rio style dressing. I'm always getting asked for this recipe, so I finally wrote down what I do! There's millions of recipes out there for this type of thing and a lot of the good ones call for fresh tomatillos. However after experimenting quite a bit I decided I didn't like the fresh tomatillos. For one thing it's not something I have laying around my kitchen on a regular basis so I have to plan in advance to buy them. Then I didn't like the weird, watery texture they added to the dressing. So I started using a much easier subtitution: Green salsa. Green salsa is made primarily from tomatillos and other things like jalapenos, limes, etc. And it's different than "green sauce" like Pace for example. Make sure to check the ingredient list and see that tomatillos are listed as the top ingredient. See my note below about the different brands. This is stuff I always have around so I can whip it up any time the craving comes along. And it comes along often! I love love love this dressing. I totally dip my finger in it when it sits around in my fridge. But don't worry- if I ever invite you over for dinner I'll make a fresh batch. I promise :)

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Recipe by Our Best Bites

click to print recipe text only

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
ignore directions on the packet
1C mayo
1/2 C milk
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

This is tough folks. Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend 'er up. Sample it and add hot sauce to taste. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat. One of the most commonly seen brands is Herdez. Herdez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I've tried. Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking. There's no way I could put the whole 1/4 C in my dressing like the recipe calls for (but then again, I'm a wuss.) I like to buy La Costena (pictured below) because their medium is actually really mild. That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce. If you're not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you're getting into!

I use this on salads, and also as a dip for things like chicken fingers, veggies and steak fries.

Do you love Cafe Rio/Costa Vida type salads?

You've got all of the ingredients to make an Our Best Bites version right here. Start with a fresh homemade tortilla, layer on some lime-cilantro rice (pineapple optional) and black beans, then some crispy romaine lettuce. Top with either taco chicken or lime-chili steak, some fresh Pico de Gallo and guacamole and fried tortilla strips for the big finish. Smother it in this salad dressing or this vinaigretteand you've got a salad ready to send you to food heaven!

Mint Brownies*

Mint Brownies

Surprise! This is a little bonus post this week. And it's actually kind of a cheater post because technically this recipe is already on the site. This is my favorite mint brownie that my Mom has been making since I was a little girl. It's the brownie I turned into Peppermint Candycane Brownies on this site. Because those are holiday themed, I think they get skipped over in the index during the rest of the year, so I wanted to have a place where the plain ol' Mint Brownie could shine! I'm slipping them in today because I think it's a fun thing to make if you're looking for a treat for St. Patty's Day.

This recipe starts off with a super rich, fudgy brownie. Look at the ingredients in that picture; mostly eggs, chocolate, butter, and sugar with just a little bit of flour. That should tell you right there that this is one fudgy brownie!

You'll start by melting the chocolate and butter together.

And after you add everything else in and bake your brownies you want to let them cool to room temp before moving on. Once they've cooled you can whip up your peppermint frosting.

I spike it with quite a bit of peppermint because it's a very thin layer of frosting.

After the frosting is spread on evenly, you top it with another melted chocolate mixture

Pop them in the fridge, and once the chocolate is hardened, you can slice them up.

And how perfect are these for St. Patrick's Day? Ya know, because they involve the color green, not because they are in any way authentically Irish like thebread I posted yesterday!

I love little containers like this. You can find them at craft supply stores. Add a few stickers and a ribbon and you've got a darling little treat for your lucky leprechaun!

Mint Brownies
Recipe by Our Best Bites

Brownies:
4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate (4oz)
1 C butter (2 sticks)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1t vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 t baking powder

Frosting:
2 C powdered sugar
4 T butter, softened
1 1/2 t peppermint extract
1-2 T milk
green food coloring

Chocolate Glaze:
6 oz (about 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips ,you could also use dark
6 Tbs real butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 inch pan with foil making sure the foil extends over the edges by at least one inch. Lightly spray with non-stick spray and set aside.

Chop both unsweetened chocolate and two sticks of butter into chunks and place together in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted and smooth. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

With an electric mixer or stand mixer beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla for 2 minutes. While egg mixture is beating, measure out flour and combine with baking powder. While mixer is running, slowly add melted chocolate and beat to combine. Turn beater speed to low and add in flour by spoonfuls. Mix just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes or until a knife poked in center comes out clean.

Cool completely on a metal rack. When brownies have cooled to room temperature, prepare frosting. Combine all frosting ingredients, starting with 1 1/2 tablespoon of milk, and beat until light and fluffy. Add more milk by teaspoonful as needed. Spread frosting evenly over brownies and then place brownies in fridge to chill.

While brownies are chilling prepare chocolate glaze. Place chocolate chips and 6 tablespoons butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for about 15 minutes and then carefully spread on top of the frosting layer. Return pan to fridge to cool. When chocolate has hardened, use edges of foil to remove entire brownie from pan. Cut into squares and serve.