Spicy Spicy Grilled Chicken Tacos

I’m home sick today because my head is so congested it feels like it might explode.  The congestion has turned me into a completely nonsensical wreck, so here’s last night’s dinner.  Homemade tacos are one of my favorite comfort foods.  As long as I can remember, we always had the box that came with shells, seasoning and sauce and we just used ground beef to make some really satisfying tacos.  We also included green olives in our toppings, which Matt will have none of.   At home,we grabbed a taco shell and filled it with our own meat and toppings, but my grandma fills the tortillas with meat and cheese and heats them in the oven…this leads to less giantly heaping, over-filled tacos that my mom and I tend to create. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some other taco types, and thinking about leftovers and the extra space we have in our freezer right now, I went with something I could turn into soup the next day. 

Spicy Spicy Grilled Chicken Tacos

• 1 large, family-size pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can go with breasts or really any kind of meat you want, but I find that the thighs have so much more flavor and work well in this kind of preparation)
• Spice Mix (I used equal parts cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder)
• Hot Sauce (Big S Farms Tennessee Lightning hot sauce)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 large can black beans (Drain about half of the liquid off the beans)
• 1 can sweet corn
• 1 can diced green chilies
• flour tortillas
• Your favorite taco toppings (we used red leaf lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, taco sauce, sour cream and Big S Farms Hot salsa)

1. Rub chicken with spice mix and coat with hot sauce.  I did all of this in a big ziploc bag to try and keep the mess to a minimum (it didn’t work).  Let that sit for 20-30 minutes in the fridge.
2. While the meat rests, heat a tiny bit of oil in a small pot and sauté onion and garlic just until soft.  Add beans, corn, and chilies and heat on low while you cook, stirring every once in a while to keep from burning or sticking.
3. Grill, roast or pan sear chicken until cooked through.  We used our stovetop grill pan and it worked pretty well. If it had gotten a tiny bit hotter, I would have had better grill marks, but the chicken still turned out great.  Be sure not to crowd the pan you’re using, since the chicken and its marinade will let off quite a bit of liquid.  You don’t want to boil the chicken.  If you’re grilling, the chicken under a brick method is pretty wonderful.  I used a big heavy skillet with the bottom covered in foil to achieve a similar effect.  (this chicken was INSANELY spicy, but once it was topped with the other yummy stuff and wrapped in a tortilla, it was perfect! Matt loved them so much he had 3 huge tacos!!)
4. While chicken cooks, prep vegetables (chop, dice, shred, etc.) and heat tortillas.     We heated the tortillas quickly on a hot pan, flipping a couple times until warm.  You can also microwave in a damp towel or heat in the oven.  Whatever you prefer.  Matt got these great thick, handmade tortillas from across the street that were wonderful for the huge amount of stuff we put on them!
5. When chicken is cooked through, let it rest on a plate for a few minutes, then chop and serve!
6. Top flour tortilla with chicken, black beans and toppings and prepare to make a huge mess!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Family, Leftovers, Life, Matthew, Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.