If you follow my blog (and I hope you do!), you know I’ve been busy. Very busy. So busy that I’ve been the world’s worst blogger for the past couple of weeks :( I’m super sorry! Bear with me ok? It’s a combination of being at work until late, getting home, making dinner, and going straight to bed so I can get up and repeat bright and early (in the 5s!) the next morning. Couple that with a handful of guests and you have a recipe for no blogging.
I’m also failing miserably at my iPhone image a day in April challenge. I’m feeling totally uninspired as I rush to work and rush home at a million miles an hour. So, I’ll report back on that at the end of the month and let you know how it went (and let you know if I need a do-over in May :) ).
One good thing about all this busy is I have discovered just how much having a home cooked meal has become really, really important to me. Prior to these past couple of weeks, if I was at work after about 8:00 I would pick up something on the way home. Sometimes fast food, sometimes something a little more healthy from the Movenpick (Marche), but always something.
In these last couple of weeks, I’ve cooked dinner almost every single day. Several times, cooking dinner has been an affair starting in the 9s. One of the secrets to maintaining my sanity is super quick dinners like these ten-minute tacos.
I’m not a big fan of prepackaged taco seasoning; I actually hate it, and I have since I was a little kid. I’m also not a fan of hard taco shells… they hurt when you bite them! This is all very sad for the hubs, because he loves tacos, so much so that several years ago when we were still dating he told me he was going to name his first child Taco. Well, I talked him down from that one, but don’t be surprised if we end up with a dog named Taco one day.
In any event, a few years ago when looking for a happy medium I came across this recipe for soft chicken tacos, and boy is the seasoning mix delicious!
The first time I made this recipe, it took me maybe 15 minutes. Now, this is done in 10-minutes max. Perfect for those nights when I get home late.
I love how this recipe calls for just a few toppings, making the flavours really stand out.
soft chicken tacos
Serves 2
Adapted from myrecipes.com
The best thing about the original recipe is the spice mix, simple and delicious, which I have reproduced without adaptation here. The rest of the recipe is my adaptations. If you are looking for a more traditional “North American Taco” kind of experience (or if you have kids who are looking for that experience…), you could make these tacos using ground chicken or turkey!
Ingredients
Meat
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (or less to taste) salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 chicken breasts, diced into bite sized pieces
- Dash cooking oil
Tacos
- 6 small flour tortillas (you can use corn tortillas if good corn tortillas are available where you are from. Not an option here without a car)
- Pre-washed greens (whatever is in your fridge this week)
- 1/4 cup grated monterey jack or mozzarella cheese
- Low-fat sour cream (optional)
- Franks Red Hot (optional, but not really)
Directions
Mix first four ingredients in a small bowl. Heat cooking oil in a pan, add diced chicken and seasonings to pan, and fry until cooked.
While chicken is cooking, round up all your other ingredients, give your greens a wash (if necessary), grate your cheese, and set them out on the table.
If you are feeling super keen, heat your tortillas according to package directions, this makes them delicious, but is not strictly necessary (and probably will make these twelve-minute tacos, but who’s counting?).
Once chicken is done add that to the table and go crazy with some delicious taco making. In case you’ve never made a taco before, follow the steps outlined above in this post.
Enjoy!
Like I said on the soup recipe – YUMMY!!! Can you tell I am home with an empty fridge living vicariously through blogs … Related: I think Mexican is my favorite cuisine.
Hmmm… but empty fridges are often due to travelling. Of which I’ve been doing not enough lately, so the vicarious living goes both ways!
I can’t wait for your dog named Taco. When Jordan was growing up, his mom read a pet-training book that said that pets respond better to names with “Ah” and “Oh” sounds in them. So they ended up with a dog called Nacho and a cat called Salsa!