Mexican Comfort Mush

So... this is one of those recipes that I debated sharing.  

It was Wednesday.  I wanted enchiladas, but didn't feel like doing any rolling of tortillas, making of sauce, or scrubbing of baked-on cheese from Pyrex dishes.  I also had an afternoon run planned, so I wanted to be finished preparing dinner during the early-afternoon span of nap time, which meant employing the slow cooker.  I had a pile of delicious ingredients...

I also had a vague idea of how I wanted to prepare this dish.  What did I have in mind?  A lasagna-like interpretation of enchiladas, with layers of corn tortillas, black beans, cilantro, shredded chicken, sweet corn and cheese melded goo-ily together through several hours in the slow cooker with a tasty (yet store-bought) enchilada sauce.  I poached and shredded a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, then went to work, assembling layer after layer of the above ingredients in my slow cooker.

I then set it to low for five hours, cleaned the kitchen, and went about tackling the rest of my list of things to do.  When I had returned from my run, showered, and we had gotten the little man down to sleep for the night, I set about plating our dinner.

I had expected to dish up something that looked like this...

Photo via myrecipes.com

Instead, I served this...

...which is really best described, as the post title suggests, as Mexican Comfort Mush.  The tortillas had basically disintegrated, becoming some sort of unintentional polenta.  The chicken had all but disappeared as well, as it was so tenderized by the slow cooking process.  But the dish smelled fantastic, and it was 7:45 and time to eat something, so I went ahead and served it, already kind of branding it as a failure in my mind before we had even taken a bite.

Here's the thing: it was really delicious.  Comforting, warm, nourishing, and full of protein, this dish totally hit the spot, and we both went back for seconds.  We kept remarking about how good it was, especially with a little dollop of sour cream on top.  It was almost like some sort of really thick, dense, tortilla soup/stew hybrid.  I was happy to eat a dish of this for lunch today, and I'll make it again, although I think that I'll continue to tweak the recipe until I get something that resembles more of a casserole than a mush.  The concept is a keeper, the execution just needs some work.

Despite its imperfections, I thought I'd share the basics of the recipe with you today in the hopes that maybe you can play along as I work on perfecting it. Veggie friends, you can play too, as I think the chicken was somewhat superfluous, and could have been easily subbed out for shredded sweet potato, or perhaps even tofu.  Please let me know if you try preparing this recipe with or without any tweaks, and together we can create slow cooker enchilada casserole nirvana!   Or follow the recipe as it is, and get ready for some mushy goodness that you can perhaps serve to someone who has recently had their braces tightened or their wisdom teeth out, or a toddler slightly less picky than my own!

Here's what I started with:

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Take One

Ingredients

10 small corn tortillas, cut in half

32 oz. red enchilada sauce

1 8 oz. package shredded Mexican-blend cheese

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1.5 cups corn kernels

2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Salt

Directions 

1) Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil.  Add chicken thighs and simmer until they are cooked through, approximately 10 minutes.  Allow them to cool, then shred by hand, or chop coarsely.

2) Cover the bottom of the slow cooker with enchilada sauce.  Begin creating layers of tortillas, veggies, chicken, cilantro, sauce and cheese, until you've used all of your ingredients.  Make sure that the last layer is covered in cheese.

3) Cook on low for 5 hours.  Serve.

Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans

I love beans.  They are a tasty and inexpensive source of protein and fiber with possibilities for endless incarnations in everything from salads to burritos to fancy sides.  On Sunday, dare I say it, I may have made my best pot of beans ever.  And thanks to my slow cooker, it was ridiculously easy.  New England is experiencing a bizarre-o global warming heat wave at the moment, so rather than craving all things pumpkin, I found myself hankering for something island-inspired, and so these Cuban black beans were born.

Photo via Technorati

I often find that bean recipes lack the depth of flavor I am looking for in a main dish.  To remedy this, I went big with some ingredients that pack a punch, using a whole bunch of cilantro and six whole garlic cloves in this pound of beans.  Don't be afraid!  The result is an assertive, delicious, authentic tasting dish that stands out as an entree and will steal the show as a side.

Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans
Ingredients
1 lb dry black turtle beans
1 large sweet onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1 8 oz. can chopped green chiles
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
3 slices bacon, diced (Optional! Veggies can omit this ingredient, you may just want to add a bit more salt to your recipe.)
1 large bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
Water
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1) Rinse beans and soak overnight.  Even though the slow cooker will cook them completely without this step, if you soak, drain and rinse your beans before cooking them, some of their gaseous properties leach out and are removed, and you'll experience less stomach upset from having a big bowl o' beanies for dinner.  Highly advised.
2) Drain and rinse your beans.  Place in slow cooker and cover with water. 
3) Add all other ingredients except the cilantro.  Start with about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.  
4) Set slow cooker to 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.  
5) With an hour left to go in the cooking time, add the cilantro, and taste to adjust for salt and pepper.

I served these beans as our Sunday dinner with basmati rice, sour cream, chopped avocado and hot sauce for garnish (Warning: taste first before adding hot sauce!  These beans have quite a kick without it, the hubs and I just love our food practically on fire).  They would also make a phenomenal side for any Caribbean or Latin-inspired dish (I'm thinking jerk chicken, fish or tofu, a citrus-y slow cooker Cuban chicken I like to make, spicy shrimp, or shredded beef tacos), and the beans would also be very tasty inside a quesadilla or burrito.  This is one of those Sunday suppers that can truly live on through the week in many different meals without anyone tiring of it. 

Finally, one more shout out for my slow cooker.  I'm a little obsessed with it, as you can tell. Here's why: I chopped things for about 10 minutes on Sunday morning, opened a couple of cans, pushed a button and walked away.  As the day went on, the house filled with the most incredible aroma of spicy goodness. Then, all I had to do to make dinner was put on a pot of rice, and we enjoyed a delicious and healthy meal with almost no effort and very little clean-up.  I cannot think of a better piece of kitchen equipment for families and all busy, working people!

Viva Frijoles!

Enjoy!

Slow-Cooker Chili Verde

Okay, now I'm just starting to feel guilty.  Nothing in life is this easy.  Dinner shouldn't taste like it took hours to prepare when it only took minutes.  Ten dollars at the grocery and ten minutes of my time shouldn't yield something that serves six and tastes like it was ordered from a restaurant.  Meat shouldn't be so fall-off-the-bone tender that you can literally eat it with a spoon with next to no effort put in to preparing it.  In a city where even something so simple as parking one's car can be a blood sport, how can anything be so darned easy?

I'm talking, of course, about my beloved slow cooker.  I can't seem to stop cooking things in it, and each dish is better than the last.  As a blizzard pounded Boston yesterday, I decided it was the perfect day to make Chili Verde.  I do declare, this is the easiest thing to make yet that I've prepared the SC.  For those of you who are saying, "Listen, SMJ, I don't care how cool this slow-cooker doo-dad is, there is just no way I'm chopping onions at 8am, period", this dish doesn't even demand any chopping (but for mincing some garlic, which frankly you could do the night before while you cook something else, or you could buy a jar of minced garlic if you must).  I had my butcher cube the pork when I bought it, so all I had to do yesterday morning was open a can of green chiles, dump everything in the SC, push a button and walk away.  

When night fell, I chopped some cilantro and avocado and grated some cheese for a garnish, and that was that.  We had an amazing Mexican dinner and lunches today to boot.  The pork was so tender you could cut it with the side of your fork, and the depth of flavor was incredible.   If we weren't scarfing leftovers for lunch, they'd be phenomenal shredded and re-purposed into homemade carnitas burritos.  I am actually embarrassed about how easy this is; it hardly belongs on a food blog. If only everything in life took this little effort and yielded such tremendous results...  

Chili Verde

From the Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast: Slow Cooker Cookbook

Ingredients

1 can (8 oz.) roasted whole green chilies

3 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 cups chicken broth

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste

1/2 tsp. freshly ground white pepper, plus more, to taste

Steamed white rice for serving

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1) Cook the stew: put the chilies and their liquid in a slow cooker, tearing the chilies into coarse strips with your fingers. Stir in the pork, broth, garlic, oregano, the 1 1/2 tsp. salt and the 1/2 tsp. white pepper. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

2) Serve and garnish the stew: taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and white pepper. Ladle the stew over steamed rice and serve immediately, passing the sour cream and cilantro at the table. Serves 6 to 8.

I'm in Love

It's official.  I took my slow cooker on its maiden voyage today, and I am truly, madly, deeply, head-over-heels in love and I want to shout it from the rooftops.  Some pieces of kitchen equipment get a lot of hype and then don't live up to it, but I already can tell that this one is going to be a total game changer around here, especially once I make my return to office-based work.  The prep and clean-up on the dish I made today were almost criminally easy.  There is truly no excuse to dial for take out with this puppy around.

Not knowing a whole lot about slow-cooking in general, I perused the cookbook options and then added the Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast:Slow Cooker Cookbook to my collection this weekend.  The book is inexpensive, and I love how it is organized into three sections: 15 minutes of hands-on prep, 30 minutes of hands-on prep, and "Make More to Store".  These options are so working family friendly, and each recipe sounded more delicious than the last (note: this is not the right cookbook choice for vegetarians... there are some great-sounding veggie recipes included, but many, many more meat options).  I can definitely handle such a short prep time in the morning, when I tend to have the most energy, and there is something about having a clean kitchen and dinner essentially ready all before noon that makes my Type-A self want to dance a jig.  This is truly glorious.

 

This is how tidy my kitchen was just moments after prepping this beautiful feast.  Gleaming slow cooker sits beside the stove bubbling away.  Ahhh....

So, for my first recipe, I chose a 30-minute prep option: Cuban Chicken.  You break down a whole chicken into 8 pieces, brown it, make a simple pan sauce of garlic and fresh lime and orange juices, cover the whole thing in onions, and walk away.  And if you don't have a husband who enjoys butchering things, as I do, you can have your butcher break down the chicken for you, or just buy chicken pieces instead.  Five hours later, you have intensely flavored chicken, falling off the bone, and all you have on your hands for clean-up is the inner pot of the slow cooker and your dinner plates.  Brilliant. 

I mean, come on.  

 

You're going to see a lot more slow cooking action around here, so much so that I've added a new tag for my posts under "slow cooker".  Every busy person needs one of these suckers, I'm convinced.  If you have a birthday, anniversary or wedding registry in your future, I can't recommend adding this All-Clad model highly enough.  I'm loving how you can use the aluminum insert right on the stove for searing meat and have one less pot to clean.  Expect more slow cooking posts soon.  In the meantime, I'm off for seconds.


Slow Cooker Cuban Chicken
from the Willams Sonoma Food Made Fast:Slow Cooker Cookbook
Ingredients
Whole Chicken (about 4 pounds)
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped
3/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup lime juice about 5 limes
1 fresh bay leaf
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
Directions
1) Brown the chicken.
Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken pieces in batches if necessary, skin side down and cook until golden brown on the bottom about 7 minutes. Turn the chicken and cook second side until lightly browned about 3 minutes. Transfer all browned chicken to slow cooker.

2) Deglaze the pan.
Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon fat from the frying pan and return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until just barely golden brown. Add garlic to the onions and saute for a couple more minutes until the onions are golden and the garlic is fragrant. Pour in orange and lime juices. Raise the heat to high, bring to a boil, and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Pour the contents of the pan over the chicken.

3) Cook the chicken.
Add the bay leaf and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Cover and cook on high heat setting for 2 1/2 hours or low heat setting for 5 hours. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Transfer the chicken to a serving dish. Season the sauce to taste with salt and generous amount of pepper. Spoon the onions and sauce over the chicken.

It's really that easy.  And that delicious.

I've fallen and I've fallen hard.