Fiesta Night!

Enchilada Sauce

Emeril Lagasse
Yield:  2 1/2 cups
Time:  20 minutes

3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp flour
1/4 cup chili powder

Chicken Stock Mixture
2 cups chicken stock
10 ounces tomato paste
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
Salt & pepper to taste

In medium sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add flour & stir with a wooden spoon, 1 minute.  Add chili powder & stir 30 seconds.  Add chicken stock mixture.  Stir & heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to simmer (recommend covering) for 15 minutes.  Taste & adjust seasoning as needed.

Mexican Chicken

Facebook:  Gail Wiebers
Yield:  "8" servings
Time: 35 minutes

2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into cubes
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tsps taco seasoning
2 tbsps butter
1 cup enchilada sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped green onions

Preheat oven to 350°.  Salt & pepper chicken; sprinkle with taco seasoning and toss to coat.  Melt butter in pan over medium-high heat & cook chicken.

Toss chicken with enchilada sauce & transfer to baking dish.  Top with cheese & bake 20 minutes.

Serve atop taco rice (follows) & garnish with green onions.

Taco Rice

TeeKay
Yield:  6 cups
Time:  35 minutes

4 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
1 packet taco seasoning
2 cups rice

Bring chicken stock and butter to rolling boil; add taco seasoning and stir.  Stir in rice.  Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook 25 minutes.  Remove from heat & let stand 2-5 minutes.  Fluff & serve.

More Info

Enchilada Sauce

This recipe is pretty true to the original.  I just simplified it a tiny bit by separating the chicken stock mixture from the main body of the recipe.  Also, I made this a few hours before I made the Mexican Chicken, and stored it in a container in the fridge (I will probably wind up freezing it in the near future so I can ensure it doesn't go to waste).

Mexican Chicken

This recipe is doubled from the original recipe.  Why?  Because, while it says 8 servings as a yield, my family is full of big eaters, and basically, 2 servings equals 1 serving for us.
Also, when the chicken was 1/2-3/4 of the way defrosted, I went ahead and cubed it up and coated it with the seasoning, then left it in a container on the counter.  I know, it's not really considered sanitary to do that, but I like to have my meats at room temperature when I cook them.  I'm kind of nutty like that.
In addition, the butter was not included in the original recipe.  The original recipe said to grill or saute the chicken.  Yeah, I went for cooking it in butter.
As for the cheddar cheese, you can use sharp, mild, low fat...whatever.  Personally, I used finely shredded sharp because it was in the fridge, and it was open.
And for the green onions, 3 should be enough unless you use an ungodly amount to garnish the plates with.  ...Well, maybe 4.  I guess it depends on how many servings you actually intend to get out of this recipe.

Taco Rice

Not much to say about this.  Just that I used the rest of the taco seasoning left over from the Mexican Chicken recipe, instead of using a whole packet.  Not a big deal.  Also, you can use a regular long grain rice, or jasmine rice.  I've made this with both, comes out pretty much the same either way.
Also, if you don't have chicken stock, not a big deal.  Use water.  Or, if you have some chicken bouillon around, toss that into the same amount of water after it starts boiling (It makes it easier to dissolve it once the water is boiling).  Or, if you're like me and have ramen seasoning packets around all the time, use that!  Or, even better, make your own chicken stock (I did this for the second time today.  It's something that I'm experimenting with/perfecting, but once I feel I have a good recipe for chicken stock, I'll make sure to post it).
Oh, and it's important to fluff/stir the rice after it has set for a few minutes.  Otherwise, you might get a big bite of taco seasoning and basically nuke your tastebuds.  I've done it.  Not real pleasant.  And yes, the taco seasoning does dissolve into the water, but while the rice is cooking, the seasoning kinda of builds up on top of the rice, especially near the edges of the pot.  So just give it a quick fluff/stir.
And I know 6 cups of rice (after it's all cooked) makes it sound like you need a huge pot, but a simple medium sized pot will work just fine for this, so don't freak out about it, okay?

Overall Meal

 

So yeah, put down a bed of Taco Rice, top with Mexican Chicken, and garnish with green onion.  This was enough for a meal for my family, but if you feel like you're missing something, throw some chopped lettuce on top of the rice, and then put the chicken on top of that.  Top with salsa or sour cream (or both) and then sprinkle on the green onion.  Or serve refried beans as a side.  Or put the beans under the rice, and on top of tortilla chips.  There's a lot you can do with these three recipes to make a super meal out of them.  I hope you enjoy!

 UPDATED 02/07/14:

• Added 2 pictures for Mexican Chicken
• Added picture for Taco Rice
• Added picture for Overall Meal

UPDATED 02/13/14: 

• Added links under recipe titles to credited source

Questions?  Leave a comment!