Saturday, June 28, 2014

Crockpot Fiesta Chicken


This recipe came together from a need for yummy shredded chicken for tacos later tonight and not wanting to stand over the stove all day.  Voila!  Fiesta Chicken in a crockpot.  This is super easy and tasty.

Ingredients:
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cans Rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1 jar salsa verde
1 can shoepeg corn
1 can black beans
Squeeze of lime juice

Lay the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot.  Mix all remaining ingredients together and pour on top. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or until you can shred the chicken between two forks.  We put it into burritos and crunchy taco shells with lettuce & fresh avocado. Top with your favorite salsa and sour cream. Enjoy!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Shrimp Boil


Well all, I'm back from our honeymoon and the wedding is all wrapped up so we can finally settle down and enjoy some of my great cooking adventures. I will say, we found some wonderful places to eat in Destin. If you're ever there, I highly recommend Captain Dave's and Kenny D's. We can not wait to go back.

One of my favorite souvenoirs is food so it comes as no surprise that we brought back seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. I can't thank the people of Destin Ice Seafood Market enough for how well they packed our shrimp for the 13 hour drive back home.  Everything arrived in perfect shape ready to be shared and eaten. We kicked off our first night back from our honeymoon with a yummy shrimp boil and cornbread.

What you need:
2lbs Royal Red Shrimp (these are not peeled or deveined)
2 lbs New Potatoes
3 ears of Corn
Onion, Celery, Lemon
Zataran's Extra Spicy Seafood Boil Bag

In a large pot, fill about half way with water and add the juice of two lemons.  Don't forget to throw in the squeezed lemon halves! While this is getting started, I began working on the shrimp. This is the most time consuming part of the process. There will be no picture because I really didn't need any lingering shrimp smell on any cameras. Super easy to clean the shrimp:
1.  Get a pair of sharp kitchen scissors and cut up the back of each shrimp until the tail.
2.  Remove the vein and any other fun surprises.
3.  Judgement call time. I left my shells on and peeled as we ate. You can peel at this point if you would like. 


Next add 3 ribs of celery cut into large pieces and one red onion cut into quarters.


Toss in your boil bag of seasoning and bring the whole pot to a boil for 10 minutes.

Next add your potatoes and boil for 10 minutes.

Then your corn and boil for 5 more minutes.

Finally you toss in the shrimp. Very important to only cook the Royal Red shrimp for 90 seconds.  These are the most perfect little shrimp and they taste like little pieces of lobster.

Last but not least, ENJOY!