Yay, funny names.
- a little over ½ lb (350) grams of chicken
fillets OR 2-3 chicken breasts
- 6-8 flour tortillas
- 1 packet of instant tomato soup OR ½ can of
tomato soup
- ½ cup (120mL) of your favorite salsa
- shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese blend (amount
as desired)
1. Boil the chicken for 30
minutes.
2. While the chicken cooks, slice the tortillas
pizza-style into about 8 pieces each.
(speed tip: you can do them all at once)
4. Strain the water from the chicken. Use a large wooden spoon to break up
the chicken. If you mash and stir
the chicken with the spoon, you will find that it shreds quite easily.
5. Prepare the instant soup if necessary. Add the soup and salsa to chicken,
stirring with spoon between additions so as to shred it a bit more. Add the tortillas and cheese and mix
again. Heat the whole mixture for
just a few minutes until the cheese melts.
6. Ready to eat!
[Serves 2]
Notes:
o “Crisping”
the tortillas just helps to keep the mixture from becoming too soggy. Thus, I only crisp about half of
them. You can do as many or as
little as you like.
o This
dish truly represents the messy & ugly but tasty principle of my cooking
[hence the avocado “garnish” above]. But believe me, it’s much better than it looks.
o This
is another meal that keeps quite well, so make more and have left-overs :)
o Cut-up
an avocado with a dash of seasoned salt
o Slice
up some fresh kiwi or oranges
o Pan-fry
some corn and cherry tomato halves.
Variations:
o My
mom would make this a meal-in-one by adding shredded lettuce with chopped
onions and tomatoes on top. [To that end, chopped onions would be a great
addition to the mixture itself]
o I
have not had access to corn tortillas for YEARS, but they would probably be
even better!
o If
this dish is just too unbecoming to you and you have the patience, you can make
Tex-Mex lasagna. Make the entire
mixture the same way, but do not crisp nor add the tortillas. Instead, line a small casserole dish (a
2qt round dish would be great) with the tortilla slices and add about 1/3 of
the mixture on top. Make 2 more
layers and sprinkle the top with some extra cheese. Then, bake in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese
melts.
o Tex-Mex lasagna and Italian
tortillas in the same month. I must suffer from cultural confusion.
For boiling chicken, I like to do it in chicken stock with a few seasonings. It makes a huge difference in pumping up the flavor of the chicken.
ReplyDeleteFor a Mexican dish: Do equal parts chicken stock and water, add a few whole peppercorns, 5 springs of fresh cilantro (you've probably figured out they call it coriander in most places that aren't the US), and maybe a tsp of dried oregano. It's certainly a little more expensive, but if you already have the stuff on hand, it's no big deal. If you don't have the spices, no problem. Even just the chicken stock itself will help the chicken retain the chicken-y flavor in the meat instead of leeching into the liquid.
Substitute herbs or spices that complement your dish.
Blogger needs a "like" button.
ReplyDeleteIndeed- I never boil chicken without a chicken stock cube. They're reasonably cheap and easy to find in every country I've been to. That's a great place to start for the beginners and onthefly folks. You can start adding herbs as you build up your pantry and your confidence :)
Definitely! Even just a good quality chicken stock will make all the difference ^_^
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