how to make great tex-mex chicken for tacos

This evening I made chicken tacos. Well, anyone can make tacos right??!!

What makes these tacos unique is how I cooked the chicken.

This recipe is very indicative of Tex-Mex food. I did make it with 2 chicken breasts(or you could use 4 thighs). This makes the dish more low calorie. But I promise, it will not be dry.

I took 2 chicken breasts, topped with the juice of 1/2 lime and seasoned(you could use a pkg. of taco seasoning to make it easy) with Cumin, fajita spice, garlic salt, season salt, paprika, pepper, and ground mustard.

In a dutch oven, I placed a tablespoon of chipolte in adobo sauce(freeze the rest for later), 1 whole habenero and 2 basil leaves. This is just for flavor. You will remove them once the chicken is done. As well as 1/2 of a diced onion. Place the chicken breasts(or thighs) into the dutch oven and place water in the pot until the chicken is covered. About 2 1/2-3 cups and add one cube of chicken bouillon. Place on med.-high heat until it comes to a boil and then move to a low heat and simmer until done(about 25 min.)

Take out the chicken breasts and place on a cutting board. Thinly slice to your liking and place back into the pot for a few min before serving. Since this the white meat and can tend to get dry, placing the meat back into the juices for 3-5 min. allows those juices to really get into the meat.

And wallaahha.. serve on tacos, a salad, or use for meat in enchiladas!

Happy eating y'all!

Non-fried chicken and green beans w/bacon and potatoes!

I made this dinner from a complete nod from Paula Deen and her son Bobby. I made my own twists to the recipes but... I really followed the main ingredients.

For the green beans and potatoes....

this is a real easy recipe and pretty healthy. I bought about a pound to a pound and a half of fresh green beans. Snap off the ends and then again in half and toss in the pot(after rinsing) Dice up 1/2 of a sweet, yellow onion, about 4 pre-cooked bacon slices(the pre cooked is so much easier BUT you can throw in 2 slices of uncooked bacon(i used turkey bacon this time). It will have more grease in it but the flavor is really good) and cut 3-5 red potatoes into quarters. Throw all of that in there with a can of chicken stock.cover and cook on med. heat until all is tender. About 20-30 min. Add a pinch of salt and pepper for flavor and then a palm full (about 1 tablespoon) of dried oregano or dried Italian seasoning (you can get that Italian seasoning at walmart for .50 right now)!

For the non fried chicken.

I took 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs. I seasoned them to my liking. In a separate bowl I mixed1/4 cup of fat free miracle whip, the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 egg white and hot sauce as desired(optional).then I took a bowl of Kellogg's brand corn flake crumbs mixed with panko bread crumbs. Dredged the chicken in the wet mixture than into the bread crumbs. I placed the thighs on a cooling rack over a baking sheet and baked on 375 degrees for 40-45 min.

Serve with honey Mustard or Ranch and waaaalllaaahhhh.. yummy, healthy meal! Thank you Deen Family!