Chicken Chimi

In my quest to find new recipes for chicken I ran across this one for Chicken Chimi or Chicken Chimichangas.

It went like this....

The recipe calls for chicken that is already cooked. I find the fastest way to cook raw chicken is by poaching it (pot on the left). It doesn't result in great flavor and you have to be careful not to overboil it so it doesn't get hard, but it gets the job done. In the pot on the right are sauteeing onions. This will become the sauce.

The spices are simple... just chili powder, cinnamon, and cumin. Optionally just use a package of taco seasoning.

The recipe calls for 2 cups of salsa but my dear husband is allergic to raw onions so I substituted canned diced tomatoes and some cilantro. It never occurred to me at the time that I should add some hot sauce too. I would come to regret that LOL.

Here the sauce has reduced down and diced chicken added. If I had bothered to taste it I would have realized it needed a kick and added the hot sauce here. But I was distracted by my husband walking in the kitchen and asking what I was making. I'm easily distracted I guess LOL.

Uh, I missed a few steps between the last picture and this one. Remember... husband, distraction, etc.

So all I did was take a whole grain tortilla, place some refried beans down the center, topped the beans with the chicken mixture, rolled it up (repeat with 6 tortillas) and baked them all in the oven.

Lessons learned:

1. Mexican food needs spice! If you are going to substitute diced tomatoes for salsa make sure you add hot sauce, pepper, green chillies, jalapenos, almost anything to give it more of a kick. I put some salsa on the side and that helped up the interest factor.
   
2. The recipe says to serve with sour cream, guacamole, and cheese. I would suggest if you are using cheese to put the cheese inside the wrapped tortilla before baking. It would melt and get all gooey. So unless you don't like melted and gooey I'd give that a try.
3. Baking or bbq'ing chicken would result in better chicken taste and texture. Although poaching works on short notice.

This recipe was pretty good and I'd probably make it again. If you have children who don't like vegetables it would be easy to add vegetables to the chicken mixture and sneak them in that way. Carrots, zucchini, corn, celery, bell peppers.... all would work well in there.

Anyone have any chicken recipes they really like? I'm always looking for new ones :)