Chicken Tacos

I am taking a quick break from Giada to share one of my favorite recipes. It came about through a lot of trial and error and picking bits and pieces from lot of food network shows. This is another recipe that I think Keith would have me make every day if he had his 'druthers'.

I start out boiling the chicken. I like to use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, because they are pretty cheap, but still only white meat. I've never been much of a dark meat fan.

 In the pan with the chicken, I add a quartered onion, a few garlic cloves, peeled and halved, a bay leaf, dried chipotle peppers (1 or 2), salt, cumin, and whatever else I happen to feel like adding. I add enough water to cover most of the chicken, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for an hour or so.

This is what it looks like after it has simmered for awhile. At this stage, I take the pan off the heat and let it cool enough to put in the refrigerator. You can either go ahead with the chicken tacos right away, or save this little concoction in the refrigerator to make the next day, if you're planning ahead.

 When I decide I'm ready for tacos, I fish the chicken out of the broth, strain the broth and save it for soup, and shred up the chicken. In a frying pan, I sautee about half an onion in olive oil and then add the shredded chicken. To the chicken, I add some of Lawry's chicken taco seasoning. I usually use about half a packet since I am only cooking for 2. To this I add some water and let it cook for a few minutes, then I chop up about a cup of cherry or grape tomatoes and add them to the chicken mix, just cooking until they are heated through.

I couldn't figure out how to flip this picture, so you'll have to turn your head sideways for a minute. The picture below shows the real secret ingredients that help make these chicken tacos amazing. The green package is ducal refried black beans. They are from Guatemala and they are amazing. You can actually find them in the US now, at some Mexican grocery stores. Along with these beans is an avocado and some fresh cilantro from my garden. Ok, true confession- this is actually parsley, because it was what I had handy on my counter when I was snapping the picture. I would never put parsley on tacos, though. Cilantro is much better.

 We use whole wheat tortillas from Trader Joe's. Some day I might dedicate a whole section of this blog to the products I love from Trader Joe's. Keith likes crunchy shell tacos, so he usually has those. Here is the finished product:

The Christmas plate is a whole other story for another day. Looking at this picture is making me so hungry, so I had better sign off and go find something to eat. More Giada coming soon. I have already made 2 more recipes, but I need to find where I stored the photos on my computer..