Crock Pot Salsa Chicken Tacos

If you're anything like me, Halloween is a day long event.  You have the Halloween parades and the kid's schools, then you have to make a stop by the office to show off the costumes.  Then it's off to the grandparents so they can fawn over them for a bit.  Finally, we run back home so one of us can hand out candy while the other one wanders the neighborhood with the children.    Yes, I said wander the neighborhood.  I want them to know the people who live around them and, since I can be a little introverted at times, I need the excuse to say Hi to all the neighborhood parents.

But during a day like this, it's almost impossible have a dinner that doesn't include fast food.  That is, unless, you can prepare dinner at breakfast-time.  Yes, it's time to break out the old crock pot and make some Salsa Chicken Tacos.

This recipe is great for any occasion where you only have 10 minutes in the evening.  This is a prime time to have a bag of grated Mexican style cheeses, sliced lettuce, a can of beans and a precooked batch of Spanish Rice in the fridge ready to go.  When you walk in the door from a long day of haunting, just reheat the beans and rice, shred or chop up the chicken breast, and you're ready to serve.

Now I've listed two different ways to do the salsa.  Why?  Because I'm not a real big fan of the salsa made in 'New York City!'.  To me, most of the non-refrigerated salsas you buy off the shelf have little flavor and enough salt to cause me to swell out of my costume in 30 minutes or less.  So if you're going to use a pre-made salsa, look for a fresh option.  Almost every grocery store has a refrigerated section with freshly made salsa, some even make their own brand.  I've also included a recipe here to create your own salsa in the crock pot itself.  I prefer this option, just because I can control the ingredients and the salt content.  But when time is of the essence, the pre-made salsa works great.

And if you're going to have a VERY long day, it's OK to cook this for up to 12 hours.  There's enough water in the chicken breasts and salsa to keep it moist and delicious all day long.  If you're first scheduled haunt is at 8:00AM, just turn the crock pot on as you walk out the door and you'll be ready to go whenever you get home.  And since it's meat in a somewhat gory red sauce, you can tell the kids that they have to eat their entrails before they can trick or treat around the neighborhood.

Crock Pot Salsa Chicken Tacos

The Salsa
32 ounces of your favorite pre-made salsa, or...

2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes with the juice in the can
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 yellow or white onion, diced
1/2 large green pepper, diced
1-2 small jalapeno peppers (depending on how much heat you want), diced with the seeds and membranes removed
1 tablespoon minced cilantro

The Rest
1 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 tablespoon cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced
4-6 skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs

Dump the salsa or salsa ingrediends into the crock pot.  Then add the garlic and spices and stir them together.  Lay the chicken on top of the salsa, cover the crock pot and allow it to cook on low for 6-8 hours.  When you're ready to serve, fish the pieces of the chicken out of the salsa and use pair of forks to shred them to whatever consistency you like.  Stir it into the salsa so it is thoroughly incorporated into the salsa mixture.  Warm some beans and Spanish Rice, prepare your tortillas and other garnishes and you'll have a full meal in no time.

So go scare the bejeeses out of the world all day long and them arrive home to the smell of some great chicken tacos.  They'll refuel you for the grand finale later than night.

Roasted Monster Arm AKA Halloween Meat Lover's Stromboli and Calzone

Alright, let's say you're looking for something gruesome yet edible as a centerpiece for your Halloween party.    Well, I've got something for you, it's a Roasted Monster Arm!

OK, it's not really any type of flesh.  It's a fat meat lover's stromboli-like dish that's coated in overcooked mozzarella cheese.  It's actually three different parts.  The length of the arm is a tapered stromboli filled with all sorts of meat and sauce for that perfect combination of gore.  The palm of the hand is a rounded calzone with the same sort of filling. Finally, each finger is a breadstick stuffed with Mozzarella cheese.

Now you can fill this thing with anything you want, but I figured that stuffing it full of animal flesh gives it more of a gory look.  I used some pepperoni, salami, sweet italian sausage, and ham as my meats.  And by the way, save yourself some money and buy just the amount you need from the deli and butcher block in your grocery store.  The quality of the meat is better and in most cases, it's the same price as the prepakaged items in the cooler cases. I added a few mushrooms in because we like the taste.  You can put anything you'd like in there.  Matter of fact, if you cut an onion into rings, then make one cut to turn it into one large strip, you'll have the perfect look of a tendon.  Also, if you want to change it into a roasted alien arm, stuff it full of spinach, mushrooms, onions and some ricotta and mozzarella cheese.  Basically, be as creative as you'd like and add any ingredients you enjoy.

To get the nasty looking exterior, we've performed a few tasks.  First,  we've basted it in pizza sauce so we get a meaty and bloody covering.  Then we've rovered it entirely in cheese.  Finally, when the baking is done, it goes back under the broiler to scorch the cheese to give it that charred flesh look.

Serving it on a tray like this with warm pizza sauce makes it looks like a bloody mess.

Roasted Monster Arm AKA Halloween Meat Lover's Stromboli and Calzone

One batch of our pizza dough

2 cups pizza sauce

1/4 pound pepperoni

1/4 pound mushrooms

1/2 pound browned Italian sausage

1/4 pound salami
1/4 pound sliced ham or canadian bacon

1-2 pound block of mozzarella cheese
5 whole almonds (Optional)

Make your pizza sauce and crust ahead of time.  The crust can spend up to 48 hours in the fridge after it's risen.  The sauce can stay good in the fridge for up to a week.  When you're ready to assemble, grate yourself some cheese, but leave at least a 1 inch by 2 inch by 3 inch slab of the block for the fingers.  Now start making each piece....

For the length of the arm, roll out one pizza crust to approximately a 9 inch by 6-7 inch rectangle.  Coat it with pizza sauce, leave a one inch border on each side.  Load the meat and mushrooms onto the sauce and then cover with grated cheese.  Roll the crust up into a tube shape and fold/crimp one end closed.  Stretch the uncrimped end slightly to create that tapered look.  Fold or crimp this end at this point.

For the palm of the hand, roll out a piece that's about 3 inches by 5 inches wide.  Cover with sauce, but leave a 1/2 inch border around the edge.  Cover with meat, mushrooms and cheese.  Fold it over by the long end, so you'll end up with a 2 1/2 inch by 3 inch calzone.  Seal all of the edges and set aside.
 
For the fingers, cut some of the block of mozzarella into 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch by whatever length strips.  Trim them to the length of the fingers you want.  I suggest to measure them all out before you start wrapping. Start wrapping the fingers by pulling a small piece of dough from the remaining bread ball and roll it out so it's wide enough to cover the cheese.

Wrap the mozzarella with the leftover dough to cover the fingers and seal them tightly.







Now assemble the arm.  Place the length of the arm on a greased cookie sheet.  Place the calzone at the tapered end of the arm and crimp the edges of the pieces together to join.  Place the fingers in place at the end of the palm and crimp them to attach. Grab your basting brush and coat the entire monstrosity with pizza sauce.  This will give it that gory interior that will shine through the cheese on top



Speaking of the cheese, start grabbing handfuls of the cheese and spread it all over the arm.  Pat it down on all sides.  The pizza sauce will act as a glue, so it should not fall off.  Make sure to put enough on there so it's thoroughly covered, but not enough that you can't see some of the sauce.  The spaces in-between the shreds will allow some of the gore to shine through.  If you happen to have those almonds around, you can stick at the end of the fingertips to make rotten fingernails.  If you don't, don't worry, they're not mandatory.

Now poke a few slits along the stromboli and the calzone to allow the air to escape the interior as it cooks.  If you do it at this stage, the cheese will eventually melt over the holes just enough to hide them. Place it in a 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.  Now at this point, the bread will be cooked, but the cheese may not be completely browned to your liking.  You have a few options.  I placed mine under the broiler for about 2 minutes, watching it the whole time and moving it slightly so it browns evenly.  You can also brown it using a creme brulee torch.  If you don't have the little torch, go grab the blowtorch out of the garage and fry that cheese like a MAN!!!   There may also be a chance that the cheese has melted across the fingers so they look like one large webbed paw.  If that's the case, use a sharp knife to slice through the cheese.   That happened with this example, and as you can see, slicing the cheese looks just fine.

Once it looks the the way you want, slide it off onto a large platter.  If you want a little more gore, you can pour more pizza sauce around the platter.  Serve soon, so the cheese inside stays nice and gooey.  Or if you want to just use it as a centerpiece, you can... then slice it up, place it in the fridge and eat it for lunch for a few days.  You'll have a great lunch and the hand portion is a great conversation starter with the other employees in the break room.

So make one of these for your Halloween party and gorge yourself on the meaty gore hidden within!

Hone your knife skills: an Inforgraphic

I like the trend of infographics.  These are those large graphics that you find on the web that focus on one particular topic and spew out a great deal of information.  Yes, some of them can be hokey or funny, like the ones about Star Wars or preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse, but the ones that are well done can really teach you something.

Like this one that I found on Visual.ly.  It discusses all the basics about knives and how to use them.

Go to THIS LINK to see it in all it's glory.

New Halloween related recipe coming later this week, watch for it.

Garlic Cheddar Cheese Beer Bread - Made with Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale

So ever since the Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale was introduced, I've been adding it to a number of recipes to see how it would turn out.  It works pretty darn well as a marinade ingredient for some sirloin steaks.  Just pour a cup and a half of the ale into a ziploc bag, add a little pepper, salt, rosemary, thyme, and garlic and let them soak for at least 4 hours.  Grill them up and have an awesome meal.

I also used it as the liquid in the batter for the Fish and Chips I just posted a few days ago.  The depth of the flavor enriches the batter so when mixed with the flaky white fish and the sourness of the tartar sauce,oh yes, it's amazing!

But so far, my favorite recipe is this Garlic Cheddar Beer Bread.  It's a savory bread that makes a great side dish for any meal.  And the bread only takes about an hour to make, instead of the 3-4 hours you have to dedicate to a regular loaf of bread. Just mix it, place it in the oven when you start cooking and it'll come out of the oven as you're plating your meal.

You see, this is a quick bread.  Instead of using yeast or some other biological leavening agent, we're using baking powder, a chemical leavening agent.  That means that we don't have the let the dough sit on the counter or in a cold oven for hours.  The baking powder will make it rise in the oven, just like muffins.  Muffins made with delicious, delicious beer.

The grated cheese and garlic meld themselves into the dough, making one large mass.  Now if you want more cheesy goodness, dice about 4 ounces of sharp cheddar into 1/4 inch cubes.  Stir them in and when you slice the bread open, you'll find little pockets of cheesiness throughout the loaf.

Garlic Cheddar Cheese Beer Bread - Made with Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 cloves of garlic, minced
12 ounces Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale
2 1/2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Add the flour, salt, pepper, thyme, sugar, baking powder, garlic and cheese into a large mixing bowl and stir until well combined.  Then add the beer slowly and stir it about 20 times.  We're looking for the consistency of muffin batter, not pancake batter.  Let it sit for a couple of minutes while you grease the sides of a standard bread loaf pan.

Pour the dough into the greased pan and spread it out evenly.  Pour the melted butter over the bread and brush it evenly over the top with a pastry brush.  Sprinkle a little leftover grated cheddar cheese over the top and place it in the oven for 45-55 minutes.  When a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, it's ready to go.


So thank you Kerry, Bill and Gina (and Squatter's as well) for a wonderfully tasty beer and the inspiration for an equally tasty bread.

Beer Battered Fish and Chips - Made with Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale

So ever since the announcement of the new Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale, I've been trying to create a few great recipes using it as an ingredient.  Our rule for cooking with booze is that you'd never cook with anything you wouldn't drink.  And trust me, you'll want to drink a lot of this beer.  It's flavor is  rich and unique, perfect for a flavorful batter for some fish and chips.

Now I've made some fish and chips before, but I have to say that the Red as Hell Ale gives the recipe a much deeper and fuller flavor.  The hoppiness and the grains in the beer really bring out the flavor in the fish.

I used cod for this particular batch of fish and chips, because it's a great flaky white fish.  It holds up to the frying temperature and stays firm throughout.  The best fish I've ever fried is halibut, but considering that the price per pound of halibut can exceed that of a filet mignon, it's officially a sometimes food.   Other good fish to fry include catfish and tilapia.

The batter follows the basic batter recipe we've used in other batter recipes, like our Orange Chicken recipe: 2 parts liquid, 2 parts starch and 1 part egg.  In this case, we add just a little bit of baking powder as well.  The leavening agents in the baking powder will cause the breading to expand just a little and form that great craggy exterior that's perfect to catch and hold onto the tartar sauce.

Beer Battered Fish and Chips  - Made with Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale 

Fried Fish
Bottle of canola or vegetable oil
1-2 pounds fresh fish (halibut, cod, tilapia or catfish preferred)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup Radio From Hell Red as Hell Ale
2 eggs

Pour the flour and baking powder into a bowl and whisk to combine.  Add the beer and the eggs and whisk it again until it's well blended. Place it in the fridge and allow it to chill while the oil heats up.

Pour enough oil into a large saucepan or a wide sided saute pan to come 2-2 1/2 inches up the sides. (If you have a deep fryer, by all means use it)  Begin heating the oil, but do not let it go over 350 degrees.

Slice the fish fillets into long thick strips and rinse with water.   Once the oil has reached at least 330 degrees, using a set of tongs, dip a fillet into the batter and then directly lay it into the oil.  Repeat, but do not add too many fillets to crowd the pan.  Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the exterior is a deep golden brown.  Remove the fish to a cooling rack with some paper towels beneath to collect any dripping oil.  Continue until all of the fish is cooked.

To keep them warm, you can park them in a 200 electric oven for up to 30 minutes.  Don't do this with a gas oven.  The burning gas creates more humidity, so the fried outer shell will get soggy.


Now either you can cook the fries in another pan or in the same pan before or after you cook the fish.  Either works great.

French Fries
Cooking Oil
1 to 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes

Heat 2 inches deep of oil in a saucepan or a very high sided saute pan to 350 degrees. If you have a deep fryer, even better.  Slice the potatoes into uniformed fries, preferably around 1/4-3/8 inch thick.  You can use a potato slicer, mandolin (definitely the preferred method), food processor or a knife to carve up the potatoes, your choice.  Immediately place them in a bowl of water to prevent them from oxidizing (developing that grungy looking brown sheen).

Once all the potatoes are cut, start cooking them in batches.  Remove one to two large handfuls from the water and lay them across a tea towel or dish towel.  Fold the towel over to remove as much moisture as you can, so they don't pop when they hit the hot oil . After they're dry, carefully add them to the oil to avoid splashback and any popping from water left on the fries.  Let them cook for 4-5 minutes.  Evacuate them to a cooling rack with paper towels beneath it to allow the excess oil to drain off.

If you have lots to cook and you want to keep them warm, move them to a cookie sheet and place it in a 200 degree oven until all the rest are cooked.

Place portions of fish and fries on each plate and garnish with tartar sauce and ketchup.

Halloween Party Food Ideas

I know, I know, Halloween almost a month away, but if the grocery stores can justify stocking Halloween candy since late August, we can start thinking about the Halloween shindig you'll be hosting.  In the next couple of weeks, we're going to reveal a few new recipes, which include an edible zombie arm, special rice Krispie creations, and jack o'lantern cake pops.

But in the meantime, here are a few oldies but goodies that will help set the creepy mood.  These can be done ahead of time, and even frozen and thawed when the time is right...

Halloween Party Food Ideas

Bloody Wine Glasses and the Zombifier

This is both decoration and drink concoction.  The bloodiness is just a mixture of food coloring, sugar, and a little bit of corn syrup, just so it'll eerily drip down the sides of the glass.  They can be prepared days ahead of time, if you can spare the glassware.

As for the Zombifier, it's a colored fruity drink with enough kick that a few of them will cause you shamble around aimlessly without the annoying face-eating side effects.

Jack O'Lantern Bread Bowls

This is just as easy as making regular bread bowls.

We use a basic bread recipe, added a little bit of food coloring and form it into the pumpkins.  The creases are created by sliding a very sharp knife across the ball's outer membrane.  It's not a deep cut, but the expansion of the bread in the oven will stretch the gaps out

And as for the stems, there are two options.  You can take a little dough out of the bowl before adding the green food coloring and mix in the green color by hand.  Or just make a batch of our next item and use one stick's worth of dough for the stems

Witch Fingers

Bread sticks have been mutated in the witch's digits.  Just like the other recipes above, they are simple and can be made a few days ahead of time if needed.

The essential steps to make them look good involve some almonds and a small sharp knife. You'll use the tiny blade to split the almonds in half along the natural separation.  This will create the perfect corroded fingernail for the tip.  To add some texture, you can use a sharp knife to score on some knuckle creases one-third and two-thirds of the way down the stick.  This will give them a little authenticity.

And if you have the time, make a double batch of the dough to do some sculpting...

The Pepper Spider!!!

A completely free-form creation from some leftover dough.  I made one big bread ball, eight tiny legs and used some peppercorns for the group of eyes.  Brush on a little oil, sprinkle some pepper over it for some filth and cook in the oven

It'll come out green with splotches of brown crustiness.    Use it as a display piece or...

Create a whole plate of the creations.  Fill some of the hollowed out jack o'lanterns with some chili, chunky marinara and a good queso dip and you're ready to serve an entire horde of monsters.

Try a few of these out and watch for a few more Halloween party items in the next few weeks.