i recently started reintroducing corn back into my diet. score! i cant tell you how much i've missed corn chips, eating mexican/latin food, making homemade corn bread. best part of it all - if i eat it in moderation (and organic whenever possible) ive been able to tolerate it.
that said, i've been hitting up taco joints like its no-ones business. my absolute drop dead favorite is picas taqueria in boulder. this small restaurant is tucked away in a tiny shopping center east of downtown boulder on arapahoe ave. pica's offers up a mean a la carte taco selection. my fav's thus far include the chicken al carbon, tacos al pastor, and grilled mahi. their corn tortillas are served up warm and toasty i suggest ordering them up with 1/2 + 1/2 - an order of guacamole and pico de gallo. my go-to dish on the menu is the chopped salad. yep. a salad. its romaine lettuce with jicama, corn, tortilla (corn) squares, grilled red + poblano peppers, avocado and onion. it comes standard with a cumin vinaigrette, however, i'm hooked on their puya chile vinaigrette - its sweet, spicy and tangy - so i always opt for that instead. i add grilled chicken to the salad and ta-da. complete meal. i've got a serious restaurant crush on this place and i'm there at least once a week. thank god its only a quick drive from the office.
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| mole! mole! mole! |
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| centro brunch happy hour = brilliant |
chicken cherry mole
- 6 cups cooked chicken breast - shredded (i used six chicken breasts previously grilled)
- 1 14oz canned whole tomatoes (including 1/2 of the liquid) - i used muir glen - bpa free!
- 1/2 large sweet onion - roughly chopped
- 1 dried ancho chili - rinsed, patted dry and de-stemmed
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo + 1 tbsp of adobo sauce
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 chocolove chilies and cherries bar or 1.5oz of your fav dark chocolate - broken into pieces
- 1/4 cup dried cherries - dont use tart cherries
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/6 tsp ground cinnamon
- fresh chopped cilantro - to garnish + add a tad of extra flavor
- salt + pepper
place all ingredients (except pre-cooked shredded chicken) into a blender. blend until completely smooth. pour mole into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer - be careful to watch this and keep stirring - you dont want to burn the chocolate. once it just starts to bubble turn down to low, continuing to stir periodically around 45 minutes to an hour. once your mole has cooked pour over shredded chicken then serve on top of white rice, on a salad as i did above or on top of fresh pressed corn tortillas. sprinkle chopped cilantro on top to brighten up the sweet/savory mole.
FYI i DID NOT cook all 6 chicken breasts at the same time - if its just two of you eating this - i'd recommend doing the same. this recipe yields a healthy bit of food. mark and i were able to squeeze 3 meals out of it. we only used the necessary amount of mole to coat our chicken, then froze remaining sauce. we then defrosted the mole, cooked up more chicken and used it again. NOTE: this was KILLER the 2nd and 3rd go round. KILLER. the flavors were so much more intense. on the 2nd and 3rd go we also topped off the mole/chicken with pico de gallo and avocado. wonderfully delicious. i plan on making this frequently and definitely for guests next go round. hope you love it as much as we do.
my version of mole is a bit thicker than ones i've had in the past - if you like yours to be a runny consistency i suggest adding in either chicken or vegetable stock.
FYI i DID NOT cook all 6 chicken breasts at the same time - if its just two of you eating this - i'd recommend doing the same. this recipe yields a healthy bit of food. mark and i were able to squeeze 3 meals out of it. we only used the necessary amount of mole to coat our chicken, then froze remaining sauce. we then defrosted the mole, cooked up more chicken and used it again. NOTE: this was KILLER the 2nd and 3rd go round. KILLER. the flavors were so much more intense. on the 2nd and 3rd go we also topped off the mole/chicken with pico de gallo and avocado. wonderfully delicious. i plan on making this frequently and definitely for guests next go round. hope you love it as much as we do.
my version of mole is a bit thicker than ones i've had in the past - if you like yours to be a runny consistency i suggest adding in either chicken or vegetable stock.
Gorgeous dish!
ReplyDeleteLove.
This looks really good.
ReplyDeleteLisa