Steph's Shredded Chicken Tacos

It was a crazy Birthday weekend, with my daughter turning 1 and my husband turning 25 ON THE SAME DAY! 3 birthday party-filled days later, and we are back to normalcy. Or, well, as normal as it gets around here.

As we were preparing for the onslaught of birthday craziness, I came up with a simple and SUPER tasty recipe. It was sooooo helpful to have a no-brainer meal to throw into the slowcooker (2 thumbs up for the slowcooker!), and enjoy a few hours later.

As I've stated before, I have come to really enjoy Mexican food. When we visit (a lot. often. religiously. obsessively) our local Mexican eatery of choice, La Tolteca, I can't seem to break away from my favorite menu item: Chicken Tacos. La Tolteca has been gifted many things, one of which is to make the most heavenly chicken tacos around. I crave them. I dream about them. But I can't find them anywhere else.

This has become a problem.

When making tacos at home, I have, in the past, used ground beef. In recent years, I've even switched over to ground chicken or turkey, thinking I'm doing something good for myself (note: this is actually not as true as one might think). I've noticed that at good Mexican restaurants, Chicken Tacos do not involve, in any way, GROUND meat or poultry. The best tacos I have ever eaten were concocted of SHREDDED chicken or steak.

Now THAT'S what I'm TALKING about.

One day, not long ago, I came up with a flavorful way to prepare the chicken I was making to use in Chicken Tamale Casserole. It occurred to me recently that THIS chicken might be the doorway to NEW TACOS. Perhaps it WAS possible to have good Chicken Tacos at home!

So, we tried it out this week. AND IT WAS AWESOME! Sooooo simple. Easy to keep the ingredients on hand. It took less than 2 minutes to prepare. It. Was. DELECTABLE. Again, there is really nothing to pulling this meal together. So often the easy recipes get overlooked - and we miss out on some culinary treasures!

Let me know how it turns out for you!

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Simple Supper Mondays

Steph's Shredded Chicken Tacos

2-3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 10-oz can of Red Enchilada Sauce
(Yes, that's it)

1) Spray slowcooker insert with cooking spray.
2) Arrange chicken in the bottom of the slowcooker
3) Pour Enchilada Sauce over chicken.
4) Cook on low for 5 hours (every slowcooker is different, so adjust according to your own!)
5) Once chicken is cooked, shred it with 2 forks in the sauce (or, on a plate and return to sauce).

Serve with taco shells, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, cheese, refried beans, sliced black olives - whatever your favorite taco toppings are!

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NOTES:

This meal was FANTASTIC. It was about as authentic as one could get outside of a Mexican eatery. I feel like it's a healthier alternative to ground beef or ground turkey (I'm not the biggest fan of ground turkey).

My 1-year old daughter LOVED the chicken. It was really juicy, flavorful and not spicy. If your children are picky eaters, this might be a good meal to attempt expanding their food repertoires.

The amount of chicken could easily serve 4-6 people. The night I made it, there were 3 adults and 1 toddler. There was leftover taco chicken lingering for a solid 2 or 3 days. We used the leftovers in a lunch salad that was really tasty: Lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, crushed tortilla chips, shredded cheddar cheese, diced cucumbers and some of the taco chicken. Serve with Hidden Valley's SPICY RANCH dressing. IT IS SO GOOD! Seriously, I want some right now.

If you like your taco meet sopping with juice, add another 1/2 or so can of Enchilada Sauce!

Do you have any Simple Supper recipes? Send them to me at moderndaydonnareed@gmail.com. I'll try them out and post them for the rest of the community!

Have a good week, and Happy Eating!