Pork Green Chile

Happy Labor Day! I hope everybody enjoyed their long weekend and day off today :-) We spent the weekend at the lake and on Saturday night enjoyed famous "Taco Saturday". My Aunt Patti makes tons and tons of these delicious little fried tacos that are seriously the best tacos I've ever eaten. I don't know how she does it and I can't recreate them to taste exactly the same no matter how hard I try. So I make green chile instead; which may I add, pairs perfectly with these yummy little tacos. It is such a tasty meal and one that I could eat 3 times a week and never get tired of it. We also had some on our breakfast burritos the next morning, which I would totally recommend trying if you have left overs!

Tacos, on tacos, on tacos. Yum, yum, yum.

To make the green chile you will need:

4 lbs pork butt

1 large onion

1 7oz. can of jalapeno peppers

2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used one regular and one "tex mex" style)

1 batch of Oven Roasted Green Chiles (or 3 small cans of diced green chiles)

16 cups of water

2 cups of flour

 2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons chicken bullion granules

2 tablespoons black pepper

1 tablespoon garlic salt/powder

1.Start by browning the pork in a large soup pot. Cook the pork over medium heat until brown.

2. In your food processor, finely chop the onions, jalapenos and green chiles.

3. Add the green chile mixture and both cans of diced tomatoes to the pork.

4. Add 12 cups of water and all the spices.

5. Cover and let simmer on low for 2 hours.

6. Whisk together two cups of flour with the remaining 4 cups of water to form a thin paste.

7. Whisk flour/water mixture into the chile to thicken.

8. Simmer another 30 minutes and serve

We eat our chile with the tacos, but I've also paired it with quesadillas which is really yummy too (I dip my quesadilla in the chile, kinda use it as my spoon). You can doctor up your chile however you want! We top with cheese, sour cream, and diced onion. Sometimes my dad will cook burgers and have Green Chile burgers....really the possibilities are endless! And you can never go wrong with just a simple bowl of this scrumptious chile!

Enjoy!!!

Chipolte Lime Chicken Tacos with Cowboy Caviar

Mexican is one of my most favorite cuisines! I am better at eating it than I am at making it; but I continue to make it so that I can continue to eat it. I LOVE going out to a good Mexican restaurant and eating delicious authentic Mexican food, and this also inspires me to experiment cooking this type of food.
Tacos are a regular on the menu for our week night dinners but last night I wanted to change it up from the boring tacos from a packet of seasoning, so I added some yummy extras to the tacos and made them a little more exciting. They were good! and the Cowboy Caviar is such a great side/topper/dip (however you wanna eat it, the stuff is GOOD).

I'm going to start with the recipe for the Cowboy Caviar because I recommend making this in advance so it has a chance to sit and marinade or whatever. It's just better after it's been sitting in the fridge for awhile, trust me! It can be used as a little appetizer with chips while you wait for the tacos and you can put it on the tacos too :-)

Cowboy Caviar

1 can black eyed peas (drained and rinsed)

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can sweet corn (drained and rinsed)

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup diced purple or green onions

2 avocados (diced)

1 jalapeno pepper (optional)

cilantro(optional)

1/2 cup Italian Dressing

Juice of 1 lime

garlic salt and black pepper to taste

Dump this all in a bowl and mix! Easy and sooooo delicious!

Now for the Tacos....

1. Start with two boneless, skinless chicken breast (or more if you're feeding more people; this was by far enough for Scott and I, plus we had leftovers)
2. Roast the chicken breasts in the oven until they're done (375 degrees for about 20 minutes, depending on your oven)
3. Let the chicken breasts cool while you start working on the sauce.
4. Start with 2 Tablespoons of oil in a big pan.
5. Add 1/4 cup of purple onions or shallots to the hot oil and cook until the onions become soft and transparent.
6. Add 2 tablespoons minced garlic and continue to cook until the garlic is fragrant.

7. At this point, add the juice of 1/2 of a lime, 2-4 teaspoons of cumin, 1/2 packet store bought chicken taco seasoning, and 1-2 teaspoons of finely minced or ground *chipotle pepper* (I purchased whole chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and put one of them and some sauce in my food processor and ground it into a paste).
8. Add in 1/2 can of diced tomatoes with juice.

 

9. Cover the pan and let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes, it will thicken up quite a bit.

10. Add 1/4 to1/2 cup of chicken broth to thin out the sauce.

11. Dice or shred the cooked, cooled chicken and add it to the sauce.

  12. Stir and place the lid on the pan and let simmer for 5 more minutes.

Dress up your tacos however you like. I used small corn tortillas warmed in a dry pan, Scott used burrito sized flour tortillas, or you can use hard shell.

This is our taco spread! I topped mine with shredded cheese, more purple onion Knorr Mexican Rice, green taco sauce and some of the cowboy caviar. 

 

Scott gets a little more fancy with his... "Now this is a taco, this is what you should take a picture of!" I believe those were his exact words. He thought this should be documented.

Hope you enjoy as much as I did! YUM!