Chicken, Chicken Breasts, Crockpot, Main Dish, Make Ahead, Mexican, Pulled Chicken

Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Shredded With Mixer

January 22, 2016 Sharon 1 Comment

Here is a great recipe for when you need shredded Mexican flavored chicken for chicken tacos, chicken enchiladas, chicken quesadillas, Mexican chicken tortilla casserole, or whatever recipe that calls for shredded chicken.

First you cook the chicken in your Crockpot / slow cooker. You simply layer your chicken in the crock, sprinkle the seasonings on top and pour in a small amount of chicken broth. That’s it! Slow cook until the chicken is done. These breasts only took a couple hours on low.

Allow the chicken to cool a little bit, then place the cooked chicken into the bowl of your stand mixer. Strain the liquid remaining in the slow cooker crock and pour into the bowl. Using the paddle attachment, on low speed, stir the chicken and broth until the chicken is shredded. This only takes a minute.

Now you have lots of delicious Mexican seasoned shredded chicken to use in your favorite recipes!

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (approx 2 pounds / 1 kg)
1/4 cup taco seasoning
2 tablespoons dried minced onions
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder
1/2 cup water

Place chicken in bottom of oiled crock pot. Sprinkle the taco seasoning, dried onions and bouillon powder over top of chicken. Pour water into crock. Cover and cook on low until chicken is cooked thoroughly. Approximately 2-3 hours on low. Chicken should flake apart if you stick a fork in it and twist.

Allow chicken to cool for at least 30 minutes. Place the chicken in the bowl of a stand mixer. Strain the liquids remaining in the crock and add the strained liquid to the bowl of the stand mixer. Attach paddle attachment to stand mixer. Turn on mixer on lowest setting. Stir until the chicken is just shredded. This takes only about a minute.

Use the shredded chicken in recipes like Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, Mexican Chicken Casserole, Green Chile Mexican Chicken Casserole

Casseroles, Chicken, Main Dish, Pasta

Creamy Chicken Cavatelli

January 15, 2016 Sharon Leave a comment

Creamy Chicken Cavatelli

Here is a great recipe for an easy weeknight dinner – Creamy Chicken Cavatelli. This is what I like to call a One Pot Wonder. This recipe is great to use up leftover cooked chicken. I used a leftover rotisserie chicken and items found in my pantry. This goes together quick so you can have dinner ready in 20 minutes.

Creamy Chicken Cavetelli

Ingredients:

1 box cavatelli pasta, cooked & drained
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 can fire roasted tomatoes, drained
1 jar garlic alfredo sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can mushrooms, drained
1/4 cup chicken broth

Stir together the ingredients listed above in a big pot on the stovetop. Heat on medium until sauce is hot.

This is good comfort food made from leftover roasted chicken and stuff from the pantry. If it’s easy, it’s for me! Hope you like it. 🙂

Chicken Cavatelli

Beverages, Homemade Mixes

Healthy Sugar Free Homemade Coffee Creamer

January 2, 2016 Sharon Leave a comment

Healthy Sugar Free Homemade Coffee Creamer

Do you love coffee creamer, but are looking for a healthy sugar free version? Here is your solution. Make your own homemade healthy sugar free coffee creamer, with just three ingredients.

My personal coffee creamer dilemma came about with our moving from the US to Australia, where there is no such thing as International Delights Coffee Creamer. We were having coffee creamer withdrawals, so I looked around online for homemade coffee creamer recipes and started making it myself.

Here is the recipe for homemade coffee creamer that I originally started with. That recipe is very delicious, and uses sweetened condensed milk, which is fine for my trim husband, but for this health conscious girl, I could never bring myself to use it. I really try to avoid sugar and watch my weight, so I needed a healthier solution.

This recipe is the solution to my coffee creamer problem. It uses Stevia to sweeten the milk, rather than sugar.

Here’s my healthy sugar free coffee creamer recipe:

Vanilla Coffee Creamer Ingredients:

1 liter whole milk (about 5 cups) or fat free half & half
4 tablespoons Stevia
2 tablespoons Vanilla extract

Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl and use a funnel to pour into a container. Make note of the expiration date of your milk, and use the creamer by that date.

You can make other flavor combinations by switching out the vanilla for other extracts & spices.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Creamer:

2 tablespoons maple extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Almond Joy Creamer:

2 tablespoons chocolate extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract

You can experiment around with different flavor combinations. Those listed above are my favorites, but you can make it your own, to suit your taste. 🙂

Here’s to a happy and healthy new year, started each morning with coffee and healthy sugar free homemade coffee creamer!

Rice, Side Dishes

Mexican Rice

January 1, 2016 Sharon 1 Comment

This homemade Mexican Rice recipe is too easy. No mixes, no boxes, no preservatives. Great side dish with your favorite Mexican food.

2 cups chicken broth or 2 cups water with 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon
1 cup rice
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
1 tablespoon dried diced onions
2 heaping teaspoons minced garlic

Bring water (broth) to a boil. Add the rest of ingredients and stir. Lower heat to simmer, cover saucepan with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes.

See? Too easy! Some great recipes to serve this with are Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, and Mexican Chicken Casserole.

Enjoy this easy homemade Mexican Rice recipe

Casseroles, Chicken, Main Dish

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

December 31, 2015 Sharon 2 Comments

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Tonight I made this delicious Creamy Chicken Enchiladas recipe and I had to blog this to share it with everyone. This is SOOOOO good!

The chicken cooked in the crockpot while I was at work. When I got home, I just popped the cooked chicken breasts into the bowl of my stand mixer, along with the strained broth remaining in the crock. After just a minute on low speed, with the paddle attachment, the chicken was all shredded up and ready to use in this chicken enchilada recipe. I will share the recipe for shredded crockpot chicken on another post.

While the shredded chicken is cooking, get the rest of the ingredients ready to go for quick and easy assembly. Shred 2 cups of cheddar cheese. I used Tasty Cheddar (from Tasmania). It’s appropriately named, because it’s very tasty cheese! You can use your favorite cheddar, Monterrey or Colby cheese instead.

Place 2 cups of shredded chicken, one cup of shredded cheese and 2 tablespoons taco seasoning into a bowl and combine. Assemble the enchiladas by placing 2-3 heaping spoonfuls of chicken mixture onto each wrap, leaving space to fold down the top and bottom, then roll them tightly. Place in a casserole dish with the seam down.

For the sauce, you will need flour, butter, chicken broth, diced green chiles and sour cream. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in flour. Cook the roux for a couple minutes then add your chicken broth. Simmer while stirring for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and stir in the green chiles and sour cream. Stir to combine.

Pour the sour cream chile sauce over the chicken enchiladas.

Top the chicken enchiladas with shredded cheese.

Place the creamy chicken enchiladas casserole into a preheated 350 degree F oven and bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.

Lets just enjoy this from yet another angle.

Pictures don’t do it justice.

Serve with Mexican Rice, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Delicious!

This could be assembled ahead of time, refrigerated or frozen, then baked when you need a great Mexican dinner.

Ingredients:

Flour Tortillas

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

2 cups shredded white cheese
2 tablespoons taco seasoning

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles

Directions:

Combine shredded chicken, one cup shredded cheese and the taco seasoning in a bowl. Place a couple heaping tablespoons of mixture onto each flour tortilla and roll up. Place in casserole dish, seam side down.

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour and cook for a couple minutes. Add chicken broth and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the green chiles and sour cream. Pour sauce over chicken enchilidas. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Serve with my Mexican Rice recipe.

This was a recipe I found on Pinterest, but, of course, I modified it. It’s impossible for me to stick to a recipe exactly. Give this Creamy Chicken Enchilada recipe a try and let me know how you liked it

Cooking With Sharon Springfield

Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Shredded With Mixer

Creamy Chicken Cavatelli

Creamy Chicken Cavatelli

Creamy Chicken Cavetelli

Healthy Sugar Free Homemade Coffee Creamer

Healthy Sugar Free Homemade Coffee Creamer

Here’s my healthy sugar free coffee creamer recipe:

Mexican Rice

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Sharing my love of cooking and favorite recipes with you!