Jacki and Nika’s Review of Tacos and Rice

We all loved these two dishes and would definitely make them again.  The testers here were Sterling, Nika, Isabelle, Max and me.  I did make a few changes.  For the tacos I used chicken instead of pork since we had plenty of chicken (Nika stocked the freezer when they were in season :)).  I ended up adding a little water as the chicken cooked to keep it moist.   We also used corn tortillas instead of flour since that is what was in the freezer.  You could easily adjust the “heat” by adding a little less of the chipotle chilles but we didn’t think it was too terribly spicy.  The chipotle chiles in adobo sauce did give the meat a nice smoky flavor.  For the Beans and Rice I used a can of black beans and a can of pinto beans.   We didn’t have any instant brown rice so I used 1 cup of regular white rice and added more liquid.  I also omitted the dried Thyme since Nika didn’t have any (I am visiting at Nika’s).  Again, the “heat” of this dish could be adjusted by adding less of the cayenne.  I didn’t feel it was too spicy though.  We served the two dishes with a moist cornbread type side dish from a packet I bought at the store (it is like that corn mix stuff they serve at Chevy’s) lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese and sour cream.  The whole meal made for excellent leftovers.  I liked Leslee’s idea of cooking the meat in the crockpot but I didn’t get it started soon enough to do it that way. I hope the rest of you get a chance to try these two recipes.