Mexican Basics - Spice Blend and Easy Chicken

When my teenagers were little, I used to read a food column in our local paper, The Chico-Enterprise Record. The column was written by a lady from Canada who wrote about a lifestyle that was pretty different from my California upbringing. She used French words and spoke about French cooking.

There are two items that I remember most from her column - a basic Mexican spice blend and a dish called Chicken In A Nutshell. I'll get to the Chicken In A Nutshell at a later date, haven't made it in years and it sounds really good, but today I will share with you my version of a Basic Mexican Seasoning Blend. I lost the clipping that held the blend recipe years ago, so it's become a basic dump-it-in recipe. Feel free to adjust it according to your own specific tastes. I've seen variations that use coriander, cayenne, and/or garlic. I don't add black pepper to the mix - I usually add that as I'm cooking.


I buy packets of Mojave spices at the supermarket, which makes this easy and inexpensive. I use this blend in all my Mexican cooking. I even use it as a dry rub on steak before grilling. You can add it to chicken broth for an enchilada sauce. The chili and cumin packets are about 1 oz a piece. I like a blend of a red chili and a browner chili.

1 packet California chili
1 packet New Mexico chili
1 packet Cumin
1 1/2 Tbs ground Mexican Oregano powder
1 1/2 Tbs cocoa powder, I use Hersheys
2 tsp salt
2 Tbs Masa Harina, or flour, but the masa works best

Put all ingredients in a glass jar. Shake to mix.
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Today I'm going to use the blend to make a basic Mexican style chicken in the crockpot. I use this chicken in enchiladas, tacos, burritos, taco salad, whatever. Today I'm going to use it in a taquito recipe for myself and my daughter, Bay. I like to use boneless chicken breasts or tenders, but you can use any cut of chicken in this recipe. De-boning is very easy after cooking in a crockpot all day.

Mexican Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts, no skin, no bones
1 small can salsa or about 3/4 cup of salsa
3/4 cup water
1 TB Mexican spice blend
Crockpot

Place the chicken in the crockpot, sprinkle spice blend on top, pour salsa over that, then add a cup of water. (Note * My water looks red here because I used it to get all the salsa out of the jar).
Put the lid on the crockpot, set it to High, and let it cook for about 4 hours. If you need more time, say a full work day, set it to Low and cook for an additional length of time - check your crockpot guide for the specific time advised for your machine.

When you are done, lift it out, shred it, and you will have something that looks like this.

Taquitos

1 lb cooked, shredded chicken, drained (too much moisture is dangerous when frying)

12 corn tortillas

canola for pan

toothpicks

Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour about 1/4 of canola oil in the pan, heat to medium high.

While pan is heating, steam tortillas. I use a plastic steamer that I place the tortillas in, microwave 1 minute, flip the stack over, microwave for 1 more minute, then cover with a lid. If you don't have a steamer (and I highly recommend one), you can steam the tortillas either in a warm over wrapped in foil, or in the microwave, kept them warm wrapped in a towel. If you do much Mexican cooking, think about purchasing the steamer. They are inexpensive and really handy.

Take about 2Tbs of chicken, place it along one end of the tortilla, roll tightly into a cylinder, fasten with a toothpick lengthwise, then set to the side. Do this with all 12 tortillas. Place the rolled tortillas into the pan 4 at a time, very lightly browning on all sides. Place browned tortillas on a cookie sheet, while you do the next two batches of 4 taquitos. When all are browned, place cookie sheet in oven for 10 minutes to further brown. ( I do it this way to ensure crunch and cut the time the taquitos are sitting in the oil).

Serve with sour cream, guacamole, and salsa.