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.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Delicious Beef Stew perfect for Fall but who wants to wait?!

  
I do this every winter.  I dream of summer--of bathing suits, river trips, weekend boating, floating my cares away with a "pool noodle" and an ice cold beer.  But, as soon as the temperature hits close to 100 for the first time, I'm already wishing for Fall.  Pumpkins, Halloween, Crisp Cool Breezes, Scary Movies, "Fall Back" Time Change, Warm Stews, and Hot Spiced Wine!  See.  I'm doing it again.  The smells... the tastes... the fun of Fall!


To help get you in the Fall mood, I have for you a delicious stew recipe this week!  This is seriously one of my most favorite stews, which I found a while ago and modified from AllRecipes.com. 


This recipe calls for a lot of ingredients, and it could feed probably close to 10 people!  Instead of feeding tons of people, though, I just made it for me and the hubby and froze individual portions for quick, "there's nothing to eat" meals!


Without further ado, let's begin!  First, I gathered all of my ingredients together.

Lots of yummy ingredients... and yes I cheat a little.  I hate peeling potatoes!

Then, in a large plastic bag with flour, salt, pepper, and garlic, I tossed the stew meat, making sure to coat each piece.  While that was going on, I heated up a little oil in a skillet, so I could have somewhere to put all of this deliciously tasty stew meat.

I know, right?!  Looks super appetizing right now!

Once the meat was coated in flour, I browned the meat in the skillet and dumped it into the slow cooker with the carrots and potatoes.  At this point, you can also throw in any other seasonings you may want to include!  I just opt for garlic, and lots of it!  

Before the meat was added!

In a medium sauce pan, I heated up some water and beef stock.  Once it started to boil, I mixed in the dry onion soup mix and poured it over the meat and veggies.  And, in the same pan as I cooked the meat, I sauteed the onions until nice and caramelized.  

Of course, I added more garlic to the onions.  

Once the onions had softened, I dumped them into the slow cooker and used some wine to deglaze the pan, making sure to get all of the delicious crunchy bits of meat and onion up.  Then, I dumped that into the slow cooker as well, gave everything a good stir, and turned it on low.

Mmmmmmm deglazing pans with wine is fabulous!

After ten hours of cooking, the stew was perfect and ready to eat.  I ended up using a little extra flour to thicken up the stew 30 minutes before serving, but I'm sure it would be equally fabulous without the added flour.

That's right people.  I serve wine with my stew (and everything else)!

Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

-  3 lbs. Beef Stew Meat, cubed
-  ¼ cup Flour
-  TT*   Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder
-  8 oz. Baby Carrots
-  4 large Russet Potatoes, washed, peeled, and cubed
-  2 cups Boiling Water
-  ½ cup Beef Stock
-  1 pkg Dry Onion Soup Mix
-  3 tbsp Butter
-  ½ cup Red Wine (3 Dreams Merlot or Chandon Pinot Munier)
-  3 large Sweet Yellow Onions, sliced
-  ¼ cup Water, warmed
-  2 tbsp Flour
-  TT*        Fresh Garlic (minimum 4 cloves, minced), Parsley, Thyme

* TT means To Taste

Directions

-  Combine ¼ cup flour with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
-  In large plastic baggie, place meat and flour mixture; close baggies and shake until all pieces are coated
-  Heat oil (grapeseed oil or almond oil work best) in a large skillet over medium high heat, and add stew meat and cook until evenly browned on all sides
-  Transfer browned meat to slow cooker and add in the carrots, potatoes, fresh garlic cloves, parsley, thyme, and any other herbs you would like
-  In a small pan, heat water and beef stock until boiling, then remove from heat and add the dry onion soup mix
-  Once the soup mix is combined, pour the mixture over the beef in the crock pot
-  In the same skillet that you browned the meat, melt the butter and sauté the onions until softened then spoon into the crock pot
-  Using the same skillet, heat on low heat the red wine to deglaze the pan, loosening the crispy bits, then pour into crock pot
-  Cover the crock pot and cook on Low for 10 hours
-  At this point, you can turn off the slow cooker and serve, or...
-  Optional Step 1: Once the meat is finished cooking, spoon a few tablespoons of the juice into a plastic shaker with the ¼ cup warm water, then add in the 2 tablespoons of flour and shake vigorously
-  Option Step 2:  Stir the shaker contents into the stew and cook uncovered for 15 minutes to thicken up the sauce

Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin

Dottie Approved Meal

Life is crazy and crazy busy.  I don't have time to slave over a stove for 4 hours whipping up delicious meals every day.  I may get to do that once in a blue moon but not usually, which is why my CrockPot is my best friend in the kitchen.  With just 5 minutes of prep time and 4-6 hours of cooking, you have an amazing meal that will feed you and 7 of your closest friends (or feed you 8 times)!


Today's recipe is one that I adapted from AllRecipes.com.  It takes a pork tenderloin, four or five other ingredients, and a little patience, but it's so worth it!


First, you'll want to gather your ingredients together (onion soup mix, fresh garlic, red wine, soy sauce, and spices).

There aren't going to be many photos because I actually
forgot to photograph until the very end...

Then, you dump everything into your slow cooker and cook on high for 4-6 hours or until the pork roast is to your liking!

Yeah, I know... it looks terrible, but I promise it's delicious!

Once the pork roast was finished cooking, I just sauteed up some green beans and threw in a bag of the Ore Ida Steam 'n Mash frozen potatoes and we were in business!

Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

-  3 lb. Pork Tenderloin

-  1 pkg. Onion Soup Mix

-  1 cup Water

-  4-6 cloves Fresh Garlic

-  1 cup Red Wine (I like 3 Dreams Merlot or Chandon Pinot Munier)

-  1-2 tbsp(s). Soy Sauce

-  To Taste:  Other spices* including Fresh Ground Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, etc.

-  Optional:  2 tbsp. flour or cornstarch

*You don't need to add any more salt because the soy sauce will take care of the saltines for you!

Directions

-  Place the pork tenderloin in the slow cooker.

-  In a bowl, combine the soup mix, seasonings, garlic, water, and soy sauce.

-  Pour the mixture over the pork tenderloin, and cover with your lid.

-  Cook on high for 4-6 hours (depending on how you like your roast).

-  Once your roast is finished cooking, you can take it out and either cut it up or use two forks to shred the meat.

Note: Once your roast is out of the pot, you can either serve the juice as an au jus, or you can make a gravy by combining 2 tbsp. flour or cornstarch in a shaker with a few spoonfuls of the juice, shaking vigorously until the flour and juice have been combined, then pour the mixture into the pot and make sure the temperature is still set to high, stirring continuously so the flour doesn't separate.  After about 10 minutes, your juice will become slightly thicker and you can use it as a gravy over your meat and potatoes.

As I mentioned above, this recipe is great when served with a vegetable and a potato, but you can also use it as filling for pork sliders or roasted pork tacos.  The uses for this recipe are nearly limitless.  I used the leftovers to add to salad, which went very well with a balsamic vinegar dressing.

Also, another thing to note is make sure you use a good quality wine.  A $5 bottle of wine isn't going to do the trick.  You don't have to go all-out, but choose a wine that is moderately priced ($10-25) and you know to be good quality.  I actually like the flavor that the Merlot gives this recipe, even though I don't typically drink Merlot, but use a red wine that you enjoy!