Easy Poblano Green Creamy Sauce (Culichi Sauce)

What You Need:

3 poblano peppers

2 teaspoons of minced garlic

A handful of cilantro

2 cups of hot water

1 tablespoon of chicken bullion seasoning

1/3 cup of Mexican cream

1/3 of a block of cream cheese

1 small onion chopped

Steps:

  1. Place the poblanos on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Broil each side for about 5-7 minutes or until they are nice and charred.
  2. Once the poblanos are roasted immediately place in a ziplock bag, seal, and allow to steam for 10 minutes.
  3. When the peppers are down steaming place in a blender with the remaining ingredients and hot water (except the onion) and blend well.
  4. Sauté chopped onion with a little bit of olive oil until soft and translucent. Pour sauce into skillet and simmer for 5-8 minutes.

That’s it!

My favorite way to enjoy this sauce is with some cooked shrimp and rice on the side. Mix the shrimp with the sauce and then scatter shredded Monterey cheese and broil until nice and melted.

OR, this taste great with some spaghetti noodles and shredded rotisserie chicken. Top with cilantro!

Enjoy!

Quick Tostadas

When you need a delicious quick dinner this is a great go-to! Now, I am not going to get specific with measurements of ingredients. Chop as much as you want, use as much as you want, just enjoy it!

What You Need:

Tostadas (Guerrero)

2 premade bags of beans (La Sierra Refried Beans)

Chopped up lettuce

Chopped up fresh cilantro

Chopped up fresh roma tomatoes

Queso fresco crumbled (Ranchero)

A couple of Avocados sliced up

A yummy salsa (your favorite)

Rotisserie chicken shredded

Lime sliced and ready for a good squeeze

How To Layer Your Tostada

1. Start with your tostada, then spread your refried beans. It works like glue.

2. Next add your shredded chicken or beef.

3. Then add your lettuce, tomato, cilantro, and cheese.

4. Top your tostada with an avocado slice and drizzle your favorite salsa. Squeeze lime juice all over and ENJOY!

Mexican Street Corn Side Dish Or Chip Dip

What You Need For The Corn:

4 cups of frozen corn

1-2 tablespoon of olive oil

1 bell pepper any color you like, probably not yellow though

1 bunch of fresh cilantro chopped finely with a few leaves left out for garnish

1 jalapeño or Serrano pepper finely chopped

1/2 red or white onion chopped

2/3 cup of Mexican cheese (look for cotija or queso fresco) crumbled up

What You Need For The Dressing

3 tablespoons of sour cream

2 tablespoons of miracle whip (I prefer miracle whip over Mayo. It just has a different flavor to me)

2-3 limes for squeezing

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of chili powder

Steps:

1. Start by heating the olive oil on medium high in a skillet. Add the corn and cook until lightly charred. 7 to 10 minutes, once charred add to a large bowl.

2. Add the chopped bell pepper, jalapeño or Serrano pepper, cilantro, and onion to the large bowl with the charred corn.

3. In a small bowl add the ingredients for the dressing and mix well.

4. Add the dressing to the large bowl with the corn and mix well. Add 1/2 of the crumbled mexican cheese. Taste, and add additional lime or salt if needed.

5. Garnish with the remaining cheese and cilantro and serve. Or cover and place in the fridge for up to 8 hours.

Enjoy!

Yellow Chile Poppers With Bacon And Cream Cheese

Little story behind these. I worked at the bank awhile back (this was maybe almost ten years ago) and we had a pot luck. A guy I worked with at the time, Pablo, brought these in and I thought they were the most delicious thing ever!

Everyone uses jalapeños to make poppers but these were with yellow chilies. They also weren’t fancy like how most wrap the bacon around the pepper. They were simple!

I brought some home to share with my husband and he loved them as well. After we analyzed them we were like, “these are actually really easy to make!” And now we make them all the time for gatherings or cook outs.

Thank you Pablo!

Enjoy!


Servings: 16-20 peppers

Note: you will need a grill and someone who knows how to work the grill.

What You Need:

8 to 10 yellow chiles (each Chile makes two poppers)

8oz of cream cheese

2 cups of shredded cheddar or mixed cheese

1 pack of bacon cooked and cut or broke into 1 inch pieces give or take

Bacon tip: instead of frying, save yourself some time and bake at 400 for 15 to 20 mins and a pan sheet lined with foil. So much better, trust me.

Steps:

1. Cut all the peppers in half removing all seeds. Smooth on cream cheese onto each pepper, add cheese on peppers, then lay a pieces of bacon on each pepper.

2. Grill the peppers on low medium heat for about 15 minutes. When the cheese is melted and the bottoms begin to char they are complete.

These are so good and easy! Enjoy!

Quick Adobo Chicken/Shrimp With 2 Ingredients

What You Need:

Adobo seasoning

1 can of chipotle’s in adobo sauce (1 can per pound)

1 lb of chopped chicken or shrimp cooked (this would be great for shredded chicken as well)

( a recipe for chopped chicken click here )

Steps:

1. When cooking your chicken or shrimp gently season with the adobo seasoning. set aside. Pour your sauce in the same skillet and gently stir to warm up. Add in your chicken or shrimp and enjoy with a side of rice and beans!

Rice recipe click here

Bean recipe click here

Enjoy!

That’s it! FYI this is a little on the spicy side

Homemade MILD Red Sauce For Enchiladas, Chilaquiles, Or Pozole

Makes 2 1/2 cups of sauce

Note: Use this recipe as a guide as well. Feel free to use different peppers or try different seasonings. This is a mild sauce but it’s delicious! If you want to increase the spice add more of the Chile de arbol peppers.

What You Need:

6 Chili Colorado Entero

4 Chile de arbol

1/4 of a yellow onion

4 garlic cloves peeled

2 teaspoons of chicken seasoning

2 tablespoons of canola or vegetable oil

Steps:

1. In a medium pot, add your peppers, onion, and garlic. Cover with water and bring to a low boil. Cover partially with lid and allow to simmer until peppers are completely soft. (About 15 mins)

2. Once veggies are soft, add to a blender with about 1-2 cups of water from which the chiles were boiling.

3. Once completely blended, strain the sauce through a strainer. Discarding the paste.

4. Rinse the pot you used for boiling the peppers and place on stove at a medium low heat. Add the oil, then the sauce, then the seasoning. Allow to simmer for about ten minutes.

That’s it! Seems intimidating, but it’s really not.

Enjoy!

Add more of these for more spice. Be mindful though!
You can boil the garlic with the skin on, just don’t forget to remove it when it’s all down boiling.
Simmering.
A beautiful red. There are other peppers out there though that you can use that will provide a darker red.
Doesn’t have to be a fancy strainer. This is what I used.
Yummy red sauce after simmering on the stove. (The sauce is not done once blended. It needs to be cooked on the stove.)

Tio’s Shrimp Cocktail

Servings 10 to 12

What You Need:

4 lbs of shrimp peeled and deveined

2 cucumbers chopped

1 Serrano pepper finely chopped

3 large tomatoes chopped

2 celery sticks (1 chopped)

6-7 limes juiced

1 qt of calamato juice or half of a 2qt bottle

1/2 white onion finely chopped

1/4 of white onion un-chopped

1 teaspoon of pepper

3-4 teaspoons of salt

1 tablespoon of cilantro chopped

Steps:

1. First prep your veggies. Add your chopped pepper, onion, tomato, cucumber, cilantro, and celery in an extra sized large bowl. Cover and set aside in the fridge.

2. Prep your shrimp, removing the skin and devein (optional). Once the shrimp are done (can be like forever. Have someone help you!) place in a kitchen pot. Cover with water, add the 1 celery stick, 1/4 of an onion and bring to a boil, removing the foam. Boil for 1 minute. Reserve a cup of the shrimp water.

3. Remove the veggies from the fridge and add the shrimp once cooled. Then add the lime juice, Clamato, shrimp juice, salt, and mix well. Add additional salt, pepper, extra cilantro and lime juice if needed or until desired taste.

Enjoy!

Serve with tostadas or Tortillas chips. Add in hot sauce and freshly diced avocados!

Add 1 celery stick and 1/4 of an onion. Bring to a boil and boil only for 1 minute. Even when you see the shrimp begin to turn pink, wait till the water is boiling and boil for 1 minute. Then set aside to cool.
Allow the shrimp to cool before adding to the veggies.
Reserve some the shrimp water from boiling. You will add this to the shrimp cocktail. About 1 cup.
How small to chop the onion and pepper
How small to chop the tomato.
This is all the cilantro we used. Chopped up makes about 1 tablespoon.
This is the hot sauce we prefer with it but anything is good!
So yummy!

Quick Method Frijoles (Pinto Beans)

What you need:

1 lb of pinto beans

2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon of chopped fresh cilantro

Steps:

1. Rinse beans in cold water and discard any broken pieces.

2. In a large pot add your beans and cover with water. At least 2 inches above the beans.

3. Bring the pot of water with beans to a boil and boil for 2 minutes.

4. Once the two minutes are complete, cover beans with a lid immediately, remove from stove, and allow to sit for 1 hour uninterrupted.

5. After the 1 hour, drain the beans. Refill pot with water covering the beans completely.

6. Bring pot of beans to boil and then lower to a 1 or 2 on stove and allow to simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (Mix often and add 1/4 cup water at a time if necessary. You want to make sure it’s constantly at a soft, low simmer.)

7. Add the salt 30 minutes before beans are done and add the fresh cilantro. Mix well.

*you can add bacon to the beans, or onion, peppers, etc, all optional*

Mash or serve as is with eggs, tacos, enchiladas, carnitas, anything!

Enjoy!

Try Bean And Cheese Tacos

Place corn tortillas on some foil, add a little bit of olive oil to each tortilla and rub it all over, turn over the tortillas and place your beans and cheese, fold over, and bake at 350. 10 minutes on each side.

White Enchilada Sauce With Green Chiles

It’s all in the sauce. This enchilada sauce is so delish. There’s a bonus to this recipe as well. It can also make a great cheese dip for tortilla chips.

Typically I’ll use left over chicken or rotisserie chicken and mix in corn to use as the enchilada filling. If I don’t have chicken I’ll use white beans mixed with corn or spinach as the filling.

Once the sauce is complete, take about a cup of the sauce and mix it with your chicken filling or bean filling until all combined.

Roll your enchiladas in corn tortillas and pour the entire sauce over the enchiladas. Top with jack cheese and fresh chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!


Pan suggestion: a glass 9×13

Servings for: 10-12 enchiladas

What You Need:

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1/4 chopped sweet onion

1 tablespoon of jarred minced garlic

8 oz block of monterey jack cheese shredded

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

8 oz of cream cheese

3/4 cup whole milk

1 cup of heavy cream

(2) 4oz cans of green chilies

Salt and pepper for taste

2 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro

Steps:

1. Begin with a medium sauce pan on a low heat (between a 2 and 4) and melt the butter. Add in your onion and garlic and sauté until onions are soft.

2. Add your heavy cream, milk, and cream cheese. Mix until cream cheese is completely melted.

3. Next add the parmesan cheese and add 3/4 cup of the jack shredded cheese. Once melted in, add both cans of green chiles.

4. Season with a couple of dashes of salt and pepper. Add the paprika and 1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro. Mix continuously on low for 5 to 7 mins.

5. Reserve a cup of the sauce and mix with your enchilada filling.

6. Once your enchiladas are rolled up and placed in your 9×13 pan, pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Top the enchiladas with the remaining Monterey Jack cheese and chopped cilantro.

7. Bake your enchiladas at 350 for 25 mins.

Hope you enjoy the sauce!

Easy Homemade Salsa and Chips

Salsa made at home along with homemade tortilla chips just taste better! It’s all so easy and doesn’t take a lot of time at all!

HOMEMADE SALSA

What You Need:

3 decent sized Roma tomatoes

2-3 Serrano peppers (1 for a mild flavor. And make sure it’s Serrano. Jalapeño will give a different flavor.)

5-8 garlic cloves (not jarred minced garlic)

1/4 of a large white onion

Salt for seasoning

A generous handful of fresh cilantro

Steps:

1. In a small medium pot bring the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and peppers to a boil. Simmer until very soft. The skins will begin to peel.

2. Once the veggies are soft place them in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add about 1/4 cup of the water the veggies were boiling in.

3. Sprinkle with salt and add handful of fresh cilantro. Mix with a blender. Taste and add more salt or cilantro if needed. A squeeze of lime can be added, that’s optional.

HOMEMADE TORTILLA CHIPS

What you need:

Vegetable oil

Sea salt

Corn tortillas

Steps:

1. Stack 7 Corn tortilla on top of each other. Cut the stacked tortillas vertically and then horizontally. Giving you 28 corn tortilla triangles.

2. Heat your skillet to a medium heat with 1/2 inch of vegetable oil.

3. Once oil is heated (it will begin to sizzle and bubble a little) begin adding the tortillas into the oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides. (Use to tongs to flip)

4. Place finished tortilla chips on a plate with paper towels to soak the excess oil. Sprinkle with sea salt right away. Allow to cool.

Enjoy!