Chicken Carne Asada Tacos with Pickled Onions

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No April Fool's Jokes here. I'm actually just ready for April to be over. In 25 days, I will be done with my classroom work forever, and in 32 days, I will be starting my clinical rotations. I don't know if I've ever been more ready for a semester to be over. At this point, I've almost been in school for 20 years! 

Enough about school. I thought it'd be nice to get some "real food" recipes up here since I've posted mostly dessert recipes lately. The recipe for these tacos is from the April 2010 issue of Cooking Light, so they are actually pretty good for you. Not only that, but these tacos were GOOD. 

The recipe calls for the chicken to be cooked on the stove in a skillet (which is how we did it). Around here, the weather has been SO NICE all week, and it has put me in summer mode wanting to grill everything. That said, I think that grilling the chicken and slicing it afterward would give these tacos that much more flavor. We did splurge and got the Cotija cheese, and I'm glad we did. The flavor of the cheese is so much different from any others that I've tried before, and it lends itself well to the tacos.

 











 My only other issue with the recipe is the tortillas. In my opinion, I find corn tortillas a little bit dry, and I think it carried over a bit into the tacos themselves. I would have liked them much better on a whole-wheat flour tortilla, but that's an easy swap for next time. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Chicken Carne Asada Tacos with Pickled Onions
From Cooking Light April 2010

Ingredients:
1/2 c. fresh orange juice (about 1 orange)
1/2 c. fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 medium red onion, thinly vertically sliced
1-1/2 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken thighs (breasts) trimmed and cut into thin strips
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
cooking spray
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 diced, peeled avocado 
1/2 c. (2 oz) crumbled Cotija cheese
lime wedges (optional)

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring until sugar dissolves. Place onion in a small saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil; drain and plunge onion into ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain onion; add to juice mixture. Chill until ready to serve.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Sprinkle chicken with oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper; toss to coat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes or until browned and done, stirring occasionally. 

Heat tortillas according to package directions. Divide chicken evenly among tortillas. Drain onion; divide evenly among tortillas. Top each tortilla with 2 Tbsp. avocado and 1 Tbsp. cheese; fold over. Serve with lime wedges if desired.

Yield: 4 servings