Triple Post - 3 Ways to "Style" a Chicken Mixture

Seeing as how I've been a very, very bad food blogger, I decided I'd attempt to make up for it with 3 recipes in one...and I even remembered to take final pictures for all but two, so you only have to use your imagination on one.  As a result, this is a *VERY* image-heavy post.

I've been seeing recipes online everywhere for ages on assortments of different fillings for baked taquitos and I've been wanting to try them, but, since I'm me, I forgot all my recipe lists and had to wing it when I got to the store, so I ended up making my own oddball little recipe and finding even more uses for it than just taquitos.

First, I marinated the chicken.  Nothing special, really, just a garlic and black pepper marinade I found on sale.  I'd planned to use two pieces of it for dinner that night and only make taquitos with one, but a friend brought dinner by, so I didn't have to cook, thus it all got turned into the taquito mixture.  Anyway, I let the marinade sit 24 hours and then took the chicken out to temper before cooking.

Heat a large skillet up to medium heat.  I usually prefer cast iron for chicken, but this non-stick pan is the largest skillet I have and the only one all 3 would fit in.

Plop them all in and let them cook!

Flip them over...Yes, my skins stuck.  Again.  Still.

Once they look nice and gorgeous on the outside, you can take them out.  They will be cooked again later, so whether you want to skillet them (new verb!) until they are completely cooked or just nice and pretty on the outside is completely up to you.

While your chickens are cooling enough to be dissected, grab the rest of your ingredients.  For the taquitos, we'll be using one block of softened cream cheese, one can of corn, about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese of your choice (I used colby jack), some taco seasoning to taste - your own or a packet, whichever - and one poblano pepper.  Mine was frozen from where I snagged a bunch on sale, so its in that saran wrap mummy up there.

Go ahead and shred your chickens, discarding the bones and skins, then add a few tablespoons of whatever drippings were on the plate to a skillet.  You could use the same skillet if you're good, but I'm the epic chicken cooking failure, so with the skins all stuck on my old skillet...yeah.

Toss your chickens in the skillet, then add the taco mix and 1/4 cup of water until all the water is absorbed.

You should be left with this.

Once your chicken is taco-fied and in a bowl, add your poblano pepper while it is still nice and hot and stir it around and let it sit for a few minuets so they can soften a touch while the mixture cools some.

While they are softening, open the can of corn, drain it, then stir it into the mixture as well.  Yes, corn.  I feel better if there is a vegetable involved in at least some form, okay?  Don't judge me.  I'd have added black beans, too, if I'd had any.

Next, add about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese...

Then the block of cream cheese and mix it all up!

It should turn into something like this.

Now, to roll the taquitos!  I'd bought these massive burrito tortillas, so I ended up cutting them into halves with a pizza cutter.  I tried thirds first, but there was baaarely enough room to roll, so I swapped over to halves.

Once you have your pieces, spoon a thin line of filling into the middles.  You don't want too much and you want to keep it an inch or so away from the ends to allow room for the filling to move.  Let's face it:  You take a bite of a taquito and if it is over-stuffed, all your filling goes pouring out of the end, usually landing into a molten white-hot pile in your crotch.  Let us spare ourselves that pain.

After the filling is on there, dip your finger in a glass of water and lightly wet the outer edge of the tortilla.  This will help it stick when you roll it and freeze it.

Roll it up and press down where the wet part was so it sticks.

Then, roll them up in wax paper to further hold them together and stack them in the freezer.  Once they are frozen you can put them in whatever container or bag they will fit into, but I laid them flat on a plate to freeze so they stayed all straight and pretty.  We'll see the final results later.  :)

***Part 2***

Now, for the dinner recipe I did with the filling mixture, you'll need a can of chili.

Take about 1/3 of the chili and spread it over the bottom of a loaf pan.

Now, take two full tortillas, stuff them generously with the filling, and add extras if desired.  I had a bit of nacho cheese left over in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I just put a little of that inside.

Roll them up, stuff them in the loaf pan, then cover them with the remaining chili and top with shredded cheese, and bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes.  We'll see the results for this one later, too, and...holy cow.

***Part 3***

After those recipes, I STILL had chicken mixture left.  I was out of tortillas, so I decided to try crescent rolls.
I laid them out...

Spooned in a little filling...

Then, I rolled them up, sealed the edges, and baked according to the directions.  These were pretty good, though my least favorite of the bunch.  These are also the ones I forgot to take final pictures off, but I'm sure we've all seen a stuffed crescent roll anyway, so on to the good food porn!

These are how the taquitos turned out.  Baked, not fried.  I baked them pretty much like you would a store-bought taquito - 15 minutes at 350.  They have a great flavor from the poblanos and are cheesy and quite good.  I've cooked them both in the toaster oven and the rotisserie pizza thingie (14 minutes on that) we have and both work out great.  Despite not being fried, they still have the nice, crispy exterior, but as an added bonus they stay dry and don't get your fingers all slimy when you pick them up.  I figured it up and with prices around here it is about the same cost to make them myself as it is to buy them frozen, maybe a few cents cheaper.  A lot of work, but not bad considering at least I know what's in these.

Now, for the big kahuna...

I'm not really sure what to call these.  I was thinking maybe Wet Hens since they're sort of a wet burrito with chicken.  Either that or "Holy Fuck these Rock".  Seriously, so good.  Unhealthy and evil?  Oh, yes.  But very tasty, especially when you cut off a bite and scoop some of that guacamole up with it.  Not something I'll be making often due to the horrid unhealthiness of it all (even worse than my usual stuff lol), but definitely worth sharing and trying at least once.

<3

WookieWifey