New Recipe #5 + July Challenge Recap

My July Challenge was to try a new recipe every week of the month. I have found that I typically stick to the same 5-7 meals and just rotate through them, but I wanted a little more variety, hence this challenge. With this challenge, I quickly realized a very real problem, I am not a recipe follower. Regardless, I am took recipes I found online and followed them fairly accurately, while still doing my own thing...

I'm actually sad to see this challenge come to an end because I really enjoyed trying new things and I know it made Ian happy not having the same handful of meals all the time. I hope to continue this going forward, maybe not with new recipes as often, but a few times a month to mix things up.

My 5th and final recipe was a Slow-Cooker Chicken Taco. Tacos clearly were a hit this month and on my Pinterest boards, as it seems I chose some sort of taco, burrito or lettuce wrap for all but one of my new recipes. I promise I mixed it up, used different meats, cooking methods and fix-ins. I tried to channel different regions for each meal too; cajan, mexican, asian and even a little southwest flair. I change it up my mixing up spices and fix-ins to match the region I am striving for.

The Slow-Cooker Chicken Tacos were more of an all day process, however I only put in 20-30 minutes of real cooking, as most of the time is spent with the chicken in the slow-cooker. This recipe made about 3-4 servings of 2 tacos per person, or 6-8 tacos total.

What You'll Need:

12-16 oz Chicken

1 cup Chicken Broth

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Beefsteak Tomato

1 Red Onion

2 cups Shredded Cabbage

6-8 Corn Tortillas

1/2 Package Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning

Salsa

Instructions:

1. Add the chicken and chicken broth (1 cup per pound of chicken) into the crockpot and set on low. Let it cook for 7-8 hours before draining the chicken broth and using 2 forks to shred the chicken. 7 hours is recommended to more easily pull apart the chicken.

2. Once chicken is shredded and back in the crockpot, set to warm. Clean and chop the red onion and tomato. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan and add in the red onion. Cook for 4-6 minutes.

3. Add the chopped tomato and cooked red onion to the crockpot and mix together with 1/2 package of taco seasoning. Let sit for 15-20 minutes before serving.

4. Heat taco shells in the saucepan on medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side.

5. Serve the taco mixture on the corn tortillas and top with the shredded cabbage and salsa. Enjoy!