Asian Chicken Tacos--Guest Blog!

How fun for me to have a "guest blogger" this time, and how even more special that it's my daughter, Marie!  Recently married, Marie has enjoyed her own culinary journey over the last few months.  She's becoming an accomplished cook very quickly!  I'd like to say I taught her everything she knows, but Marie has her own style and adventurous spirit that I'm excited to get to share with you all!

Are you ever at a loss for what to cook for dinner? At any given time, I have a list of recipes I want to try and a Pinterest board full of ideas, but for some reason none of them sounded appealing yesterday. It has been HOT here in Dallas this week, so I wanted something light and refreshing that would still satisfy my hungry husband. With a somewhat hectic schedule, I needed something I could prep ahead of time and assemble in less than 2 minutes when it was time for dinner. No wonder I couldn’t decide what to make…
I came across a delicious sounding recipe from Ina Garten (all hail): Ahi Tuna rolls (like lobster rolls, but with seared tuna and an Asian-inspired vinaigrette rather than the mayo mix). While they looked and sounded delicious, we are on a budget here in our little kitchen and I just couldn’t get down with the thought of putting a $30 piece of fish into a hot dog bun. SO, I mixed and matched (a LOT) and made something work for us! And guess what – Miles declared that this is his new favorite meal! That’s good enough for me.
Here’s where it all goes down (told you it was a little kitchen):

Asian Chicken Tacos
Ingredients:
-for the tacos-
2 cooked chicken breasts (I just used rotisserie chicken)
1 avocado
about ¼ of a finely chopped red onion
½  of a fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
1 Tbl. toasted white sesame seeds
¼ cup chopped cilantro
corn or flour tortillas

-for the vinaigrette-
2 Tbl. olive oil
½ tsp. wasabi powder
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. Tabasco
juice of 2 limes
zest of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Warm tortillas in the oven, wrapped in foil for 20 minutes at 350F. While they are warming, get going with everything else!

Shred the chicken breasts using 2 forks and set aside into a bowl.

Next, make the vinaigrette simply by whisking together all of the ingredients. Be careful not to over salt – the soy sauce has a lot of salt already (even the low sodium kind!) so make sure you don’t overdo it.


Pour the vinaigrette over the chicken mixture just enough to dress it, reserving the remaining for later use. (I had it on a salad today and it was yum!)

In a small saucepan, toss the sesame seeds in to lightly toast them on medium heat. No exact science here – they will become fragrant and lightly brown when they’re ready (mine took about 8 minutes).

While the sesame seeds are toasting, dice the avocado into big chunks and GENTLY fold it into the chicken mixture. You want the avocado to stay in those big chunks and not turn in to guacamole, so, gently!

Time to assemble! Spoon the chicken mixture into a warm tortilla and top with sesame seeds and cilantro. As my inspiration for this dish would say, how easy is that?

These tacos disappeared so quickly that I had to take an action shot off Miles’s plate.
MM