Tomatillo Salsa and Pico de Gallo

My husband loves carnitas, particularly pork carnitas.  That’s what I made for dinner on Friday night. I cooked a pork roast in the slow cooker with onions and bell peppers, cumin, garlic, oregano.  It would’ve been good to eat on its own but that’s not the end!  Then I made a tomatillo sauce, crisped the shredded pork a bit in a skillet and covered it in the sauce.  Wrap it up in a corn tortilla with some cheese, homemade pico de gallo and guacamole and you have a yummy dinner.  I thought I would share a couple of the recipes here.  Most people already know how to cook a pork roast in a slow cooker, I will skip that one.

Tomatillo Sauce

5-6 tomatillos, hulls/skins removed (that brown outside part)

1 large onion, quartered

3-4 garlic cloves, skins on

1 poblano pepper

1 T vegetable oil

¼ cup water (use a little more if needed to loosen up the sauce)

Juice from one lime

1.      Preheat broiler

2.      Toss all of the ingredients in a bowl with oil

3.      Place everything on a baking sheet with a lip, making sure they don’t touch

4.      Place under the broiler and keep an eye on it, once things start getting really brown turn them over to brown the other side

5.      Remove everything from the oven and let cool until ok to handle

6.      Remove the skins from the garlic and poblano (you don’t have to get everything off, just most of it, whatever you do DON’T  rinse it!)

7.      Put everything in a blender with the water and lime and blend until smooth

8.      You can use the sauce for anything, its good stuff!

Pico de Gallo

4-5 roma tomatoes, seeded

1 small sweet onion

1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed

1 lime

Salt to taste

1.      Cut up the onion and jalapeno and place in food processor, pulse a few times to begin to chop them up

2.      Cut tomato and remove all seeds, place in food processor with the onion and jalapeno mixture, squeeze in the lime juice

3.      Pulse until everything is chopped

4.      Place in a storage container, add some salt, to taste, and put in the refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors come together

Chicken Fajitas and Pre-Made GF Foods

When I was first told that I had to start eating gluten-free I was pretty sure it was the end of the world.  I lived for good bread and loved pasta (no wonder I was so sick!).  After the initial shock and realization that in order to start feeling better it was a requirement I started looking around me.

Guess what?  There are tons of pre-prepared options out there, I had no idea!  In my pantry I now have gluten free pasta (some made with quinoa, some with rice), bread (check out Rudi’s, I find it in the frozen section at my grocery store, it’s awesome), GF flour from King Arthur flour, some mixes from Bob’s Red Mill and a couple of frozen dinners from Amy’s that are good in a pinch.  The products that are available are wonderful. 

A warning though, just because it says gluten free on the front doesn’t mean it will be safe for you to eat.  There is a FDA guideline that says what is allowed to be marked as GF, I can’t remember exactly what the level is, but sometimes it can still cause some issues.  For me it was some crackers, I won’t say which brand, I dove into them with gusto thinking they were ok (they were so good!), they weren’t ok for me.  Unfortunately, when you are eating pre-prepared items, it is a process of trial and error.

I have only scratched the surface in finding internet resources for GF recipes.  I have found several, and I have tried more than a few of their recipes.  I have found that Pinterest can be a good resource for GF recipes; there are quite a few people out there with boards collecting GF recipes.  If you have a GF recipe board of your own on Pinterest let me know so that I can follow you!

I thought I would share my recipe for chicken fajitas, something I didn’t have to change other than using corn tortillas instead of flour.

Chicken Fajitas

(4-6 servings depending on how hungry you are)

1 lb. chicken tenders (make sure they are pretty thin so it’s easy to bite through them)

1 lime

1 T olive oil

1.5 tsp Cumin

1.5 tsp Oregano (either regular or Mexican)

1 tsp Chipotle chili powder (optional)

1 tsp salt

.5 tsp black pepper

1 large sweet onion sliced thin

1 -2 large bell peppers (I use red)

2 corn tortillas per person

1.      Place the chicken in a glass dish and combine with juice from the lime, olive oil, cumin, oregano, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Cover with plastic and put in refrigerator for about an hour (don’t leave it too long or the lime juice will “cook” the chicken)

2.      Sautee the sliced onions and peppers over medium heat with a little bit of oil and salt until well cooked and slightly caramelized, remove from pan and keep warm

3.      While you are sautéing the veggies heat another skillet (NOT nonstick) and cook/slightly char the corn tortillas, wrap in paper towels and foil to keep warm

4.      Drain off any remaining liquid from the chicken (I usually pat it with a paper towel to get it mostly dry) and put in pan being careful not to crowd it so that it browns well

5.      Turn chicken as needed and cook until done, add the onions and peppers back into the pan just to warm back up

6.      Serve everything together, I top mine with a bit of cheese, homemade guacamole and pico de gallo.  I’m not big on rice but sometimes I will make some refried black beans to go with it along with a salad.