Salsa Verde Enchilada Casserole

4-6 corn tortillas (place on bottom of 9”x13” casserole dish)
2 c. frozen corn (spread on corn tortillas)
2 chicken breasts (boil and shred and spread over corn)

Mix together:
1 jar Salsa Verde (save 1/3 of jar)
1/2 c. sour cream
8 oz. (1/2 lb.) shredded cheese (save ½ )
Chopped cilantro according to taste

Pour mixture over shredded chicken, corn, and tortillas

Place 4-6 more corn tortillas over mixture, etc.
Spread the remaining 1/3 jar of Salsa Verde over tortillas
Sprinkle remaining 4 oz. shredded cheese on top

Put casserole in a pre-heated oven at 370 degrees for 20 minutes

Enjoy!

Empanadas

The first few times we tried to make empanadas, we found the dough was a lot of work to make, and then baking them instead of frying them took away most of the goodness anyway. But then we discovered that the filling, which is easy and the main flavor anyway, works great just as a topping for noodles or rice. So here's our favorite recipe for the filling (courtesy of those little recipe cards they hand out at Walmart!)

Ingredients

2 Tbsp oil
1 onion, minced
1/2 bell pepper (preferably red), minced
1 Tbsp garlic
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup olives (optional)
1 tsp tomato paste, or 3 tsp diced tomatoes
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes, or 1 small jalapeno, minced
2 tsp cumin
2 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper

Directions

• Heat oil in skillet and fry onion until translucent
• Add peppers and garlic, cook until soft
• Add beef and cook until lightly browned
• Add 2 Tbsp water and remaining ingredients except for eggs.
• Cook on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring often
• Remove from heat and lightly stir in eggs
• Season to taste with salt and pepper
• Serve over brown rice, noodles, or in fried or baked empanada dough
  

Cafe Rio Pork Burrito

After a fantastic meal at Kristin's over Christmas, we decided to try some shredded pork burritos a la Cafe Rio (a Mexican restaurant in Utah). It's actually a pretty widespread recipe on the Internet. Here's one of the most complete meals we found, with recipes for the shredded pork, black beans, cilantro lime rice, and the house cilantro-lime ranch dressing.

Favorite Family Recipes: Erica's Complete Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad

As usual, we changed it up a little bit. Most of the recipes call for various amounts of brown sugar, salsa or enchilada sauce, and Coke. We did the following for the pork:

Ingredients:
1.5 lb pork tenderloins
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups Wal-mart Peach & Pineapple Chipotle Salsa
1 cup orange-pineapple juice

Directions:

• Put ingredients in Crock Pot and simmer for 5-6 hours
• Shred pork and stir
• Serve in burrito or salad with black beans, rice, lettuce, etc.
  

CHILI'S Enchilada Soup

http://www.allthingschristmas.com/recipes/soups/enchilada.html

McCormick's White Chicken Chili (Tacos)

Annamaria's been cooking this for a few months now since she discovered it. She took some to Enrichment night once and some ladies wanted the recipe, so here it is.

(Disclaimer: Ashley posted hers first, and we're going to try it this week. Hers uses spices from scratch, while this one uses a handy McCormick mix. So try 'em both!)

Ingredients:
1 McCormick White Chicken Chili Seasoning packet
1 to 1 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut
1 cup water or chicken broth
1/2 white onion, cut
1 T oil
1 small can diced tomatoes
1 bell pepper, cut
1 can white northern beans
1 can kidney beans
Directions:

• Saute onions in oil until it starts to turn clear
• Add chicken and cook till done
• Add seasoning and water/broth
• Drain the beans, then add beans, tomatoes, and bell pepper
• Simmer until you're too hungry to wait any longer
• Enjoy

We've actually never eaten this at home as "chili;" instead, we usually make it into a taco salad with lettuce, salsa, mozzarella cheese, and sour cream over torn-up tortillas.

Texas Two-Step Chicken

from Pace Picante Sauce bottle

This recipe is becoming a Weaver favorite. It's very easy, and tastes great. It can be found at the Pace website here, as well as lots of other places online.

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups Pace® Picante Sauce or Pace® Thick & Chunky Salsa
3 tbsp. packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. Dijon-style mustard
3 cups hot cooked regular long-grain white rice

Directions:

• Place chicken in 2-qt. shallow baking dish.
  
• Mix picante sauce, sugar and mustard. Pour over chicken.
• Bake at 400°F. for 20 min. or until done. Serve with rice.

Hints from the kitchen:
A couple times, we have cooked the chicken and sauce on top of the rice like a casserole, which adds a nice spice and crunch to the rice. Most of the time, though, the rice isn't ready by then, so we just serve it at the end as suggested.

Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken

from Suzanne Forbush

We got this recipe from our friend Suzanne Forbush in our ward. Since we also stole the idea of having a recipe blog from them, we thought this would be a good first entry. We tried it a couple of nights ago, and it's yummy! (though a little strong for some).

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 1/4 lbs)
2 tsp grated lime peel (it takes about 2 limes to get 2 tsp)
1/4 cup lime juice (the juice from 2 limes)
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 small jalapeno chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients (except chicken) in a shallow bowl or plastic bag to make the marinade.
• Flatten each chicken breast half to 1/4 inch thickness between sheets of plastic wrap or waxed paper.
  
• Add chicken to marinade; turn to coat with marinade.
  
• Cover dish or seal bag and refrigerate at least 30 minutes but no longer than 24 hours.
• Prep grill on medium heat. Remove chicken from marinade, cover and grill chicken 4 to 6 inches from medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

Serve with rice, noodles, or chips and salsa
Makes 4 servings

Hints from the kitchen:
For a milder taste, cut down on the lime zest and pepper, and substitute parsley for the cilantro. We actually used about twice the amount of zest and some parsley and serrano peppers from our garden!

To use the leftover marinade as a sauce, boil it for 1 minute to destroy any bacteria that may have been transferred to it from the chicken. It can also be poured on the chicken as it cooks, as long as that side is cooked again for a couple minutes.