Baked Flautas de Carnitas

Who doesn't love fried flautas smothered with salsa, guacamole and sour cream?? I sure do, even though I've never made them myself. These are just as good, in my humble opinion and much better for you. You can surely use chicken to save even more calories.

Flautas are a nice alternative to enchiladas and are a snap to assemble after you've let the pork cook in the crockpot all day. It took me all of 5 minutes to get the meat going. I definitely prefer the "butt" roast (no snickering, kids). For some reason, the last few times I tried using a pork shoulder, it came out kind of gamey.

FOR CARNITAS:
Put into crockpot:
1/2 cup water
3-4 lb. pork butt roast with dry rub*
sprinkle 3 sliced jalepenos on top of meat

Cook on high for 5-6 hours. Remove from crock and shred meat, picking out obvious fatty spots.

* My favorite dry rub seasoning is something called "Santa Maria Style Seasoning" which is salt, garlic, black pepper and parsley. I used about 2 tablespoons of this along with 1 tsp. of cumin.



FOR FLAUTAS:
10-12 flour tortillas
shredded carnitas (above)
2 cups shredded cheese
1 can black beans
1 cup salsa
1/2 onion, minced
Olive oil for brushing over tops

Preheat oven to 375. Warm tortillas in foil for 10 minutes in oven. Spread a little of each ingredient in a line down the middle of the tortilla and roll up as tight as possible. Place on greased cookie sheet, seam side down. Once, you've made them all, brush with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with salsa and guacamole.

Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

Okay, well I wasn't going to post this because it was an experiment for me (and I wasn't thrilled about the pictures). I cooked the chicken for my enchiladas in the crockpot from about 8 am to 12 noon and after shredding it, realized that maybe it would work for the actual enchiladas too. It was worth a try. Looking online, I found many recipes for enchiladas layered into a type of casserole instead of rolling them up like I did.

From 2 bone-in breasts, salsa, a can of black beans, some cheese and a small can of enchilada sauce, I ended up with about 3 layers of enchiladas.

Here is the result: As I suspected, dishing it up and making it look good would prove difficult. Those first enchiladas were beautiful. Underneath was a complete mess. But hey, it all tasted the same...pretty darn good.

My recipe is usually about the same, with variations depending on what I have on hand.

Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

Place chicken breasts and a cup of salsa in the crockpot. Cook on high for 4 hours. Shred meat and add some minced garlic and black beans (olives, corn and onions would also work well at this point). Stir until uniform.

Grate some cheese. Spray each corn tortilla with Pam and stack them up on a paper towel. Cover and microwave for about 45 seconds, until they are soft and warm.

Put a spoonful of enchilada sauce on the bottom of crockpot. Place chicken mixture and cheese on tortilla, roll up and place in crock. Continue this until you have the layer complete. Cover with sauce. Another layer and more sauce. Keep this up until you have enough enchiladas stacked up to feed your family.

Cook on low for a 2 hours or so.

Crockpot Lemon Chicken

Another crockpot recipe, you ask? You could say I'm just a little giddy with my new cooking device. I'm trying to find my crock-legs, if you will. And the fact that I don't have to turn on my oven on an 85 degree day is a bonus!

I found the bone-in chicken breasts on deep sale at the store last week, and was looking for something easy to do while I was out all day. My inspiration was the lemon-pepper rotisserie chicken from Raley's. My version turned out moist and flavorful, and because I took the skin off before cooking, it is very healthy too. I know that you can probably do this recipe without first browning the chicken, but I prefer the nice browned skin the extra step adds.

Crockpot Lemon Chicken

4 bone-in chicken breasts
flour to dredge
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp oregano
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
Veggies for bottom of crock (peppers, carrots, onions, mushrooms, etc)

Dredge chicken in flour and brown in a big skillet. Put any veggies you want in the crock and top with the browned chicken. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6, and then check for doneness. Mine went for 5 hours on high and was a tad overdone. The taste was still perfection!

I seem to have a problem figuring out the timing on cooking in my crockpot. My friend Louanne said that older crockpots aren't as hot and therefore, less likely to overcook your meat. It's true - I'm going to start cooking my stuff on low and check the meat after 4 hours. I have three settings on my machine. High, Low and Warm. I wonder if "warm" would actually cook something. Is it worth a try?

Crockpot Korean Ribs

Crockpot Korean Ribs

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 T. sesame oil

2 T. rice vinegar

1 tsp dried ginger or 1 T fresh

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 package short ribs (3-5 lbs)

Put ribs in crock. Mix all other ingredients together and pour on top. Cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8. If you are home, go ahead and baste them every hour or two. If you want sauce to go over the ribs and some rice, then pull ribs out, skim the fat off of the sauce, add a little cornstarch/water mixture and boil for 2 minutes until thickened.

I loved this.....it was tangy, sweet and a little spicy.