Salsa Chicken

The boyfriend found us a new chicken recipe!  I loved this one!  Except next time I would cut the breasts in half and maybe consider putting the taco seasoning in a bag and shaking them to coat instead of trying to evenly sprinkle it on.  It must be that I always get the gigantic chicken breasts at the store because it took closer to 50 minutes before the biggest one tested done.  (By the time it was done, I forgot to get a picture - we were starving and the smells had been making us even hungrier!) (edit 5-5-15 to add picture from 4-14-15)

INGREDIENTS:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 teaspoons taco seasoning mix
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
2. Place chicken breasts in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle taco seasoning on both sides of chicken breasts, and pour salsa over all.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 25 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is tender and juicy and its juices run clear.
4. Sprinkle chicken evenly with cheese, and continue baking for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Top with sour cream if desired, and serve.

Oh So Good Chicken (chicken rice casserole with salsa and sour cream)

My cousin mentioned a few weeks ago (on facebook) that she was planning to make this dish for dinner that night.  I asked and she found the recipe for me and I'm so glad she did.  It's a fairly easy dish to throw together and very tasty!  I used regular (as in not minute) rice as that's what I had in the cupboard.  I used an 8 oz package of pre-sliced mushrooms (which yields slightly more than the two cups the recipe calls for, but I like mushrooms), and two 4.5 oz cans of chicken.  Yes, cooking the chicken myself would have probably given it a slightly better flavor, but with the sour cream, salsa, and cheese, it wasn't that noticeable (and certainly easier since I didn't have any leftover chicken on hand).  I also guessed at the 4 oz of cheese, just used about half (well, a little bit more than half) of the package.  The recipe doesn't state (and none of the comments I looked at really said) the size of the casserole dish.  I ended up using a big mixing bowl to get everything evenly incorporated, but my square baking dish (approximately 8x8, 2 quart).  One comment did mention adding some chips (to make it more presentable, which I don't think is necessary - it looks fine the way it is!) but which I think would be tasty.  Others also mentioned adding black beans, black olives, corn, green onions, and hot sauce - which I think would make for a very different dish!  Alas, I've gotten out of the habit of blogging recipes, so I completely forgot to get a picture!  (edited 8-18-13 to add photo - recipe shown doubled, in a 13x9 dish).

INGREDIENTS:
4 teaspoons olive oil
6 tablespoons sour cream
4 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
1 (16 ounce) jar salsa
2 cups cooked white rice
8 ounces boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and diced
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Saute mushrooms.
2. Combine mushrooms, sour cream, cheese, salsa, rice, and chicken. Place in a greased casserole dish.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 35 minutes.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Black Bean and Corn Salsa (totally the easy way out):

Ingredients:

1 package Steamfresh frozen corn
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes (or, you can dice 15 oz. yourself)
1/3 cup diced red or white onion
1 avocado, diced
oregano, to taste
cilantro, to taste
juice of 1 lime

Combine beans, tomatoes, onion, avocado in bowl.
Prepare corn according to directions (microwave 4-5 minutes)

Pour corn over other ingredients. Add juice of one lime.
Mix and blend ingredients together. Sprinkle with oregano and cilantro as desired. Squeeze other half of lime over mixed ingredients. Mix again.
Cover and let flavors develop overnight. Serve with blue corn tortilla chips.

Voila!

Wine Pairing: Tempranillo, or a Temp/Grenache blend. Good fruit, but with some spice. Or, you know...beer.