For part two of my posts today, I'm bringing you the less healthy way to please a Super Bowl crowd using the base from my Crockpot Chicken Tacos. Less healthy, but worth every calorie if, for some reason, you are counting.

These nachos have two layers of chips, chicken, cheese, corn and black beans. The top layer is also topped with pico de gallo, avocado and sour cream when it comes out of the oven. Basically, it's everything you could want in a nacho masterpiece. 

All of the toppings are pretty standard as far as loaded nachos go. I used canned beans and frozen corn, but didn't go so far as to add any canned jalapenos or other not-so-fresh items that sometimes end up on nachos. I made my own pico de gallo since I cooked these during the snowpocalypse in DC, and Safeway was out of their fresh salsa (pico demand is high in times of peril). Assuming pico de gallo supplies are back to normal, you can use the store-bought kind to make this recipe even easier. 

If you make the full batch of crockpot chicken tacos, you will have enough chicken for the taquitos, chicken nachos and plenty of tacos. I made the chicken using only four chicken breasts, and I still had more than enough for all three. 

Serve the nachos immediately while the cheese and chicken are still hot. I took the nachos outside to photograph when they came out of the oven, and within seconds I could see everything cooling down. No one wants cold nachos, so I sacrificed decent pictures for the food (which is pretty much what I do every time I'm faced with this sort of dilemma). 

Enjoy!

Loaded Chicken Nachos

Serves 8

2 cups shredded chicken from Crockpot Chicken tacos recipe

1 14 1/2-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

1     10 package frozen corn, thawed 

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2   teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4   teaspoon salt

20 ounces shredded cheese* (pepper jack, cheddar, monterey jack, etc. all work well for this)

1 bag tortilla chips*

1 cup salsa fresca / pico de gallo (store bought is fine)

3/4   cup sour cream

2      avocados, peeled, seeded and cubed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a rimmed baking pan or large oven-proof dish with alumnium foil. Make sure the pan has high edges so that the toppings do not spill over. 
2. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add beans, corn and spices. Stir to combine, and heat for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add shredded chicken and stir to combine. Heat through.
4. Spread a layer of tortilla chips over the baking pan. They should overlap at points and cover the pan completely, but keep in mind that this is only one of two layers! 
5. Add half of the chicken, corn and beans mixture over chips. 
6. Sprinkle half of the cheese evenly over the layer. 
7. Repeat, adding another layer of chips, the remaining chicken mixture, and the remaining cheese.
8. Bake pan in oven for 12-15 minutes, or until both layers of cheese have completely melted and chips have crisped but are not burnt on the edges.  
9. Remove nachos from oven and top evenly with pico de gallo, avocado and sour cream.
10. Serve immediately.

* Use a brand that has good, sturdy chips. Often times loading nachos with toppings before baking leaves you with soggy chips. I used Mission Brand, which I usually like, but they didn't work as well for this. 

* Hand shredding cheese will give you a meltier cheese that's better for nachos. I buy the 10oz blocks of Cracker Barrel for these and use one cheddar and one pepper jack.

The most popular recipe on my blog has been Crockpot Chicken Tacos for four years running. It's no surprise why when you consider the steps to make it:

1) Add six chicken breasts, one packet of taco seasoning and one jar of salsa into a crockpot and stir to combine.
2) Turn on crockpot for 4-6 hours.
3) Shred with a fork or a hand mixer. Serve.

It makes more chicken than you would've possibly thought you could get out of six chicken breasts, so once you've had your taco fix, you can use the leftovers for soup, quesadillas, salads, crunchwraps, etc.

Super Bowl Sunday calls for delicious food that feeds a crowd. Assuming your crowd isn't full of vegetarians, one batch of crockpot chicken tacos lends itself perfectly to THREE crowd-pleasing variations using the chicken. The first of those is just your standard taco bar with all the fixin's. I usually do this by setting out the chicken and tortillas alongside bowls of sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, avocado/guacamole and salsa. Any variation is good. The more bowls the better.

The second option is what I'll cover in this post -- taquitos! It's hard to beat traditional fried taquitos, but with all the greasy food choices for the Super Bowl, I figured it might be best to give you a baked taquitos recipe. Guilt-free taquito eating to your heart's delight! Also, the next recipe I'm sharing isn't remotely guilt-free, so really I'm really just aiming for balance.

You can serve the taquitos with sour cream, ranch, and/or salsa on the side for dipping. Any of the southwestern/chipotle ranch options are especially good for these. You will need to use the smaller tortillas because otherwise you'll just have very long, awkward taquitos that require double-dipping, and nobody wants that. The pictures show the batch I made using the Mission brand "Super Soft" tortillas because that's what I had on hand, but I'd recommend using just the normal thickness so that they crisp up a bit more.

Check back later today for the next post for chicken nachos!

Enjoy!

Baked Chicken Taquitos
Makes 10 Small Taquitos

1 cup chicken from Crockpot Chicken Tacos *
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
10 small flour tortillas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
3. Stir cheese and chicken together in a bowl.  
4. Set out tortillas, and place a few tablespoons of the mixture in a line on the left 1/3 of the tortilla, leaving about an inch on the ends so the mixture doesn't melt out in the oven. 
5. Roll up the tortilla very tightly, and place seam side down onto the baking sheet. 
6. Repeat with remaining mixture and tortillas, placing tortillas at least an inch apart on the sheet.
7. Spray the top of each tortilla with cooking spray or brush with oil. 
8. Place pan in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until edges are starting to turn golden brown.
9. Serve immediately with sour cream, ranch and/or salsa.

I think it’s about time I get back on the blogging train. What do you think? I figured I would start things off with a recipe that many people have requested over the past few years: a way to make Three-Ingredient Crockpot Chicken Tacos without using processed, preservative-packed salsa and seasoning from the store. For a long time I was hesitant to break down the components of this recipe into homemade versions because 1) If you make your own salsa and taco seasoning, the recipe is no longer three ingredients, and aside from the taste, that’s the best part about it. 2) The original recipe only takes about 2 minutes in prep time. 3) As we all know, making something healthier often means spending more money to buy fresh ingredients.

I decided that my approach would be to make a homemade salsa that would be delicious on its own.  Homemade salsa is easy to make if you have a food processor -- just throw in all of the ingredients you like and pulse them together. I did use canned tomatoes (no salt added) and canned green chiles in mine, but you could leave both of these out and just add in more fresh tomatoes if you're opposed to anything canned. I’d recommend blanching the tomatoes first if you decide to do that.

I used the standard All Recipes taco seasoning for the second “ingredient” in my crockpot chicken tacos. The recipe has thousands of 5-star ratings, so I made it exactly as written.

After cooking the chicken, salsa and seasoning in the crockpot for 6 hours I was ready to go. The results? The chicken tasted the same. Hooray!

I know what you're thinking: "What?! There's nothing spectacular and fresh about the taste now that I've used all fresh ingredients?" No, but the flavor in the original recipe is exactly what you want. The reward is that you feel slightly better about eating it because you know exactly what you used to make it. I’m generally not one to care too much about this (judge me, if you will), but that’s not to say I don’t appreciate knowing my ingredients, when possible.

Make the salsa on its own, or go ahead and make the salsa, seasoning and the tacos. Regardless, you will love the results. You can keep it healthy and top the chicken with fresh ingredients like corn, tomatoes, and avocado. I ate mine in corn tortillas with guacamole and cheese, BUT I used greek yogurt instead of sour cream on top. That was enough for me to justify eating another one..or two.

Enjoy, and thanks for your patience during my long hiatus. I’m back!

Crockpot Chicken Tacos
1oz Homemade Taco Seasoning (See Recipe Below)

16oz Homemade Salsa (see Recipe Below)

6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Thawed*

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and stir to mix the seasoning with the salsa, coating chicken. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Chicken should shred easily with a fork once it is done. 

Shred all chicken with a fork until it is fully incorporated into the remaining sauce. Serve in tacos, quesadillas, tostadas, taquitos, on salads, etc. You can't go wrong!

*Use standard-sized chicken breasts that you find at the grocery store. I often only use 4 breasts, and keep the other amounts the same. There will be slightly more liquid if you reduce the size or number of chicken breasts, but the recipe will still work.

 

Homemade Salsa

Juice of One and a Half Limes
1 Red Onion, Chopped
1 Clove Garlic, Chopped
1 14.5oz Can ‘No Salt Added’ Diced Tomatoes, Drained
1 4oz Can Green Chilis, Drained
1 Jalapeno, Seeded and Diced*
Large Handful of Fresh Cilantro
1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
5 Fresh Tomatoes, Sliced

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Pulse until salsa has reached the consistency you prefer.

*If you want more heat, you can leave some of the jalapeño seeds in.

Homemade Taco Seasoning
Recipe from All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in airtight container if not using immediately.

I'll keep this short and sweet: this is one of my all time favorite recipes. If there is one crockpot recipe you need in your repertoire, this is it. But truthfully, after making it once you won't even need the recipe because it's just so darn easy.

Three ingredients and almost zero work. The result is a juicy, flavorful shredded chicken that makes some killer tacos. I like to load up my tacos, so they look a bit messy in the pictures. They were like that in real life, too. Messy and delicious. I've been told before I have a knack for ordering the messiest foods on any menu. Why? Because the messiest foods are the best foods. It's a fact.

You can easily put together a great tortilla soup with the leftovers from the chicken. I've included the recipe at the bottom of this post. If you read through the comments you'll also see a number of great reader suggestions for ways to adapt the recipe. My favorite twist is to add a block of cream cheese about 15 minutes before the chicken is served. I didn't think this recipe could get any better until I made them and tried this out. Amazing. I've also seen that adding a can of cream of mushroom soup when you throw in the ingredients is delicious. I'll be trying that next time!

**As a side note, I am SO grateful to everyone who has made this recipe and/or commented on the post. I may not be able to respond to all of the comments, but I read every one, and I absolutely love them! I can't tell you how happy it makes me that people are enjoying the recipe so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Recipe from Tasty Kitchen
Serves: ~12 people

1 1oz Envelope Taco Seasoning*
6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, thawed
1 16oz jar Salsa*

Dump all ingredients into a crockpot and give it a little stir to blend the seasoning with the salsa. You do not need to add any water to the taco seasoning. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. When done, the chicken should shred easily when stirred with a fork.

For tacos, serve the chicken with soft flour tortillas, guacamole, lettuce, shredded cheese and/or sour cream. This is very versatile and can be used for enchiladas, nachos, tostadas, quesadillas, etc. Any leftover chicken can then be used for tortilla soup (make it the next day or freeze the chicken to use at a later time).

When I don't want quite as much food I cut the recipe in half. You don't have to get too exact about the measurements. I use three or four chicken breasts--whatever comes in the smaller package at the grocery store--and use between half and 3/4 of the amount of salsa and taco seasoning called for in the full recipe. The only result of using too much salsa for the amount of chicken you use is that it will have more liquid when it's done. The flavor will be the same. Pour out a little of the liquid when the chicken is cooked and you're good to go!

*I use Old El Paso Reduced Sodium for the seasoning. For the salsa I switch between brands, but Newman's Own and Pace are my favorites. Trader Joe's Mango Salsa and other kinds with mango and peach flavors are delicious in this recipe as well.  If you want to avoid using processed ingredients you can make this recipe using homemade salsa and homemade taco seasoning and achieve the same results with the added bonus of skipping out on the preservatives and such in pre-packaged ingredients.

Here is the tortilla soup recipe from one of the readers. Thanks, Cissy!

2 cups of the shredded chicken
One 32oz box of chicken broth
One can corn(drain)
2 handfuls chopped cilantro
One squeezed lime
One can diced tomatoes (reg size)
One can diced tomatoes w/ chiles (if you can't find the can get another can of diced tomatoes and a can of diced chiles)
1/2 large yellow onion
One can black beans
2-3 table spoons of tomato paste
2 teaspoons of cumin
2 teaspoons of chile powder
2 teaspoons of garlic powder

Dump everything in a pot and simmer for ~30 minutes. Garnish with cheese and crispy tortilla strips!