Chipotle Barbacoa Copycat - Home Cooked Recipe #73 plus BONUS RECIPE

I have always enjoyed the Barbacoa (a shredded beef) from Chipotle.  I have seen several recipes on the internet of how to make it, but this past week I just took some stew meat, made my own blend of spices, and I kid you not, it tasted almost EXACTLY like Chipotle's.  So I am sharing my own special copycat recipe, just in time for your Cinco De Mayo celebration at the end of the week.  Also, because I LOVE my readers, I am including a BONUS RECIPE for a copycat of Chipotle's cilantro lime rice,  Enjoy!

Chipotle Barbacoa Copycat

Ingredients:

• 1 lb beef stew meat
• 1 tbs onion powder
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tbs cayenne (start with 1 tsp and work up from there, depending on your tolerance of spice, you can also omit this)
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 cups water

Directions:
In a slow cooker mix broth, water, and all spices.  Stir in beef.  Cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours.  Serve with rice recipe below.
Enjoy!

BONUS RECIPE!
Chipotle Copycat Cilantro Lime Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup long grain white rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• juice of half a lime
• juice of half a lemon
• fresh cilantro, about 1/4 a bunch, finely chopped
• salt

Directions:
***Note, I cook my rice in a rice cooker.  But you can also convert this to stovetop by cooking rice and bay leaf in water (after water is brought to a boil) over low for 25 minutes.
Cook rice in water with bay leaf in your preferred method of cooking rice.  Remove bay leaf.  Stir in lemon and lime juices, plus cilantro.  Season with salt to taste.  Enjoy!

Tunisian Shrimp Stew - Pinterest Pick #14

One of my goals for 2016 was to try a new food, and I picked Harissa.  It is a spicy Moroccan pepper paste.  I got mine at Whole Foods, the ONLY place I could find it in the metro Orlando area.  It is delicious!  If you recall, I also used it in one of the fillings for my beef hand pies.  I decided to give it another application by using it in the stew I found on Pinterest.  You can find the original Pin HERE and the original recipe HERE. The original recipe uses cod instead of shrimp, but really you can easily adapt it to whatever protein you prefer.  I like shellfish better than regular fish, and I had some on hand already.  So shrimp it was.  I also left out the turnips because, well, I have never tried them before and figured there was enough veggies.  This is a very light and healthy dish that makes for a fairly quick weeknight dinner.

Tunisian Shrimp Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 12 oz bag peeled and deveined shrimp
• 2 zucchini, sliced into half rounds
• 2 red potatoes, diced into small pieces
• 3 carrots, chopped into rounds
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 3 tbs tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon harissa (start there and add more depending on your love of spice)
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions:
In a soup pot, heat 2 tbs olive oil and then saute garlic and onions for 5 minutes.  Add in tomato paste and let cook for a minute or two.  Add in cumin, salt, pepper, and harissa.  Stir for one minute.  Put in carrots and potatoes and saute for two minutes.  Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.  Cook 10 minutes then add in zucchini.  Cook another 5 minutes then add in shrimp.  Let simmer for 10 more minutes then serve.
Enjoy! 

New Orleans BBQ Chicken - Home Cooked Recipe 63

It was Mardi Gras last week and it put me in the mood for some flavorful Louisiana cooking.  On Sunday the 15th I attended a birthday party where we had a crawfish boil, (I have posted about my friends and their delicious crawfish before).  By the time Tuesday rolled around I was looking for more delicious Southern dishes.  On my blog roll I have a blog listed called Closet Cooking.  I have followed Kevin and his food for years now, and have even made some of his dishes before, namely the Goat Cheese & Red Pepper Fettucine and a jalapeno popper dip.  A recipe for New Orleans BBQ shrimp popped up while I was perusing Closet Kitchen and I thought now I just HAVE to make that.  I had already cooked the shrimp I bought for groceries earlier, so I thought well I will just adapt the recipe for chicken.  It worked PERFECTLY!  Served with some rice, the sauce was flavorful and just what I had been looking for.  In fact, I cannot wait to make this recipe again.  You can check out the Closet Kitchen version HERE.

New Orleans BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breasts, cubed and cooked
• 2 tbs butter
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce - use your fav)
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup broth (I used seafood because that's what I had open, but you can use chicken broth, or beer, or even water)
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 tsp creole seasoning (I used Tony Chachere's)
• Fresh ground black pepper
• An additional 2 tbs butter, super cold, and diced in small pieces

Directions:
Melt 2 tbs butter over medium heat.  Add garlic and saute for a couple of minutes until soft and fragrant.  Add hot sauce, worcestershire, broth, lemon juice, seasoning and pepper.  Stir well, bring to a simmer, and let cook about 7 minutes until sauce is reduced by half.
*I started cooking my chicken right before making the sauce, I baked it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.
Add cooked chicken to sauce, stir well to coat chicken.  Add 2 tbs of the super cold butter.  Once melted and combined in the sauce, serve.  I served mine with white rice.
Enjoy!

Shrimp Creole - Home Cooked Recipes 54

Shrimp finally went on sale!  I am excited about this because we ate shrimp all the time last year, but for some reason shrimp was extremely expensive this year and it's rare that I purchase it because of the cost.  Wanting to try a new recipe, I looked at my Pinterest boards and saw a couple recipes I had pinned for shrimp creole.  Here is my version!

Shrimp Creole

Ingredients:

• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (thawed if frozen)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced into rounds
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbs creole seasoning
• 1 tsp Adobo seasoning
• salt and pepper
• hot sauce (I used Louisiana Crystal)
• Worcestershire sauce
• olive oil

***1 cup of white rice cooked in 2 cups water to serve shrimp over

Directions:

Preheat your oven's broiler for 10 minutes.  Toss shrimp with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Spread onto a baking sheet and broil for 10 minutes.  Set aside. Meanwhile, cook rice.
In a large saute pan, cook onions, peppers, and carrot in a couple tablespoons of olive for 5-10 minutes until tender.  Then add garlic and saute for a minute until fragrant. Add in spices and worcestershire, stir to combine for 1 minute.  Add in tomatoes and tomato sauce and simmer sauce for 15 minutes.  Add shrimp in and season to taste with hot sauce.  After 5 minutes, take off heat and serve over rice.
Enjoy!