Monday, March 25, 2013

Crock Pot Baked Beans & Taco Chicken

I really enjoy doing at home Mexican. You can have all the flavor, without all the grease. We were having a few friends over on Saturday night, so I decided to put together a little fiesta.

I made pulled taco chicken in the crock pot (recipe below):

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I served the chicken with tortillas and all the toppings, including bell peppers, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, corn:

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Salsa, tomatoes, jalapenos (love the bottles and bottle cleaner in the background ;)):

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Chobani Greek yogurt and avocados:

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I also made a batch of vegetarian crock pot “refried” pinto beans (recipe below):

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and desserts:

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My friends brought over a big, delicious salad and chips with salsa and guacamole. MMmmm

Crock Pot Pulled Taco Chicken: 

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I started with this recipe, and made lots of adjustments. This makes a lot of chicken, enough to feed 8:

Ingredients:

  • 2 limes
  • 4 teaspoons chili powder
  • 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
  • 16 oz container of taco sauce

Directions:

Place chicken in the bottom of a large crock pot. Squeeze limes over chicken and then sprinkle chili powder on top. Cook on low for 4-6 hours (my chicken was PERFECT at 4 hours).

Drain crock pot, shred chicken and return to crock pot. Mix in taco sauce and cook on low for another 1/2 hour.

Crock Pot Vegetarian Baked Beans:

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Refried beans may not look pretty, but they’re so yummy.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups dried pinto beans (cleaned/rinsed and gone through)
  • 9 cups water and 4 vegetarian bouillon cubes (alternatively, you could use 5 cups water and 4 cups vegetable broth)
  • 1 sweet onion (cleaned and cut in half)
  • 2 cloves of garlic, diced
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon paprika

Directions:

Add all ingredients to crock pot. Cook on high for 8 hours. Remove onion. Drain beans (RESERVE liquid). Use an immersion blender (or other mashing device) to mash beans ( you can either completely mash them or leave them somewhat lumpy as I did. Add reserved liquid to achieve desired consistency.

I think everyone had a blast. The ladies attempted to take a couple pictures after dinner (even Kay!):

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 IMG_3545So much fun!

Tell me about your weekend. 

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19 comments:

Anne Marie@New Weigh of Life said...

The pulled chicken looks amazing! My weekend was pretty low key - the little guy has a cold again so we basically hung out on the couch all weekend :)

itzyskitchen said...

Hope he feels better!

Katie said...

I adore refried beans, but have never made my own! Yum.

sarah k @ thepajamachef.com said...

i love lime chicken tacos! yum!

Biz said...

You can never go wrong with a Mexican fiesta! Great minds think alike!

Carly said...

Sounds good! I love anything with a little spicy kick.

Kerr said...

I love a Mexican fiesta! Ole!

Taylor Ryan said...

Looks like it came out delicious! You inspired us to have enchiladas last night, couldn't get Mexican out of my head. We had a new habanero salsa from the Sewee Outpost I wanted to test out = amazing!

Heather said...

You are seriously the hostess with the mostess - I can't wait to come to a party at your house!!
Saturday we made homemade onion rings for the first time and they came out delicious. I wish I would have taken pictures!

Krista said...

Sounds like a fun weekend! The chicken and beans sound like real party pleasers, too. :)

Faith said...

Now that is quite a spread - lucky ladies! Sounds like it was such a fun time too, the pics are adorable!

Nutmeg Nanny said...

What a fun party! I'm loving all the food and your teal colored shoes! We didn't do a lot this weekend. Ran errands on Saturday and did laundry on Sunday. We are so boring...haha

Annette Perkins said...

Oh hey pretty girl!! :)



I LOVE taco type chicken. Esp when easily made in the crock pot. Looks yummers!

vanillasugarblog said...

I love baked beans.
Do you know my grandfather who grew up very poor, used to eat baked bean sandwiches as a kid? I think I would too, if I had some sauce on it. LOL
My weekend was great, I lost 5 pounds and getting back to weightlifting was very smooth; was out for a couple weeks. But I was happy how smooth it went. Thankful that I've always been a gym rat so that when I do fall off, it's not that hard to get back in. I know you know what I mean.

natalie@thesweetslife said...

okay that entire meal looks amazing!

purelytwins said...

so pretty!! really need to start using our crock pots more!

Stephanie @cookinfanatic said...

Love at home Mexican feasts! This looks deelish - where's my invite?! ;)

Kitchen Belleicious said...

love that taco chicken and don;t you look absolutely adorable in that last pic!

Hannah @ CleanEatingVeggieGirl said...

Those beans look SO good and I love that they are vegetarian. Now you have got me in the mood to grill out! If only the weather would cooperate ;).