Tejas Tacos

OMG! This dish is off the hook. I confess it's the best thing I've ever eaten and it only took 10 years for my hubby to share it with me. My husband was born in Mississippi and spent his childhood in New Orleans and Texas.  When he lived in Texas, the Tejas Tacos were a staple.  Well, we just happened to be watching the food network when a commercial came on for taco shells  long story short I said, "I want soft and crunchy tacos together", and that's when Will said, "that's a Tejas Taco" and he explained what it was.  You take a 6" soft tortilla and spread a thin layer of refried beans over it, then rice over the beans, then you take a crunchy taco, fill it with the meat, place it in the middle of the soft tortilla, wrap it up, drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle with the cheese. YUMMY! So Good!! This is what we did: I took package of Toro Negros Carnitas (VERY VERY GOOD ACTUALLY), refried beans that I made by taking 2 cans of pinto beans rinsed and drained, placed them in a pot with 1 C of chicken broth, a slice of bacon, S&P to taste and just cooked them down until they had a creamy texture, rice that was cooked with 1 C fresh corn from the cob, 1 tbs cumin, 1 tbs hot paprika, and 1 tbs turmeric and 2 C chicken broth.  The sauce that I made was from a recipe by Susie Jimenez, she a finalist on the next food network star- spicy tomatillo avocado sauce, drizzled this over the tacos and sprinkled some monterey jack cheese over top. You have got to to try this!  Biting into it, you get this explosion of textures and flavors, SOoooo good! I'm so excited, there are so many possibilities.

Tex Mex Beef & Saffron Rice

You've seen variations of this dish several times, but I like to try different things, so you will continue to see it in the future until I get it exactly the way I want it. Typically when I make the rice for this dish I use Turmeric, but tonight I wanted something different, so I used Saffron. If you don't what Saffron is, its the stigmas of the Crocus Sativus Flower. It has a strong flavor and should be used sparingly. It also gives a beautiful golden hue to dishes. Saffron is one of the most expensive spices and that is also a good reason to use sparingly. Tonight I added a pinch of Saffron to the Jasmine rice while it cooked in chicken stock. I also added a pinch of kosher salt to rice while it cooked. My Tex Mex beef consisted of using 1 lb of lean ground beef, chopped garlic, green pepper, jalapeño pepper, shallots, corn, 1 can of rinsed & drained low sodium black beans, 1 8oz can no salt tomato sauce, no salt added chicken stock and my Tex Mex seasoning blend. First thing I chopped my veggies. I had some corn on the cob leftover and I cut kernels off. I added my veggies to a large skillet with 1 tbs of EVOO and sauted it for about 10 minutes. I added the ground beef and broke it up while cooking. I then added the beans and sauce along with 3 tbs of my seasonings and 1 C of the stock. The season mix has cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, coriander, cayenne, chili powder and corn starch. I use more cumin and paprika because those are my favorite spices.  When you make your spice mix, just play with it, you will figure out what you like best. I let the meat mix cook down and served it over the rice with avocado, cilantro and low fat sour cream. This dish took about 30 minutes to make. I really didn't like the tomato sauce addition, a little too acidic. I added 1 tsp of sugar to smooth it out, but it was still acidic. I didn't add more, because I didn't want it to be sweet. Next time less or no tomato sauce. Let me know what you think.

I Don't Know, But it Sure Was Good!!

Last night I pulled some leftover frozen smoke pulled pork from the freezer.  I had smoked the pork butt back in the winter.  I thought when I pulled it out that I would just do pulled pork sandwiches, BORING!!  But tonight I decided to put a tex mex flair on it.  I started by getting my rice concoction started.  I added 1 C basmati rice, with 1.5 C water, 1.5 tsp chicken bouillon granules, 1 tbs cumin, 1.5 tbs hot hungarian paprika, and 1 tsp of turmeric, 1 can of rinsed and drained red beans, 1/2 C frozen corn.  I just mixed it all up, brought it to a boil and then I covered it and let it simmer for 20 minutes.  You could add whatever beans you like, I just had the red beans on hand.   While the rice was cooking, I chopped 1 jalapeno (w/ seeds), 1/2 poblano pepper, 1/2 red pepper and I sliced 1/2 of a red onion.  I heated a large skillet and added a 1 tbs of EVOO and then added my veggies and let them saute for about 5 minutes.  I then added 1 1lb of the smoked pulled pork and 1 C of no salt chicken stock and mixed it up.  After several minutes I added about 2.5 tbs of my mexican seasoning which consists of cayenne, chili powder, cumin, oregano, hot hungarian paprika, salt and  corn starch.  I'm partial to the paprika and cumin so my mixture has more of those 2 ingredients.  Just play with your mix and find what's right for your palate.  I let this simmer for about 15 minutes.  You might need to add water if the mixture gets too thick.  I served the pork over the rice with chopped scallions and cilantro, grape tomatoes and sour cream.  Enjoy!!

Tex Mex Drumsticks and Rice

Tonight I made a Tex Mex dish that I found from All Recipes, but I made some Mods.  Before I get to that, I must preface that these drumsticks were delish!!!
Ok, so I first took five drumsticks (skin on) and rinsed and dried them, put them in a bowl and poured 2 tbsp of unsalted melted butter over them and massaged the butter into the flesh.  My grill has five burners, so I heated the outer 2 on med high and the inner 3 on low.  The gauge read 400 when I placed the drumsticks on the grill.  I grilled them to perfection for about 30 minutes.  They had a golden brown outside and of course the temp was 166.  While my chicken was grillin, I started the sauce, which I modified for my liking.  I used 1.5 C skim milk, 1 C low fat sour cream,  3 chipotles in adobo sauce and 1 tbsp of the chicken bouillon granules.  I put it all in a large mixing bowl and used my immersion blender to blend it all together.  In the mean time I took a large skillet and heated on med low 1tbsp of unsalted butter.  Once the butter was  melted I added the chipotle sauce to the skillet and simmered it while my chicken grilled.  I also made some rice cooked in chicken stock and added 1 tsp turmeric, 1tbsp cumin, 1 tsp kosher salt 1 can black beans rinsed and drained, 1 C frozen white corn and just just let that cook.
When the chicken had reached temp, I removed it from the grill and  placed it in the skillet with the chipotle sauce and let it simmer in the sauce for about 10 minutes.  I served the drumsticks with a drizzle of the chipotle sauce over top and the rice.  I garnished it with cilantro, chopped onion, dollop of low fat sour cream and chopped jalapenos.  This was really yummy.  The drumsticks were so moist and most awesome.  Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think.  Enjoy!!

Steak Fajitas

Tonight we had steak fajitas, brown rice and refried beans. The night before I marinated a 1 lb skirt steak in the Goya Mojo marinade. When t got home I got my brown rice going and heated the grill, one side on high and one side on low. For my veggies I used 1/2 red pepper/ 1/2 yellow pepper, 1/2 red onion, 2 whole jalapeños, a few grape tomatoes and a few whole button mushrooms. I placed all in a bowl, added a little olive oil and S&P and coated them. I placed the vegetables on the grill on the low side, closed lid and let them roast for about 30 minutes, turning often. You are looking for nice char marks on the veggies. 10 minutes before rice was finished cooking, I placed the skirt steak on the high heated side of grill and seared it for about 3 minutes on each side. I removed the veg, placed back in the bowl and added some Mojo sauce and covered. I continued to grill the steak for an additional 3-4 minutes until medium rare. I removed the steak and let it rest for 10 minutes. While the meat rested, I opened a can of refried beans, put in a bowl and nuked for 1.5 minutes. I also grilled a few small flour tortillas for about 30 seconds per side and I removed them to a plate. I cut the roasted peppers and onions into thin slices, and left the toms and shrooms whole. I served the meat with the veggies, (shrooms and toms on the side) in the warm tortilla and avocado sprinkled fajitas, rice and beans with a little shredded cheddar cheese. That's all there is to it, easy and little clean up, that's what I love about grillin. Try it and let me know what you think. Bon Appetit.

Tex Mex Tuesday

I know i've done this before, but it's so yummy and easy you need to try it. I started out with 1.5 lbs of organic chicken tenders that I marinated in Goya Mojo marinade sauce for about 1 hour. This stuff is so good and so economical, so why bother making it myself? While my chix marinated I made my  bean & corn salsa. This salsa is so great because you can really add whatever you like or what you have in the frig or pantry- green pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes, your favorite beans.  My salsa is made with: 1 can of black beans rinsed and drained, 1 c of frozen corn, 1/2 red onion small diced, 1/2 red pepper small diced, 1 jalapeño chopped, 1 handful cilantro chopped, juice of 1 lime, 1 tbs cumin, 1 tsp hot hungarian paprika and kosher salt to taste. Just mix all this together in a med size bowl and let the flavors mesh together. At this point oil the grates of your grill and heat 1 side on low and the other side on high. After your grill is heated place your chicken tenders on the high side for about 2 minutes, turn and grill for an additional 2 minutes, always keeping grill top open. Then move the tenders to the low side and continue to grill with lid closed about 2 more minutes or until the temp reaches about 166 degrees F. Chicken tenders cook very quickly, so it's best not to leave them. Remove from heat and sprinkle chicken with quesadilla cheese found in your grocers packaged cheese section in the dairy aisle. Serve the chicken with brown rice, black bean & corn salsa with avocado, sour cream and tortilla chips. Try this, it's really yummy and easy. Doesn't it look tasty? Good Eats.