Spicy Shredded Slow Cooker Pork

Mmmm...this meat had heat!  Mexican pork made in the slow cooker!

And it was all due to an experiment from what was in my pantry.  When it was finished cooking, Korey and I took turns taking a bite to test it out and were amazed at how spicy it was.  But not too hot.  Just the right amount of kick to make your nachos, enchiladas, or tacos a hit.  We made nachos using this meat and I even topped them off with some plain greek yogurt which cooled down the spice a bit.

You'll notice this picture doesn't include tortillas, taco shells, or tortilla chips.  This is to show you that you can use this pork in whatever Mexican dish you want.  Korey even ate it on a sandwich.

Spicy Shredded Slow Cooker Pork
(click for printable)

1 pork roast or pork butt
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin

Place pork roast in slow cooker on low heat.  Add in enchilada sauce, chipotle pepper, and spices.  Cook on low heat for 5 hours.  Shred meat with a fork and use in your favorite Mexican dish.

Smoked Mexican Chicken

Mexican food in a slow cooker!

I had the opportunity to make dinner for a friend who I knew was having a stressful week.  When the guys decided to take over the living room watching football, I scoured my freezer for ingredients because I was nervous they would be staying for dinner and I would need to come up with food FAST.  I decided to split what I had on hand with my friend for dinner and the guys.

This is two frozen chicken breasts in my crock pot.  On top I added some homemade taco seasoning I had on hand, salsa, and chipotle chiles in adobo sauce.  Chipotle chiles are sold in a can in the Mexican food section of the grocery store.  The dishes I use them in only require about one or two of these so I keep the rest stored in a container in my fridge.  Then I have them on hand to use whenever I want.  Two is the max I would use on a dish because the more you use the spicier it will get.  However, I don't attribute the spicy flavor to SPICY flavor.  It's more like a smoky, spicy heat that doesn't burn your mouth.

I cooked these on high for 3 hours in the slow cooker and then shredded the meat....

 which I turned into enchiladas!  The only ingredients I didn't have on hand were the tortillas and the cilantro.  Everything else I had.  The filling is the shredded chicken mixed with a combo of black beans and kidney beans.  The beans I had previously cooked in my slow cooker and then stored and frozen in ziploc bags.  I poured queso I had on the top and chopped up sprinkled them with cilantro.  I gave up on trying to chop it up because it just never seems to do well for me.  Pop in the oven for 30 minutes and dinner is served.  Or rather delivered to my friend.

And I ended up not having to feed all the guys from this split so that means more for us. 

We used the leftovers in soft tacos the next day because Korey doesn't like enchiladas at home.  But he'll order them at a restaurant.  Go figure.  Maybe he just doesn't like my enchiladas.

Smoked Mexican Chicken by KSK

Smoked Mexican Chicken
(click for printable recipe)


2 T taco seasoning

2 chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (found in Mexican section of grocery store)

1/2 cup salsa


Put two thawed chicken breasts in a slow cooker.

Top with 2 T of taco seasoning, 2 chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, and salsa.

Set on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 3 hours. Shred when cooked.

Hunter Ate This....

...Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili (Korey approved) and he looked like this.

Take note of the "shelf" on his belly that is holding leftovers.

Taquitos!!

My sister sent me this recipe and I made it for dinner tonight. I didn't take any pics to show you but there is a pic on the website including how-to photos. I served it with sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. Something different and yum! And they are baked, not fried so you can eat healthy!

Beef: It's What's for Dinner

According to babycenter.com our baby is now the size of an avocado. Which happens to be Korey's favorite food. So in honor of Avocado Week I made beef enchiladas which we topped with slices of avocado.

I RARELY ever eat enchiladas in a Mexican restaurant. I prefer them homemade. But my mom has a couple of recipes that I love so I decided to make the beef one since I had all of the ingredients except for the tortillas.

Here I have sauteed onion and one jalapeno. This will make up part of the contents of the meat mixture. I used half an onion. I only used one jalapeno because I wanted it to stay mild so as not to upset my pregnant belly.

Here I have browned one pound of beef and added taco seasoning with the required water. This is mixed in with the onion and jalapeno mix.
For the sauce mix I have one cup of sour cream, one soup can of milk, and one can of cream of chicken.

My mom's recipe calls for Velveeta but a) it's expensive and b) I'm anti-Velveeta since it's processed cheese. Although I did eat it in queso dip on Superbowl Sunday. Oh well. Here I've substituted lots of cheese! This is cheddar and I usually buy it in huge blocks because we love cheese and use it alot. I shredded up the rest of this block and mixed all the sauce ingredients together. You could buy bagged, shredded cheese for convenience sake but the block cheese tastes much fresher when you grate it.

Here's what the finished sauce looks like. Creamy goodness!

I set the sauce aside and started to fill my tortillas with the beef mixture. Note that I added in black beans because I had them and they're good for you. But you can add anything you want. It's all good. See the huge bag of homemade corn tortillas in the background? Only $3 at the Mexican supermarket! They also have flour tortillas but they only have ten in the bag and I wanted to have extras for later.

What you can't see in this final picture is that my corn tortillas started breaking when I tried to roll them even though I heated them up. So I had to scrap the single, rolled enchilada idea and make it into enchilada bake. Which means I basically layered meat and tortillas until I ran out of meat. I then topped it off with the sauce. I also forgot to add the cilantro I had to the meat mixture so I sprinkled some on top which I didn't show you.

I also took a handful of corn tortillas, cut them into fourths with a pizza cutter, and made chips out of them. These were awesome!

Here is my mom's original recipe:

2 lb hamburger & onion

1 pkg taco seasoning

3/4 c. water

tortillas

1 can cream of chick soup

1 soup can of milk

1 cup sour cream

1 lb. velveeta cheese

Brown meat and onion. Add taco seasoning and water. Simmer until water cooks up. Roll mixture in softened tortillas. Combine rest of ingredients and heat until cheese melts -- pour over enchiladas. Bake @325 for 30 minutes.

Smoked Chicken Nachos

For a few weeks I've been wanting to try Dean Fearing's Smoked Chicken Nachos recipe (not on his menu my bday night!). Tonight I finally did and Korey told me to take a picture of it. I made the chicken in the slow cooker with chili powder and chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. (Go buy a can it will last you awhile!) This recipe was compliments of Martha Stewart. I made the salsa from scratch in the blender and made the mashed black beans per Dean's recipe. Korey made the guacamole and voila we were set! I can't believe all the dishes I dirtied up just for nachos. But they were great!

Here is my sweet hubby doing the dishes...something that he usually does after dinner!

Grab Your Blender!!

To make soup of course!

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com http://http//allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Bean-and-Salsa-Soup/Detail.aspx. It's simple to make and tastes delicious. I mixed all but one of the cans of beans in my blender on the Soup setting. I didn't even know my blender had a soup setting! I also added in some cilantro and some lime I think. Then after the soup was mixed in the blender I added back in the other can of beans. Serve with cheese quesadillas and voila - dinner is done!