Shredded Chicken Tacos for National Taco Day

Did you know that today, October 4th, is National Taco Day? What better way to celebrate than with homemade Shredded Chicken Tacos? And also one of our favorite toppings, California Black Ripe Olives! Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d put a black olive on each fingertip and eat them one at a time? I do! Did you know that California produces over 95% of the olives grown in the US? I had no idea! These are not grown on huge industrial farms, either. They’re cultivated on multi-generational orchards powered by hardworking American farmers and their families. They follow strict growing and handling standards to sustain consistent results. You can feel good about buying and serving them to your family!

This recipe was developed for Kitchen PLAY’s Sidecar Series. We’re celebrating CA Black Ripe Olives for National Taco Day. It’s a delicious pairing!

Please join all of us along with California Black Ripe Olives (@MissCAOlive ) and Kitchen Play (@kitchen_play)for a fun Twitter party!

Join Kitchen PLAY, California Ripe Olives and some of your favorite food bloggers for a Twitter Party on October 16^th, 7:00 PM EDT. Learn about this tasty, nutritious and versatile food. Have fun testing your olive knowledge. Win great olive prizes! Register here.

Beginning October 1, read all ten posts at Kitchen PLAY celebrating National Taco Day with California Ripe Olives for clues. Each post contains an "olive fact" that may appear as a trivia question during the Twitter Party. A new post and fact will be revealed each day, Monday through Friday, until October 12.

My CA Ripe Olive fact: A large California Ripe Olive has only 6 calories.

This shredded chicken is loaded with flavor. The sauce features fresh ingredients and seasonings that compliment them beautifully. We’ve also added extra flavor to otherwise plain corn tortillas by adding lime juice and zest to the dough. When preparing your tacos, these or any other type, give California Black Ripe Olives a try as one of your toppings! They’re a nice pop of flavor that you might not have thought of adding.

Shredded Chicken Tacos with California Black Ripe Olives

Corn Tortillas:
2 cups Masarica
2 TB all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups warm water (may need more or less)
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
2 TB melted butter 
Zest of half a lime 
Juice of half a lime

Shredded Chicken:
3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
8 tomatillos, chopped
6 small tomatoes (I used Campari's), chopped
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 packet Sazon Goya with Coriander and Annatto
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 cup chicken broth, for deglazing pan
Juice from half a lime

Toppings:
California Black Ripe Olives, sliced
Shredded cheese of your choice
Diced tomatoes
Sour Cream
Cilantro

Make the tortillas:

In a medium bowl, mix the masarica, AP flour, water, salt, butter, lime juice and zest. Mix with your hands until you have a nice dough that isn't sticky. Roll into balls about the size of a golf ball. Press in a tortilla press, or press with your hands. Cook in a fairly hot skillet with a little oil on both sides, until nicely golden brown and a little crispy. Set aside and cover with a towel. This recipe makes 12 (4-5 inch) tortillas.

These will not be crispy like store bought taco shells, but soft and pliable. And good!

Prepare the chicken:

For the sauce: In a large sauce pan (I actually used my wok!), heat a bit of oil and add the onion, garlic, and red bell pepper. Sauté for about 5-7 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomatillos, cumin, Sazon Goya, salt, pepper, 1 cup of chicken broth, and the bunch of cilantro. Bring to a boil, then turn down slightly to a good bubbling simmer. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or so, until it's cooked down and slightly thickened.

Using a blender (carefully!), puree the sauce--not completely, leave a bit of texture in it. Do it in batches if you're using a blender and hold a kitchen towel over the lid in case any leaks out. OR, if you're smart, use your immersion blender, which I still don't have! Set the sauce aside and stir in the juice from half a lime.

Next, In a large skillet (I use a large 16 x 12 inch electric skillet for this), heat a bit of oil, then add the chicken thighs. Brown on each side, about 5 minutes a side. Remove from pan and set aside. Deglaze the pan with the 1/2 cup chicken broth, scraping up all of the chicken bits.

Pour the pureed sauce into the pan, then add the chicken and any accumulated juices back into the pan. Turn each chicken thigh over to coat it with sauce. Turn heat down to low, and partially cover the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes, spooning some of the sauce over the chicken every 10 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove the chicken pieces, and shred them using two forks. Add the shredded meat back to the sauce and mix it all up. You can leave it in the pan over very low heat, or remove it now to a bowl.

Make your tacos!

Spoon a little chicken down the center of the tortillas, and top with cheese, California Black Ripe Olives, tomatoes, sour cream and cilantro. Serve immediately.

• You don’t have to make fresh tortillas--you can certainly use store bought.
• This chicken recipe is very versatile! Use it in burritos, or in a taco bowl served over rice, and add your toppings. You could also easily turn this into a soup by adding more broth and any veggies that you may like. Add some rice, and top with crispy corn tortilla strips.
• You could also use this sauce recipe with shredded pork or beef.

Zombie Deviled Eyeballs-I mean...Eggs!

It's that time of year again! Halloween. Exciting, isn't it? We get to dress up as someone--or something else, there's candy, parties, and all around fun. Spooky fun!

You need food to serve at these parties, and that's where these come in. They're not just any old deviled eggs--they're Zombie Eyeball Deviled Eggs! I've mixed my favorite guacamole ingredients up with the hard boiled egg yolks and made a hybrid deviled egg/guacamole squishy eyeball filling.

My daughter and I absolutely loved these. My husband, on the other hand, thought they could use more "bite." I know they could have, but my daughter seriously loves deviled eggs, and if I added too much bite, she'd have hated them, and wouldn't have been able to enjoy these. I'm not a mean mom, so I held back. I'd have loved to have added some hot sauce or horseradish to the filling--so if that's your thing, too--please go for it! Use this recipe as a starting point and go from there.

One last thing. Sometime between making these and today, I lost my notes on the recipe. What I'm giving you is what I remember, which I believe is all of it. Taste your egg filling and adjust to your liking. It may need a little of this or a little of that. As always, add ingredients in small quantities when experimenting. You can always add more, but once it's in there, you can't take it back. Oh! I don't normally use onion and garlic powders in fresh guacamole, but there were already enough tomato and jalapeno chunks in the filling, so I went with powdered. Also? Less dicing. (Listen, we've already talked about me being lazy occasionally, so that should come as no surprise.)

A bit more on the lazy front: don’t worry too much about cleaning up the egg whites. You know, a little egg yolk still showing or a crack in an egg white, or if they didn’t peel right and look bumpy. These are zombie eyes, not pretty princess eyes, ok?

Zombie Deviled Eyeballs

Makes 24 creamy, sorta chunky "staring back at you" eyeballs.

1 doz. hard boiled eggs, peeled, sliced in half lengthwise
1 medium avocado (halved, pitted and cubed right before adding to the recipe)
juice of one lime
few pinches kosher salt
1/2 cup finely diced tomato
1 jalapeno, finely diced (seeds and ribs removed if you don't want the heat)
1/2-3/4 tsp onion powder
1/2-3/4 tsp garlic powder
black pepper
2 heaping tbsp (the kind you eat with, not the measuring spoon!) mayonnaise
sliced black olives (alternatives: green olives, capers, roasted red pepper, fresh red bell pepper, etc.)

Set your cooked egg white halves aside, and toss the yolks in a medium bowl. Add the avocado chunks, lime juice and salt. Mush all of this together with a fork, the back of a spoon, or if your avocado is a little under ripe (like mine was), a potato masher will squish the bejeezus out of it.

Stir in everything else except the black olives and mix it all up. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Want more bite? Try horseradish, hot sauce or even wasabi if you've got it!

Scoop the ghoulish mash into a sturdy zip top bag, and snip off a small corner. You may need to snip off a bit more than you think to fit the chunks through, but start small and then adjust. Place the egg white halves on paper towels. Why? Because they slip and slide all over the place when you're trying to pipe the filling in. I chased one around a plate for about a minute before I realized what I was doing. Truth. Press a sliced black olive into the top of each one.

Place the filled eggs on a serving plate, and keep chilled till ready to serve. I wouldn't make these too far ahead--the day you'll be serving them is best.

Tortilla Wrapped Burgers and My Weird Dog

Tortilla Wrapped Burgers. Is that a good name? I don’t know. I actually sat at my desk for a while, staring at the blank “title” field in Live Writer. It doesn’t help that I have a headache. That tends to make me stare off into space instead of concentrating. They’re burgers, shaped more like a sausage so they roll up well in the tortillas. I added fresh guacamole, sliced tomato, queso blanco, sliced shallots and cilantro to top off the taco seasoned burger/sausage-type patties. We had these over the Memorial Day weekend. Still making our way through a delicious stack of Tortilla Land tortillas in the fridge, these are a fun twist on burgers with buns.

We also watched The Hunt for Red October over the weekend. Come on, it’s a classic! When my husband and I were dating, he dragged me, kicking and screaming, to see this movie. I didn’t want to see it. I thought a root canal sounded more entertaining. But I went. Playing the sweet girlfriend role. Because that’s how you get things in return. Like cameras and shoes and shiny things. It’s all give and take.

And then I sat on the edge of my freaking seat! The cat and mouse games. The stealthy hunter, stalking it’s prey. When that sub came out of the water? Whoa. They can DO that? The good looking guys in uniforms probably helped, too.

I loved it!

Still do.

Where am I going with this? I do have a point, I promise. One of our Corgis, Hamilton, has been doing something odd lately. It’s only at night, when they go out for the last time before bed. The dogs will do their thing, and then wait on the deck to come back in. They all come right in, except Hammy. He waits to be asked back in.

Hello?! I know! Quite often, he’ll just sit there and look at us like we’re crazy. My husband started giving him titles, like “Come in, Dr. Hamilton.”

“Sir Hamilton.”

“Lord Hamilton.”

“Your Highness Hamilton.”

“General Hamilton.”

“Colonel Hamilton.”

“Admiral Hamilton.” <--He especially likes that one. Why? I have no idea. But it does have a certain ring to it, yes?

When he hears one he likes, he’ll come in. What a goof! Sooo…while we were watching Red October, we get to the scene where Ramius is addressing the crew for the first time on the voyage. Hear that whistle right at the beginning? Hammy was asleep on the floor and as soon as that whistle sounded, he was on all four paws, straight at attention. Billy looked down and said “Oh, sorry for startling you, Admiral Hamilton!”

Totally cracked us up! Was Hammy an admiral in another life? Does he watch too much TV when we’re not home? Does he just have a damn good imagination for a dog?

Not a clue. He is entertaining, though. And although he looks sort of admiral-ish in that photo, he’s not. He’s a huge, snuggly, hairy bozo. With a personality complex.

Tortilla Wrapped Burgers

These are great for those of you that don’t want to fill up on a big burger bun because you’ve been snacking on all the other goodies at your cookout. This isn't so much of a recipe, as it is a guideline. Use your own amounts and toppings according to what you like. I was going to use red onion, but it had decided to turn green, so shallot was the lucky choice for the day.

-ground beef, about a pound or so
-taco seasoning or your favorite burger seasoning
-guacamole 
-sliced tomatoes
-queso blanco, shredded, or your favorite cheese
-thinly sliced shallots (or red onion)
-fresh cilantro
-tortillas
-hot sauce

Add the taco seasoning to the ground beef and  mix well. Shape into sausage type shapes. And yes, I'm well aware of what they look like. Ha! Shhh. Quit it. Grill until they're done to your liking. Remove from the grill and set aside.

Heat the tortillas on the grill until they're warm and you get nice grill marks and delicious char marks on them. Spread each tortilla with some guacamole, add your burger next...and speaking of the burgers, we cut them in half down the middle so they didn't look like, well, you know.

So add the burger, cheese, tomatoes and all of the other goodies. Roll up and serve with something ice cold, and some crunchy corn chips. Oh, some extra guacamole on the side would be awesome, too. For the chips!

BLT’s, Dressed Up

You may remember my post a few weeks back on Loaded Fries.   A few of us on Twitter got together and made our own versions of the classic junk food, loaded fries.  We called it #GoJunkFood.  Chris Perrin challenged me again last week to do the same, but this time we tackled the classic BLT.  The idea for this challenge was to dress them up and make them a little more gourmet then they are.  Is mine gourmet?  I don’t know about that, but it is one damn fine BLT, if I do say so.

I'm a French bread, and I'm nomming your BLT!

BLT’s are their best right about this time of year, when tomatoes are at their peak--perfectly red, ripe, and all juicy drippy.  (At least here in the Northeast.)  Bacon?  Well, that’s good anytime of year, isn’t it?  If I’d had more time, I would have made my own bacon.  YES-you can make your own bacon at home, and it’s ridiculously simple!

I was wondering what I could add or change that would make a BLT really special.  I wandered over to figs (in my mind) and thought, “Hmmm, interesting…”  I was lucky to find some at our local farm, and bonus--only $2.99!  Then I realized I could make figs even more interesting if I grilled them.  B was grilling/smoking chicken that evening, so smoked figs made it on the menu.  If you’ve never had a smoked fig, RUN out and do it right now.   We use a blend of pecan wood and shells from a supplier that B had tracked down online. 

Enough talk, let’s EAT!

BFLT’s

• Your choice of bread
• Bacon (we used a locally raised bacon from a local farm)
• Tomatoes (fresh Heirloom, if you can find them.)
• Smoked Figs
• Horseradish Mayo
• Lettuce (also locally grown)

To grill the figs:

Wash the figs and slice them in half.  Toss with a little balsamic vinegar and brown sugar.   Grill for about 3 minutes per side.
If you're going to smoke them, follow directions for your smoker.  It doesn't take very long for them to get a nice smoky flavor--just a few minutes.

To make the horseradish mayo, just stir some horseradish right into your favorite mayo, which, for me--is Hellman's.

Assemble your BFLT’s and dig in!

Check out the BLT that Chris made with Sriracha Seafood Salad!

Heather also made her version last week:  Bacon, Apple and Brie Sandwich

   

 Bacon? I smell bacon! Gimme some bacon!

Fresh Summer Salad

This salad is one of the easiest things to make, ever. It's amazing to me (Yes, still. I'm terribly easy to please.) how you can take a few simple, common ingredients, and turn them into something that tastes so incredibly good.

That's what this salad is. I made it the other day, and not for the first time, I've made it plenty of times--and my husband and I stood at the kitchen island almost inhaling it like we had been wandering in the desert without food for two weeks. He had picked up a soft, squishy loaf of fresh italian bread earlier in the day, and we were ripping off hunks of bread like savages and eating them with the salad. And by the way...there's a lot to be said for eating something like this with the one you love. It's drippy with olive oil and juice from the tomatoes...embarrassing to have oil dripping down your chin? No--just the opposite--it's a very sensual eating experience...and what were we talking about? hehehe.

Serve this with any number of things--it's so versatile! It's great with the hummus (ous) and some feta on wedges of pita bread, or as a fresh side dish, or, like my husband and I had some of it, right out of the bowl you made it in along with some fresh bread. I found this recipe online somewhere years ago, but it's been so long that I don't remember where. Thank you, whoever you are! oh, and even if you don't have garden tomatoes, which we don't have yet, obviously--it's SO worth splurging on a few vine ripened tomatoes from your grocery store to make this. It's a burst of summer while it's still...let me check...43 degrees outside, with snow on the ground.

Fresh Summer Salad

4 cucumbers, peeled or not, up to you--seeded and cut into chunks
4 tomatoes, seeded or deglopped, as my friend Jane says, and cut into chunks
1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3-4 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground pepper

Toss all ingredients together and chill. Or don't bother to put it away, just stand there with some bread and eat. Store any leftovers in the fridge.

And here it is with some of the Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, some feta and some pita bread wedges:

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