I wrote up this recipe for my sister. She said it was WAY too much work! LOL!
What we do is make up the meat, make however many tacos we want, then throw the rest of the meat in the freezer. Makes taco-making much easier!
Hubby’s Chicken Tacos and Enchiladas
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 (or 2) package taco seasoning
- 1 large onion, diced
- Oil
- 20 (about) corn tortillas
- Grated cheese (we use the finely grated cheese blend from Costco)
- Parmesan cheese
- Shredded Lettuce, tomatoes, whatever you want to top the tacos with.
Equipment:
- Stock Pot
- Large Colander
- Large Bowl (use your popcorn bowl 🙂 )
- Tongs
- Plate with paper towels to drain the tortillas
- Pans to bake the tacos in (probably the equivalent of 2 – 3 13X9 baking pans)
Throw a chicken (with the innards removed) into a pot, cover with water, and boil until it’s done (you will know, it will look bloated and the legs will pull away from the body). Pull it out of the water and place it in a colander to drain and cool (if you want to make your own chicken broth or soup, set the chicken water aside … I’ll tell you how to do that after explaining tacos).
Once cool, remove all the meat from the bone and shred (two faster ways are to 1. Use canned chicken or 2. Just boil chicken breasts). Once removed, mix taco seasoning into the chicken meat. How much? I really don’t know. I add some, then taste. If you are using taco seasoning packets, probably no more than one packet (but taste first … remember there’s a lot of salt in there). Mix in onions. Set the meat aside.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Now for the time consuming part: Put about 1-inch of oil in a frying pan. Heat on medium (it’s the right temperature when you put a piece of tortilla in the pan and it does not sink). Slide a tortilla into the oil. Count to 3, flip the tortilla, count to 3, remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain. Repeat with rest of tortillas. You only want to cook the tortilla just enough so it is soft (not hard at all).
Time to make the tacos. Place a tortilla in your baking dish, add seasoned chicken, then cheese. Move on to the next taco. Continue until you have used all the chicken. You may have some extra tortillas. Just sprinkle some salt on those and eat them! 🙂
Bake until the top of the tacos are brown and crispy. Remove from oven, put the lettuce in the taco, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and you are done! Serve with Spanish rice (Patrick makes the best Spanish rice but I still can’t make it right. Your best bet is to look on-line for a recipe. I’ll try to get him to write down how he makes it).
So, this is how we make enough to feed me, hubby, my son, and my mom. Hubby just pointed out (duh) that you could just make however many tacos you want then freeze the chicken meat for another day.
If you want to do enchiladas, do everything except the instructions on assembling the tacos. Pour a large can of enchilada sauce in a bowl. Dip a tortilla in the enchilada sauce, place in baking dish, put chicken and a little cheese in the center of the tortilla, roll and place the seam down. Repeat with rest of chicken. Pour remainder of sauce over enchiladas, sprinkle grated cheese over the top (however much you want), and bake until all the cheese is melted and a little crispy on the edges. That’s it! You can freeze one pan of enchiladas before cooking. They keep in our freezer for about 6 months. Just cover the pan first with plastic wrap and foil.
