Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken for Tex Mex Dishes

Street Cart Tacos with Cilantro Lime Rice and Charro Beans

It's okay to be jealous.  I ate everything on that plate last night and fell asleep in a completely blissful Tex Mex coma, and it was everything I hoped it would be and more.  You, too, can have such an amazing dinner on a week night, after work, with about 10 minutes of prep time the night before (or the morning of), and 30 minutes of cooking time when you get home from work (to make your sides and heat up your tortillas because the chicken was finished before you got home), but it will appear to your husband or guests that you took the day off and slaved over a hot stove for 10-12 hours just for them.  And, you can let them believe that, totally.  I won't tell.  Go for it!  ;o)


I developed this recipe from one I found on Pinterest.  I basically took a "cilantro lime shredded chicken" recipe and changed it up a bit not only to suit my own Tex Mex loving tastes, but because taco seasoning packets are not only terrible for you (picture ingesting the stuff that comes in your shoes that you take out and throw away because the little packets tell you not to ingest), but they are pretty much as far from "authentic" Tex Mex as you can get.  It's like eating canned salsa from New York City.  New York City?  Yeah, that's right.  I went there.  Don't get me wrong.  I've had great "Tex Mex" as far north as Idaho, but there is still a difference between what other states refer to as "Tex Mex" and what Texas refers to as Tex Mex.  I'm not "doggin'" your state "brah", I'm just letting you know that my definition of Tex Mex refers to what San Antonio and south Texas calls Tex Mex.  There are even some Tex Mex places here in the DFW area that don't live up to my "Tex Mex Snob" standards.


Side note: I also find that most Pinterest recipes don't ever have enough garlic, so my rule of thumb, unless the recipe calls for 10 cloves of garlic because the writer of that blog also shares my obsession with garlic, I tend to double or triple the garlic content, and for this particular recipe I was basing mine off of, which had ZERO cloves of garlic (I know, right?! I about passed out when I saw that!), I immediately made a mental note to pretty much throw in an entire bulb.


So, back to the task at hand: getting awesome San Antonio Tex Mex flavor regardless of where you are in the world.  


Every good Tex Mex dish starts with a well-seasoned meat.  Once you have a well-seasoned meat, you can create anything from street cart tacos to natchos, quesadillas, and enchiladas.  The combinations are endless at that point.  But, it's important to note that the fresher your ingredients, the better-seasoned and flavorful your end product will be.


For this dish, you will need chicken, fresh salsa, fresh pico, fresh cilantro and garlic, a lime or two, and a handful of seasonings.  I do not condone the use of canned salsa in my home (unless we're having a large group of people over and I don't have time to make any or the market is out of their own fresh salsa) because I personally find fresh salsa to be way more mind-blowingly good than the mass-produced stuff, whether it's produced in San Antonio or Seattle, Washington.  Plus, fresh salsa is super easy to make.  Remind me again in a month or so and I'll create a post dedicated to the art of salsa-making because there are so many different combinations and styles you can make.  

Everything you need to make shredded chicken in a slow cooker!

But, with all that said, if you have to buy a canned salsa because you either don't want to or know how to make fresh salsa or because your market doesn't make salsa, make sure to choose a canned salsa that you know and love.  You can even change the flavor of this chicken depending on the style of salsa you choose: salsa fresca (uncooked, just pureed) is going to taste completely different than a fresh or canned fire-roasted salsa.


As for pico, if your market doesn't carry fresh pico de gallo, find a new market.  Kidding!  I know markets carrying fresh salsa, pico, and guacamole are often hard to find once you find yourself out of the south or southwest.  Pico is super easy to make yourself--just grab a large, yellow onion, a couple tomatoes, a couple jalapeno peppers, a handful of cilantro, and a little lime juice; mix it all together, and there you have it!  Bonus!  Two "recipes" for the price of one!


Once you have all of your ingredients ready, layer it all in the slow cooker.  By the way: to make this recipe as is, you will need to break out the large slow cooker, not the one you use to make appetizers and dips.  You will need the, "I'm cooking for 12 people" slow cooker.

Here is my slow cooker completely packed with yummy goodness!

Once everything is layered and ready, you can either put a lid on it and store it overnight in the refrigerator (which is what I do because I cannot sleep through the night when deliciousness is cooking in the slow cooker), or if you are putting this together in the morning, you can go ahead and throw it into the slow cooker and start the 10 hour cooking process.


After those devilishly-long 10 hours are over, you can shred the chicken with two forks or a fork and a set of tongs.  After the meat is finished cooking and it's been shredded, the rest is up to you!  


You can simply throw this chicken into a bowl, sprinkle some cheese on top and attack it with tortilla chips (which is what I did to "taste" it yesterday).  You can throw the chicken into doubled-up corn tortillas, add your favorite toppings, and have tacos.  You can put it in flour tortillas, sprinkle with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese and have your own "Taco Tuesday" (for all my Rosa's Tortilla Factory-loving friends out there).  You can use this chicken as the base for enchiladas.  You can mix in cooked rice and stuff bell peppers with the chicken, sprinkle with cheese and bake them for stuffed peppers.  You can place it between two flour tortillas with cheese and make a quesadilla.  


If you haven't figured it out yet, you can pretty much make any kind of Tex Mex chicken dish with this pot of goodness.  If you have any questions though regarding what would be good or not so good to make with this recipe, feel free to ask it in the comments, and I'll be happy to steer you one way or another!

The finished product! Drooling yet?

Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken (for Tex Mex dishes)


Ingredients

 -  1 pkg.         Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

 -  1 pkg.         Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs

 -  24 oz.         Fresh Salsa

 -  8 oz.           Fresh Pico de Gallo

 -  1 med.        Lime, juiced

 -  ½ cup         Fresh Cilantro, chopped

 -  4-6 cloves   Fresh Garlic, chopped

 -  3 lg. tsp.     Garlic Powder

 -  3 lg. tsp.     Onion Powder

 -  2 lg. tsp.     Chili Powder

 -  1 lg. tsp.     Ground Cumin

 -  1 lg. tsp.     Cayenne Pepper

 -  To Taste     Cracked Black Pepper (no need to add salt to this recipe)

      Directions

      -  In a bowl, mix together garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, fresh cracked black pepper, and fresh chopped garlic cloves.  

      Note: for these seasonings, you can use as much as you like.  Because I don't like Cumin and Chili Powder and much as I like Garlic and Onion, I toned those two back, but you can use as much as 3 full teaspoons of each seasoning.  Also, when I say "large teaspoon", I mean heaping, not a leveled-off teaspoon.  We're not measuring baking soda for cookies here, we're making stewed chicken.  :)

      -  Place some pico on the bottom of the slow cooker.

      -  Place the chicken breast on top of the pico in a single row and cover with some more pico, salsa, and seasonings mixture.    

      -  Layer the thighs on top, and cover with the rest of the pico, salsa, and seasonings mixture.

      -  Add the fresh cilantro and lime juice on top, cover, and cook on low for 10 hours.

      -  Once the ten hours is up, take the lid off and shred the chicken with two forks.

Simple Balsamic Reduction

Warning:  This recipe will make your entire house smell like balsamic vinegar for a good couple of days.  I did not have a problem with this (and actually liked it, myself), but it gave my husband a headache to the point he set up box fans throughout the house and left until the smell had completely vanished.

What an introduction, right?!  I bet everyone will want to make a nice balsamic reduction now!  Oh well, you can't say I didn't warn you.

A balsamic reduction is just a fancy way to say "sweet balsamic vinegar sauce."  It's simple to make with just two ingredients (vinegar and sugar) and absolutely delicious on a number of different things.  I use a balsamic reduction on savory foods like bruschetta and chicken pasta dishes and as a sauce for desserts like chocolate cake, ice cream, fresh fruit (berries are especially nice), and cheesecake.

Thick and delicious balsamic reduction sauce

Simple Balsamic Reduction

Ingredients
1 bottle of (good) balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)

Directions
- In a sauce pan over high heat (8 or 9 on a dial), pour in the entire bottle of balsamic vinegar and whisk until it begins to boil
- Once it begins to boil, turn the heat down to medium (about 4 on a dial) and whisk in sugar
   Note:  As I mentioned above, the sugar is to taste.  I personally like a full 3 tablespoons in mine, but I've come across so many reduction recipes that vary between 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, all the way up to 4 tablespoons, so try different measurements and see which amount works best for you!
- Continue whisking until the vinegar is reduced by half and becomes a thick syrup (coats the back of a spoon)
- Once it reduces by half, turn off the burner and let the reduction cool

Roasted Tomatoes

Roasting tomatoes may take the good part of a day, but it's so worth it.  Roasted tomatoes are good on all kinds of things from salads and bruschetta to pizzas and sandwiches.  Sure, you can go to a grocery store and probably find roasted tomatoes in the deli or (heaven forbid) canned, but I promise you, roasting them yourself will not take too much effort and will make all the difference in your recipes that call for them.

This was my first attempt at roasting tomatoes.  Let me caution you against slicing the tomatoes too thin.  Thinly sliced tomatoes will burn before they roast.  The first time I made this recipe below, I failed two times before finally getting it right!

Though they look nice now, I promise you after 2 hours in the oven, they were
black and  shriveled.  This is an example of what NOT to do!  

So, back to what TO do, now that we have a visual of what NOT to do to have the best roasted tomatoes ever!


Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients
10+ Roma Tomatoes
EVOO
Fresh Ground Salt and Pepper
Optional: Herbs of your choosing
Optional:  Balsamic Vinegar

Directions
- Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees F
- Lightly grease / spray with cooking spray a large cookie sheet that has a small lip (like a jelly roll pan)
- Gently wash and dry the tomatoes, then cut them in half, lengthwise and place them on the pan cut-side down
- Drizzle EVOO (and balsamic vinegar should you choose to do so) generously over the tomatoes
- Using your salt and pepper grinders, crack fresh sea salt and black pepper over the tomatoes
- Finish with sprinkling the tomatoes with dried herbs
  Note: For italian dishes, I like to sprinkle dried basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme, but you can sprinkle any kind of herbs/spices to coordinate with your recipes (chipotle seasoning, cayenne pepper, etc.)
- After you have seasoned your tomatoes to taste, pop them into the oven for about 6 to 8 hours.
  Note:  I like to check mine every hour just to make sure everything looks good.  If your tomato sizes vary, you may need to pull out the smaller ones around 6 hours.  Once you pull the smaller tomatoes out, you can flip the larger tomatoes over to finish cooking.