Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Leftover Chicken and Some Tex Mex Inspired Recipes

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Coincidentally - these recipes are perfect for your Cinco de Mayo celebration! No, really, I planned it that way. Honest....

Friday while grocery shopping I noticed they had those rotisserie chickens on sale so I picked one up. It reminded me of all the great leftover possibilities and I'm going to share 2 of those with you. You don't have to buy a cooked chicken. These recipes are great for beer can chicken leftovers or rotisserie chicken from your own bbq. You can even just put on extra chicken pieces when roasting, grilling or baking chicken. The actual type of piece don't matter either, breast, thigh, leg; they'll all do in these recipes!


This first recipe is about as easy as they come.
Chicken Quesadillas
Ingredients:
  • 1 tortilla per person
  • salsa
  • chicken
  • green or red onion (or a scallion)
  • cheddar cheese
  • sour cream or ranch dressing (the ranch dressing was a nice twist!)

Instructions:
  1. Preheat an oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees
  2. Put tortilla on a baking sheet
  3. Cover the tortilla with salsa, chicken, onion, and cheddar cheese
  4. Cover with either another tortilla or fold the tortilla in half if only making one.
  5. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes
  6. Top with sour cream or ranch dressing
Bueno Comiendo!

This recipe isn't that much harder either and is pretty damn tasty! I sorta surprised myself a little.

Southwest Chicken and Corn Chowder
Serves 4 -6

Ingredients
  1. 1/4 cup butter (yes I know it's a lot but you'll see, it's the only naughty bit in this recipe)
  2. 1 onion, chopped
  3. 2 cloves garlic, minced
  4. 1/4 cup flour
  5. 2 cups fat free chicken broth
  6. 2 cups fat free milk
  7. 1.5 roasted red peppers (make your own if you want!)
  8. 2 cups roasted corn (I roast corn on the cob when it's in season and freeze it but you can just use store bought frozen corn)
  9. 2 cups diced cooked chicken
  10. 2 tsp cumin
  11. 1 tsp chili powder
  12. salt and pepper to taste
  13. 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional. Yup, optional! The taste is awesome without it but it does add a nice flavour)
Instructions:
  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat
  2. Soften the onion in the butter, add the garlic and cook 1 minutes
  3. Sprinkle in flour and whisk for 1 minutes
  4. Pour in the water and milk continuing to whisk.
  5. Keep whisking until liquid comes to a boil and thickens
  6. Add in the corn, chicken, red pepper, cumin and chili powder. Let heat for 2 -3 minutes
  7. Taste, adjust seasonings and add salt and pepper as necessary
  8. Toss in the cilantro if using and serve

I also had some leftover roasted potatoes. Never one to waste things, I threw them in. If you want to make this soup more substantial you could add leftover roasted or boiled potatoes like I did or you could throw in some leftover rice or pasta. They'll all work!

You could also make this recipe with shrimp or a vegetarian version with black beans in place of the chicken.

I think I'll go open a Corona... Salud!

No comments:

Post a Comment