Cinco de Mayo Chicken es Delicioso ♥

I love Mexican food.  So when Smart & Final asked me to if I would make a recipe for Cinco de Mayo using their First Street brand products, I said "Si, si, si."
(For all you gringos out there, that means YES!!! )

So off I went to shop at my Santa Barbara Smart & Final.
Here's all you need to make my yummy mild South-Western style chicken tacos.   And shop Smart & Final next week to get the 2 main ingredients on sale!

First Street Whole Chicken 

Sold in a Twin Pack, Grade A, Limit 4 @ $ .79 PER LB.

Guerrero Corn Tortillas

80 CT., Just $1.99

Onions
Anaheim Chilis
Minced Garlic
8 ounce can tomato sauce

Prep time (which includes backing chicken and dicing veggies), one hour.
Cooking time, one hour.

 First, I cut up the chicken into pieces.  Well, I didn't do it, actually, Mike did.

Mike tells me he has known how to cut up a chicken since he was eight.  Apparently, back in the olden days, you could only buy whole chickens.  If you wanted them cut up, you had to pay the butcher extra to do it.  So his mom taught him how.

By the time I was eight, you could get a family pack of chicken legs.  Needless to say, my mom never had to teach me how to cut up a chicken.

Anyhow, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees.  
I sprinkled a little salt and pepper on the chicken and baked it in the oven for
about 50 minutes.  

If you prefer, you can cook the chicken whole (remember to remove the giblets), but increase your cooking time to 75 to 90 minutes.  Be sure the internal temperature of the bird reads on a meat thermometer at 175 to 180 degrees.

Now, I removed the bones from the chicken and cut it into small (think "bite-sized") pieces.
I set the chicken aside. 

In a large pot, I heated about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat.

Next I cut up about 3 small to medium onions into nice pieces about 1/2' to an inch in size.  I like white or brown onions for this, but you could use red ones if you like.
I also cut up one Anaheim (mild green) chili into smaller pieces like about 1/4 to 1/2".

I added the onions and pepper to the oil, and also added 2 heaping tablespoons of fresh minced garlic.  (I LOVE GARLIC!!)  I let those simmer for about 6 to 8 minutes, then added the chicken to the pot.  

I sprinkled in 1/4 tsp of pepper and 1/2 tsp of salt in there, and stirred in the can of tomato sauce and 1/3 cup of water.  I brought that to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.  Man, it smells so good!!

FYI: I used El Pato Mexican style tomato sauce

It says it contains tomato puree, salt, garlic and "spices"...not too specific, but it smells yummy and spicy and that's what I was looking for...Thanks to Mike for the suggestion.


Once the chicken was done simmering and those onions got nice and soft, I drained off the excess liquid and set it aside. ( I will tell you how I use that liquid in my Spanish rice tomorrow.)

I spooned the mixture into warm corn tortillas and sprinkled on a little cheese and salsa. YUM!

Hint: When using warmed corn tortillas, use two per taco.  If you fry them, you only need one.

The great thing about this dish is that it is versatile.  You can put it in big burrito size flour tortillas for a delicious burrito or pile it high on some tortilla chips for deluxe nachos.  I have even thrown it on a bed of fresh greens with tomatos and cilantro for a warm chicken salad with salsa.


Be creative and you can customize this tasty mild chicken dish whatever you want it to be!


Now I'm gonna go eat! ♥

Please note:  This writer has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.