Guest post from Brigette Shevy
Here’s a super easy dinner idea that makes use of that oh-so-versatile slow cooker! The homemade pico de gallo takes this recipe up a notch and is a fantastic way to use up some of those amazing garden tomatoes that are quite prolific right about now.
I’m always looking for meals that are healthy and budget-friendly. This one definitely makes the cut! If you add the optional beans and corn (see money-saving tip below), you can get a lot of mileage out of two pounds of meat.
Slow Cooker Chipotle Burritos
Serves 8+
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (OR 2 pounds boneless beef round steak, cut into 5 or 6 pieces)
- 16 oz. salsa
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce*
- Flour or corn tortillas
- Homemade pico de gallo (see recipe below or your favorite store-bought salsa if you’re short on time)
- Optional toppings: shredded lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, black olives, avocado, etc.
DIRECTIONS:
Place chicken or beef pieces in a 3 or 4-quart crock pot. In a blender, combine the salsa, chili powder, oregano, and chipotle pepper. Blend for a few seconds until well mixed and pour over meat. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred meat with 2 forks. Serve on tortillas with pico de gallo and optional toppings.
Money-Saving Tip: To stretch this meal even further, stir in one can drained black beans and 1 cup corn to the cooked, shredded meat. Heat through.
*You can find chipotle peppers in a can in the Mexican section of your grocery store. Since this recipe only uses 1 chipotle pepper, I like to freeze the remaining peppers from the can in ice cube trays (1 pepper per cube). Once frozen, I store them in a ziptop bag in the freezer and use as needed in recipes.
If you don’t have the time or ingredients to make your own homemade Pico de Gallo, you can substitute with your favorite salsa. However, if you want to give it a try, here’s the super simple recipe!
Homemade Pico de Gallo
serves 8+
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 medium/large tomatoes, chopped
- 1/3 cup chopped sweet onion
- 2-4 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (if you don’t like cilantro, use 1 teaspoon dried oregano)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1-2 Tablespoons fresh lime (or lemon) juice
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- Salt to taste
- Cayenne pepper or finely chopped jalapeño to taste, optional (I don’t use it)
DIRECTIONS:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Chill for several hours before serving to allow flavors to blend. (If you prefer a smoother texture, you can pulse all the ingredients together in a blender or food processor for a couple of seconds before chilling).
These recipes are so easy — and the perfect way to serve a hot meal without heating up your kitchen!
Brigette is a full-time wife and mother who is blessed with three amazing bundles of energy (ages 5, 3 and 1). She enjoys music, experimenting in the kitchen, homeschooling her children, finding great deals, long-distance running, and anything chocolate.
YUM!! I make shredded chicken in the slow cooker all the time but this is sounding so much yummier than what i do! thank you for sharing!!
That looks delicious! Thank you!
I am trying this tomorrow night. It looks delicious!
I literally made this last Monday! Unless I visit a specialty food store however, I have yet to find chipotle peppers available in my area, so instead I use salsa with chipotle peppers in it. I cannot remember the brand, but it tastes just as delicious! Aside from that and the fact that I don’t bother to blend the ingredients in a blender, everything else is exactly the same in my recipe as it is here. It turns out delicious!
Your dish sounds & looks good, but what you’ve made is a salsa which is probably wonderful.. but its not pico de gallo…
Pico de gallo does not have chili powder or sugar in it, and it always has green chilis in it.. its one of the basic ingredients. That’d be like leaving out the peanut butter in peanut butter cookies, without it.. its not peanut butter cookies.
Heres a great page on the differences between salsa, pico de gallo, & pecante sauce.
http://girlfromtexas.blogspot.com/2011/11/salsa-vs-pico-de-gallo-whats-difference.html
Thanks for the link – I will definitely look it up. I always thought that “pico de gallo” was “fresh” and “salsa” was “cooked” (or canned or made with canned tomatoes or other ingredients), but didn’t realize it HAD to contain certain ingredients and could NOT contain others. Good to know! 🙂
It can contain other ingredients like melons or cucumbers.. but its traditionally all fresh ingredients and its not wet and its not flavored by anything other the cilantro & the veggies/fruit in it. Its a dry diced salad/topping basically.
I’ve been eating it for close to 50 years and adore it.. as I do any sort of salsa & pecante sauce.
These days in the advent of cultures colliding, their foods, & creativity, it has taken away from the authentic staples of many countries and it saddens me.
Nothing wrong with getting creative with foods, I do it myself, but I believe we as a nation need to know the history and the authentic ways of foods as well as peoples before its all forgotten.
I was born 51 years ago in a small Mexican border town on the US side.. I had Mexican maids, and I spoke Spanish before English, and I ate more Mexican food than I did American until I was an older teenager.
Some of the other things that are today that were not even 20 years ago were most tacos were not what they are today, though your meat filling recipe would be a normal taco filling, (Yum, it looks & sounds delightful), Fajitas were a cut of beef back strap, and cooked like they are today with peppers and onions, burritos were fried, and Mexican restaurants served a lot of steaks, stews, & varieties of tacos & enchiladas.
Thankfully we have a Mexican restaurant close to where I live where they still serve authentic Mexican food.. Its not the Tex Mex variation that most Americans have come to know. (not putting down Tex Mex.. I love it too, but it is what it is. ;0) )
This looks really good. I like that you can use steak or chicken. I sometimes get really tired of using chicken.
I have seen chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in so many recipes in magazines and have been meaning to figure out where on earth to find them in the grocery store. I guess that should have been a little bit of a no-brainer, but thanks for pointing it out!