Fiesta Chicken Tacos

It's funny the way the universe conspires against you sometimes. A few weeks ago I came across a post on one of my favorite blogs, Meck Mom, and she was asking what people make in the crock pot. Someone very simply put this, "Cover chicken breasts with one jar of salsa. Cook all day." That was it. I was intrigued, and I wanted to see how that would turn out, but thought I had too many other things on my to-cook list to do it. A few days later I was talking to my friend about diet food, and she said she just did fiesta chicken once a week and ate it throughout the week for lunch. "What's fiesta chicken?" I asked. "Oh, you just pour a jar of salsa over chicken in the crock pot and let it cook all day." Hmmm. I sensed a conspiracy brewing. When I got one of those recipe emails this week and it had, what else, salsa chicken on the menu, I just got right out of my chair and put 3 chicken breasts in the crock pot and dumped a jar of La Victoria salsa over it. I cooked it for about 6 hours on low. On hour 5 I added a can of drained black beans.

When it was done, I shredded the chicken with a fork and it looked like this:

And then I took some canola oil, heated it to medium in a frypan, and put one of these in for 30 seconds per side:

And they became nice crispy taco shells. I love these tortillas. They are a little thicker than regular corn tortillas and have that homemade taste. My mom used to always make our tacos that way.

So I served this yummy concoction with cheese and lettuce, and I ate three of them! Three! My husband came home late from work and started fixing himself a taco with a flour tortilla. The poor man has had to endure most of my cooking mishaps for dinner and I'm always interested to get his feedback. He, after all, can walk right into a Subway and order whatever he wants. So I figure he's got some taste buds in there somewhere that aren't ruined by substitute flours and milled beans. He said, "Honey, these are the best tacos you've ever made. I think I'll eat another one!" My food is never spicy enough for him, so he put extra taco sauce on his, but he did in fact eat two tacos with this filling and cheese and lettuce. Score!

I used three chicken breasts, but it made a LOT of filling. I probably could have fed five or six people with this amount. This would easily be done with one or two depending on how many you are feeding and just use half a jar of salsa. It's a great way to stretch your chicken dollar in these recessed times.

Happy eating!