Terry Ambrose

Writing is like a good barbecue sauce, if it ain't bold, it ain't worth doing.

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Turkey and Bean Taco Enchiladas

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With a bit of inspiration from both tacos and enchiladas, these Turkey and Bean Taco Enchiladas are sure to please everyone.

Turkey and Bean Taco Enchiladas? This delicious combination blends a bit of both into an easy-to-make casserole. This was originally a beef and bean recipe, but I swapped the ground beef for turkey and tweaked a couple of ingredients to make it a bit healthier. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps or ingredients. This really is an easy dish to make.

Best of all, you can even make the turkey and bean mixture ahead of time so all you have to do is layer, heat, and serve. Then, voila, a weeknight dinner everyone can enjoy!

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 Turkey and Bean Taco Enchiladas
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword Easy Dinner
Servings
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword Easy Dinner
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish.
  2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the ground turkey.
  3. Cook until slightly pink, then drain off excess fat.
  4. Season turkey with Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, cumin, oregano, a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper.
  5. Brown the mean, breaking it up into smaller pieces, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
  6. Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
  7. Add beans, salsa and 1/2 cup water.
  8. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until the sauce thickens and coats the meat, about 5 minutes.
  9. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  10. Layer half the tortillas on the bottom of the oiled casserole dish.
  11. Spread half the meat mixture on top.
  12. Sprinkle half the cheese over the meat.
  13. Sprinkle half the green onions on top of cheese
  14. Repeat with remaining tortillas, meat and cheese.
  15. Bake uncovered until the cheese melts and the casserole is hot, about 20 minutes.
  16. Remove from oven, let stand for 5 minutes, and serve.
  17. Top with your favorites—sour cream, lettuce, and/or tomato. Serve with avocado, salsa, and tortilla chips on the side.
Recipe Notes

There are a lot of possible variations on this recipe. The first time I made it, I replaced the cooked regular onion with green onion. You could also add sliced olives as a layer. The original recipe called for 6 cups of tortilla chips instead of tortillas. If you don’t mind the added fat, that’s a tasty alternative. Have fun!

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Mexican Chicken Braise

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Mexican Chicken Braise
With chicken so tender you can cut it with a fork, red and green peppers, and onions, how could you lose?

This is a delicious way to prepare chicken that can be served over rice, buckwheat, or just with corn tortillas. The chicken is fork-tender and this dish heats up for leftovers nicely.

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 Mexican Chicken Braise
Mexican Chicken Braise
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Mexican Chicken Braise
Instructions
  1. Wash and trim off excess fat from chicken thighs. Pat dry.
  2. Zest one lime. Add the juice from the lime and the zest to a small prep bowl and set aside. Combine juice from another lime, tequila, and worschestershire sauce in flat pan.
  3. In a small prep bowl, mix chili powder, cumin, oregano, and cinnamon together and set aside.
  4. Add chicken to pan and season with salt (optional), pepper, and a small amount of the seasoning mix. Marinate chicken for up to 30 minutes.
  5. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes and their juice, broth, adobo sauce, and sugar and set aside.
  6. Dice onion and mince garlic and set aside onion in a small prep bowl.
  7. Chop green and red peppers and set aside in another small prep bowl.
  8. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add oil. When oil is shimmering, add chicken and brown for about 15 minutes, alternating sides every 3-4 minutes. Remove chicken from skillet and drain off excess fat from skillet.
  9. Return skillet to heat, lowering temperature to medium. Add 1 tbl. oil and heat until shimmering.
  10. Cook onion until tender, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.
  11. Add garlic and and seasonings and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  12. Add tomato mixture to onion and bring to a boil, stirring frequently to pick up browned bits in skillet.
  13. Return chicken to skillet and reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through.
  14. Once chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees F at minimum), remove chicken from skillet and shred with two forks.
  15. Return shredded chicken to skillet. Add peppers and olives and cook until sauce is thickened and clings to chicken, about 10 minutes.
  16. Stir in lime zest and juice.
  17. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe Notes

To make preparation easier, use 4 small prep bowls, 1 medium bowl, a dish in which to marinate the chicken, and a large skillet.

The adobo sauce/chipotle pepper mixture can be purchased in 4 oz cans. Using a pair of gloves, dice the peppers, then put the amount needed for this recipe in a small prep bowl. The remainder of the adobo sauce/chipotle pepper mixture can be put onto wax paper and frozen in 1 - 2 tsp. portions. Whenever you need this seasoning again, just pull what you need from the freezer, being sure to not touch the mixture with your fingers.

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Turkey Taco Salad

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This Turkey Taco Salad recipe is a great summer dish. It’s light, easy to make, and feels perfect for those hot summer days when you need a break from the ho-hum of regular recipes.

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 Turkey Taco Salad
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Cook turkey as specified on the package.
  2. Stir in salsa, vinegar, chili powder and beans; cook until hot.
  3. On plates, layer lettuce, turkey mixture, tomatoes, bell pepper and cheese.
  4. Serve with sour cream and avocado, if desired.
Recipe Notes

Notes
This is a Gluten Free Recipe
Looking for a lean twist on a classic Mexican salad? With this quick, simple recipe you can say yes to amazing taco flavors while also saying no to gluten. Itʼs low in carbs, too!
For variation: add 2 to 3 tsp lime juice, 1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro or regular parsley, 1/2 cup sliced green onions, and 3/4 cup pitted ripe olives.

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Healthy Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers

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Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers
Photo courtesy of food network.com.

We’ve always loved stuffed peppers. Our regular recipe comes from my mom and is great, but I wanted to try something different for a change. With this recipe, you get the zesty flavors of sizzling fajitas in a healthy stuffed pepper. Make the meal extra colorful by using different colored peppers. Recipe from foodnetwork.com.

Cook Time: 25 min
Serves: 4 servings

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 Healthy Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers
Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Passive Time 5 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Passive Time 5 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers
Instructions
  1. Slice the peppers in half vertically (from the top of the stem to the bottom of the pepper). Remove the seeds. For extra color, use one pepper of each color: green, red, yellow and orange. If you prefer your peppers soft, parboil them for 5 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
  3. Combine the chicken, chili powder, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt and several grinds of pepper in a large bowl and toss to coat.
  4. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it just begins to smoke. Add the chicken and cook, undisturbed, until it just starts to brown in spots, about 2 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the onions are tender, about 3 minutes more.
  5. Transfer the chicken and onion mixture to a large bowl and rinse and dry the skillet. Add the rice, 1/2 cup of the cheese, half the lime juice, 3/4 teaspoon salt and few grinds of pepper to the chicken and toss to combine. Divide the filling among the peppers.
  6. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet, arrange the peppers on top and turn to high heat. When the oil starts to sizzle, about 2 minutes, transfer to the oven and bake until the filling is hot and the peppers are softened, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup cheese over the peppers and bake until melted, about 3 minutes more.
Recipe Notes

Get all the zesty flavors of sizzling fajitas in a healthy stuffed pepper that's easy enough for a weeknight meal.

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Southwestern Turkey Salad

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This Southwestern Turkey Taco Salad is easy to prepare and can be made with an endless variety of condiments.

The original recipe for this southwestern turkey salad came from a cookbook called Today’s Turkey Favorites which we sent away for in 1990. This book was only thirty-five pages long, but it contained a number of good recipes. “Today” is always a relative term because the original recipe is now nearly thirty years old. However, with a few little additions, this recipe is better than ever!

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 Southwestern Turkey Salad
This is a colorful way to create a turkey salad without using lettuce or tomato. It's very tasty and can be modified to be "hotter" very easily by modifying the spices or using a different salsa.
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Slice the zucchini 1/8" inch thick, shred the cheddar cheese, and chop the cilantro.
  2. Bring a pot containing 4 qt. water to a boil. This will be used to blanch the zucchini. If the water comes to a full boil before you're ready to blanch the zucchini, just turn the heat off and leave a lid on the pot.
  3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add the olive oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the turkey and cook until turkey is barely pink. Add the chili powder, lime juice, taco seasoning and stir together well and cook until turkey is no longer pink.
  4. Add the salsa and simmer the turkey mixture for 5 minutes. While the turkey mixture is simmering, it's a good time to slice the avocado.
  5. When the turkey has about a minute to go, blanch the zucchini by putting the slices in boiling water for about a minute. Drain the zucchini and place zucchini slices in a circle on a plate.
  6. Spoon the turkey mixture on top of the zucchini, top with avocado slices and cheddar cheese. Serve with tortilla chips.
Recipe Notes

I like to get my prep work done in advance. This sometimes means I wind up with more dishes to do, but it relieves so much stress while you're in the "assembly phase". When we make this, we make individual plates, but you could make one large plate if you prefer.

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Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas can be made gluten-free

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Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas

These chicken fajitas can be made gluten-free by making one substitution. Use corn tortillas instead of flour and voila, this yummy crock pot recipe from food.com is gluten-free. http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-chicken-fajitas-308987

crock pot chicken fajitas

Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 4-6 hours

Servings
servings


Ingredients

Course Main Dish
Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 4-6 hours

Servings
servings


Ingredients

crock pot chicken fajitas


Instructions
  1. Place chicken and onions (and peppers, if using) in crockpot.

  2. Sprinkle spices over all. Add the lime juice and stir well.

  3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. If you start with frozen chicken breast, you might need to cook for longer than 6 hours.

  4. Serve in warm tortillas with your favorite fajita toppings.


Recipe Notes

This is such an easy way to make chicken fajitas. Serve with Mexican rice and refried beans and you'll have an winning meal without a lot of hassle. Nutrition Calories: 299.8 Fat: 12.9 Saturated Fat: 3.6 Cholesterol: 72.6 Sodium: 267.4 Carbohydrates: 17.9 Fiber: 1.4 Sugar: 1.5 Sugar: 1.5 Protein: 26.5


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