chicken & black bean double decker tacos.

taco taco taco time.

double decker tacos bring me right back to half-days or early-outs in high school when everyone would disperse and go get lunch at various fast food joints. my high school was way out in the country boonsville usa, and we had a closed campus for lunch and such. so half-days were the ultimate. 

what i'm getting at is that double decker tacos at taco bell were my jam. until one said half-day when i had like 3 of them and i don't think i went to taco bell pretty much ever again haha. 

but as a texture freak, double deckers are genius. a plump & soft flour tortilla hugging a crunchy shell with beans in between! and then all the toppings within! yes please.

[p.s.a....i made these with romaine before the e.coli outbreak warnings came out.. yipes.]

turns out that brother phil's red pepper cashew sauce is PERFECT on these double deckers. it's so flavorful and creamy, i didn't think adding cheese was even necessary. but pleeez go ahead and add cheese because cheese makes life worth living.

i hardly ever buy ground beef unless i have a deep winter's craving for a meaty lasagna or something like that. and i kinda think the light color of ground chicken & turkey is freakydeaky. so i disguised the chicken with the leftover black bean juice and some spices so it was parading as ground beef, lol. looks like it, eh? pete even thought it actually WAS beef. 

and these are soo much more substantial than you-know-who's double decker tacos and there's a lot more grown-up flavor represented. just one will really satisfy you. 

get your double decker on this cinco de mayoooooo, amigos!

Chicken & Black Bean Double Decker Tacos

Time: 40 minutes

Serves 2-4, with leftovers

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 6-inch flour tortillas, plump & flexible
• hard taco shells
• 1 can black beans (liquid reserved for cooking the chicken)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• red pepper cashew sauce (optional - but adds so much flavor and depth)
• 1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
• 1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce or greens
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 jalapeño, sliced into rounds
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• fresh cilantro

Instructions-

Open the can of black beans and reserve the liquid in a small bowl. Heat a large pan or skillet to medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil. Add the ground chicken and turn to brown and break up into crumbles for a few minutes. Add about 1/2 cup of the black bean liquid, 1 TB minced garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. Continue to cook the chicken on medium/high heat until it's very browned.

In a separate pan, heat the black beans on medium/low. Use a potato masher to smash the warmed beans until they look like refried beans. Add a pinch of salt and mash the beans until very smooth, adding a small amount of water here and there if they need some moisture.

Chop and prepare all the veggies and toppings as directed. Warm the flour tortillas on each side on the stovetop. 

Once all the veggies are prepared, chicken cooked, beans mashed, and tortillas warmed - begin building your double decker tacos. Use a spatula to spread a layer of mashed black beans onto the flour tortillas and wrap the flour tortillas around the hard shells. Add the red pepper cashew sauce and ground chicken on the bottom. Layer on lettuce, avocado, cabbage, tomatoes, jalapeños & cilantro. Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt would be delicious on top, too!

Serve immediately or build each taco as desired. The hard shell will soften quite quickly inside the soft shell. 

qp

green & red shredded chicken and black bean enchiladas.

there's something so satisfying about dreaming up a specific meal and having it turn out exactly how you wanted it to taste/look/smell. party on, wayne. 

i'd been craving some sort of enchiladas like this since the end of summer and kept thinking about them. now was the time to execute.

perfectly comforting, super flavorful, easy to make, and to top it off - leftovers for days!

i made these on the day of this supposed "seattle windpocalypse/rainstorm of the century" and was fully prepared to live on these enchis for days, wrapping ourselves in blankets and playing cards by candlelight. 

no such wind blew that night. and as strange as it sounds, i was sort of disappointed that the power didn't go out and we weren't able to live as pilgrims for the weekend. 

candlelit pilgrim life is a reeeal freaky deaky modern-day ultra-privileged thing for me to even wish on...believe you me, i'm so so ever grateful for our cozy home and allllll the good things in my life.

so let me show you how to prepare for a "storm" and enjoy some delicious homemade eats at the same time. 

^^^ i don't normally take photos of meat cooking or raw meat in general, but these chicken boobs looked a-ok.

this is really quite simple once you have all the cans opened, cheese grated, veggies chopped, and chicken shredded. 

gently wrap all the filling into the tortillas, roll them up and lay them to rest on their happy little spicy bed of green and red sauce. 

i prefer having both green and red enchilada sauces because sometimes when you have just green or just red enchiladas, its too much! having both sauces meld into one and dance around in each bite is like OOH, AAH, MMMM. OK. NOMS. 

^^^ how cute are those magnetic toucan kitchen scissors pete got me for xmas last year? :)

that bubbly browned cheese & spicy sauces covering those hearty enchilada goods just scream comfort food to me. so good. SO GOOD!

Green & Red Shredded Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

Makes about 15 medium-sized enchiladas

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (about 2 cups shredded chicken)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained
• 28 ounce can green enchilada sauce, medium heat (or whatever spiciness you prefer)
• 14 oz. red enchilada sauce, medium heat
• 2 heaping cups grated monterey jack cheese
• 1 heaping cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 small can (7 oz) diced green chiles
• 1/2 a jalapeño, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 12-15 medium-sized flour tortillas

Instructions-

Cook 2 thawed chicken breasts in 1 TB of olive oil in a pan over medium heat, flipping after about 4 minutes and cooking 4 more minutes. Place cooked chicken on a cutting board to rest. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Chop onion, grate the cheeses, and open all cans. Shred the slightly cooled chicken with 2 forks. If the meat is slightly undercooked and pink still, return shredded chicken to the pan or skillet and toss until cooked through. I prefer to let the shredded chicken brown up in the pan anyway.

Add shredded chicken, black beans, chopped onion, and green chiles to a large bowl with a few good shakes of salt and black pepper. Toss to combine.

Add about 1 cup of green enchilada sauce in the bottom of the large baking dish you'll use to bake the enchiladas. Add just a little red sauce as well (maybe 4 ounces). Assemble the enchiladas, adding a scoop of the chicken & bean mixture to a tortilla, a small handful of each cheese, and a small drizzle more of the enchilada sauces. Roll the filling up tightly inside the tortilla and place in the baking dish. Repeat until the baking dish is full of enchiladas.

{We were able to make 2 separate batches of enchiladas with the amount of filling here}

Add about 1 cup each of both green and red enchilada sauce, dispersing evenly over the top of the rolled up tortillas.  Sprinkle some of the thinly sliced jalapeños around and top with the remaining shredded cheeses. Make sure the cheeses are on the top layer so it gets good and browned and bubbly. 

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until browned and slightly crisp around the edges.

Serve immediately with cilantro and plain Greek yogurt or sour cream. And tortilla chips, if desired!

These refrigerate well and taste just as delicious reheated within the next couple of days, as well.

qp