Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Chicken & Black Bean Taquitos

Last night I was trying to use up food that I already had at home. I have a pantry full of food that never gets used, so I thought it would be good to go through and see what I could make with what I had on hand.

I had grilled chicken breast leftover from sunday night, and a few leftover spinach tortillas as well as an unopened package of flour tortillas. I scrounged in the pantry and found a can of black beans, an avocado and I even had some leftover sour cream from making mashed potatoes. Thats how this dish fell together!

I shredded up about a half a chicken breast and combined it with about a cup of drained and rinsed black beans and a few tablespoons of salsa (anything you have on hand would work, or leave it out altogether) Because I didn't want whole beans that could roll out during frying I took a fork and mashed the mixture together a little bit to break down some of the beans.

I put some oil in a heavy pot on the stove to get it heating up, a few inches worked fine for frying, the taquitos didn't float around in the oil but I basically fried each side of them.

Next, lay out the tortillas (I ended up making three) and divide your chicken mixture between them, and cover that with cheese (however much you prefer - I just put a sprinkle in each). The cheese isn't supposed to make them extra melty cheesey - but it does help bind the chicken and beans together so they dont all fall out during frying. Now, I didn't heat up the chicken or beans, that was all cold, but i'm sure you could use a warm filling with no problems.

I rolled the taquitos tight and secured with two toothpicks in each since they were full size tortillas. You could also use raw spaghetti to secure if you had that handy instead. Into the oil they went! They sizzled pretty nicely, and got browned and crisp on all sides. They took longer than I expected in the oil since I am used to doing corn tortillas which are a little thinner than the flour and spinach ones I was using this time.



I made a quick creamy avocado dipping sauce (recipe coming soon!) and I think they came out just delicious! I was full half was through my second one, but I kept trekking, dont worry!

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