Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

Did you know?

March28

Someone pinned a photo on Pinterest captioned about shredding chicken with your Kitchenaid. Did you all know about this? Because if so, we are going to have to talk. You can’t keep secrets like that from me. I didn’t believe it was true when I first read it. I despise shredding chicken. (I usually ask Steve to do it for me as I have several recipes that I prefer shredded chicken as the protein.) It was too good to be true. I was making dinner for a friend who had a death in the family and decided to give it a try. Hot damn if it didn’t work like a charm! I love my Kitchenaid even more than I did before.

The chicken needs to be still warm when you do it. And you can’t throw it all in at once or some chicken might come shooting out of your mixer. Not that I would know anything about that. Make sure you lock it down. Start it at 1 or 2 and finish at 3 speed.  I cut my breasts into 2 pieces and put 3 pieces (1 1/2 breasts) at a time to shred. All that is in the photo above was probably 3 batches I did – I threw it all back in to put in the frig for later.

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Whenever I am taking someone dinner after having a baby or for whatever reason, I tend to take this casserole. It is easy (especially now that I can use my mixer to shred my chicken) and tasty. I always make one for us too – although I make ours a little spicier than the ones I make for others. It is basically my chicken verde enchiladas lazy style. Meaning wrapping them was too much trouble so I serve this with a little sour cream and some tortilla chips – no wrapping required!

Salsa Verde Chicken Casserole

1 1/4 lbs chicken, cooked and shredded

1 24oz jar salsa verde (we like medium spice but get mild if you prefer – most jars are 16oz…I then either use 1 and it is drier or use 2 and it is a little soupy)

1 bag frozen corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can chopped chiles or jalapenos (depending on your spice preference – chiles are mild)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2Tbl cumin

fresh cilantro if you have it…no worries if you don’t

8 oz shredded cheeses (medium cheddar or mexican blend – whatever you like), divided

Mix all of this together with 1/2 of the cheese. Put it into a 9×9 or 9×12 (spray with Pam first). Top with rest of cheese. Bake at 350* for 30 min. Serve with tortilla chips for scooping or tortilla chips crumbled over the top and a dollop of sour cream.

Before baking:

After

(Different pans because I made a pan for a friend who just had a baby and one for us.)

posted under food
4 Comments to

“Did you know?”

  1. On March 29th, 2012 at 9:37 am Elle Says:

    Ok, here’s other things we’re holding out on. Use the paddle attachment on your kitchen aid to mix the stuff for meatballs or meatloaf. Then you don’t have to get your hands all icky. Use an ice cream scoop (or dishes as Martha would call it) to scoop the meatballs then you only have to get one hand icky.

    Use the whisk attachment on your kitchen aid to whip the mashed potatoes too.

    Use the same size or other sizes to scoop cookie dough.

    Last one, a pampered chef food chopper thing is great to mince food. We used one to mince up what we were eating and mixed it into mashed potatoes to feed to the boy. Great way to get kids to eat real food and partially mask the taste of it so they’ll eat it.

  2. On March 30th, 2012 at 10:25 am Jane Says:

    I had NO idea! I always start shredding chicken with 2 forks and end up just using my fingers. Yuck. We might have to eat chicken enchiladas this weekend just so I can try this. 🙂

  3. On April 2nd, 2012 at 6:06 am tonya Says:

    Thanks for this! I made it but with layers of tostada shells baked into it.

  4. On April 3rd, 2012 at 6:01 pm heather Says:

    I always make my husband shred the chicken. Maybe I’ll step up now that I know this tip.