My version of chicken fajita wraps

Shocked myself at seeing I've not posted approaching a year! I'm going to forget some of the stuff I've come up with, that's for sure. No pics on this one, kinda forgot before we gobbled it. It was deemed tasty though!

• 2 chicken quarters (thigh/drumstick)
• 1 medium mild green pepper sliced
• 1 medium mild red pepper sliced
• 1 small onion sliced

Throw that all in a cast iron pan or glass dish and get it in the oven at 350. Then start making the sauce:

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
• 1 TB your favorite taco or chili seasoning ( I use Spanish Gardens Taco Seasoning)

Pour about half of it over the chicken & veggies and keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. I cooked my chicken for roughly an hour. When the chicken is done, take it out and pick off the meat. Put the rest of the sauce in the pan and let it go while you pick so it warms up. Wrap up in flour tortillas with sour cream and taco sauce and enjoy! Super easy and not many ingredients!

Some mexican stuff I'm not sure what to call, but it's good

I've cooked this twice and not really followed a recipe, so apologies if you try it and it's not as good as mine's turned out. Basically it's simmered meat in a variety of spice and peppers and the kind you make burritos, soft tacos, enchiladas or whatever out of.

• Hunk of meat about 4 pounds, I've used pork and cheap beef.
• Some (4-6) whole dried mild peppers (Ancho, Pasilla)
• A can or about a pound of tomatillos
• 1 large chopped onion
• 2 TB chopped garlic
  
• Some tomatoes, canned or stewed or whatever, maybe a cup
• Spices! TB of oregano, tsp of cumin, tsp of ground Ancho, some salt & pepper
• 1 cinnamon stick (yes, that's correct)
  
• Enough water or broth to cover things

Pretty simple, toss it all in a pot and bring to a boil, then simmer for 4-6 hours, the meat will get fall apart tender. Take out the meat and shred. Remove the pepper skins and cinnamon stick from the rest and use a stick blender on the rest and you have a nice sauce.  We put the meat in a tortilla with some cheddar cheese and broil a bit in the oven, top with the meat, sauce maybe some quac and sour cream and enjoy.

Making tamales

I've never really thought much of them, but we'll see how homemade is:



I came up with the meat recipe pretty much on my own. I had a hunk of beef roast (they call it cross rib roast here, I think it's just Chuck roast, maybe a more fancy name), some homemade broth, a coupla dried peppers, garlic, some onions, a little celery, salt, typical Mexican spices and I decided to throw in a cinnamon stick. I simmered it for about 4 hours, and it was fork tender.

Shrimp Ceviche cocktail

Been awhile since I tried something new that struck me with YUM, and that happened last night with a shrimp ceviche cocktail I had at a friend's BBQ. Ingredients where jotted down on my iPhone, with the obvious recognition that the quantities are not measured accurately. The surprise ingredient was Clamato! A quick Google shows lots of recipes, will be posting mine when I tweak it to my liking....

Mexican Casserole, super simple

Campbell's has some really easy & tasty recipes on their soup cans, usually too simple in my mind but easy to modify to your own likings.

• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Creamy Chicken Verde Soup (not always easy to find)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (I actually omitted and toasted up some fresh garlic & peppers)
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken (I didn't cube, I shredded. Grilled, not microwaved)
• 4 flour tortillas (8"), cut into strips (seems like too much, but it's not)
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (plus some shredded white cheese)

Directions: Mix soup, water, garlic powder and chicken. Stir in tortillas. Spread mixture in 2-qt. shallow baking dish. Top with cheese. Cover. Bake at 350ºF. 25 min. or until hot. I forgot to take a picture of it in progress, oh well!

Pozole Rojo de Puerco (Pork and Red Chile Hominy Soup)

My buddy Ray sent me this recipe and it is DAMN tasty. Even though it was 90 degrees out, I managed to eat two bowls. I did some of my own spin of course, comments in parentheses.

4 lb pork shoulder cut in to 1 inch chunks. (Remove chunks of fat)
60 ounces chicken broth or 4- 14 1/2 ounce cans.
2 TB veg oil
1 big onion chopped
6 to 10 cloves garlic chopped
3 medium carrots thinly sliced (next time I'll dice them)
2 to 3 TB ground ancho chiles or pasilla
2 TB chile powder, (I used taco seasoning)
1 TB ground cumin
1 TS dried thyme
1 TB Mexican Oregano
1 TS salt
4 15 oz cans white hominy or 2 big 28 oz cans rinsed ( I don't rinse)
1 big 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I used home made stewed tomatoes)
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
2 T masa harina flour. (I used regular flour)
Shredded cabbage as a garnish. (I did not do this)
Lime Wedges

Sour Cream

Put the pork pieces in a pot with one can chicken broth and a cup of water (I used two cans homemade beef broth). Bring to a boil and cover on low heat for 40 minutes. Reserve the meat in the broth off heat in another bowl.

In a big pot, heat the oil and fry the onions two minutes. Add the garlic and cook till onions and garlic gets limp. Add the carrots, ground chile, chili powder,oregano, cumin, thyme, and salt to the pot and cook 30 seconds.

Add remaining chick broth (I used two cans), hominy, tomatoes, cilantro, flour, and reserved pork and broth. Bring to a boil and cook over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes. (I actually cooked it for about 2 hours)

Serve with chopped cilantro, lime wedges (a MUST!), chopped onions, oregano and sour cream as a side. Tasty-Tasty. Makes a lot, you'll have leftovers. Enough for 10 people .