Copy Cat!

Well hello everyone!  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah/New Years/Valentine’s Day!  Before we get to the business at hand – food!! – the blog stats were absolutely INSANE today, like biggest day ever insane!  I have no idea why or how, but it’s awesome!  Some of it has been Pinterest, but almost 200 of the hits came from Facebook and my “Easy Weeknight Pasta” post… weird, but awesome!  Alright, it’s been a while, so let’s get back into the swing of things shall we?

When Matt and I moved to Phoenix, I discovered so many new restaurants!  There are always the great local places, but I’m always a sucker for a good chain restaurant.  I had always heard about Chipotle, but never tried it.  Luckily (or unluckily?), there was one about 2 blocks from our apartment.  It was love at first taste!  I always loved the burritos at El Diablo in Missoula because of their cilantro lime rice, so I was excited to have that burrito in a bowl (no more tortilla in my teeth!).  The only problem with these burrito bowls… they were gigantic and so unbelievably unhealthy.  Ok, fast forward to about a month ago… I’m browsing Pinterest, which I do quite often, and I see this recipe for crock-pot chicken that sounds very yummy!  As I’m reading through it, the flavors remind me of Chipotle… and that’s when the lightbulb goes off!  I could totally make this and make my own cilantro lime rice and have my own Chipotle at home and in the portions I want and the fat content I want!  I was super jacked!  Can you tell?!  And what better day for something like this than Super Bowl Sunday?!  Football and crock pots go together like… oh forget it, let’s see it!

DIY Burrito Bowls

So instead of giving the traditional list of ingredients, I’m going to break this down a little differently:

Chicken:

2-4 chicken breasts
1 jar of salsa
1 can of black beans
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp minced fresh garlic
(you can also just use 2-3 tablespoons of premixed taco seasoning instead of the spices)

Throw all of those ingredients into the crockpot for about 4 hours on low. When the time is up, you can literally take two forks or just a wooden spoon and shred the chicken up. Cook it for another hour or so.  You might have to add a little water during this last stage, depending on how hard your crock pot cooks on low (mine is a little out of control at times)…

While the now-shredded chicken is finishing its last cooking cycle, mix up the rice.

Cilantro Lime Rice

2 cups long grain white rice (uncooked)
4 cups of water
Juice of 1 lime
2 tsp salt
6 tbsp fresh, chopped cilantro
2 tsp olive oil

Cook the rice as directed on the package (water/rice measurements may be different, plus I made the 4 servings ratio because I wanted leftovers for lunch). In a separate bowl, mix the lime juice, salt, cilantro, and olive oil together. Once the rice is done, stir it all together.

Now it’s time to put it all together! First, put down a bed of the cilantro lime rice. Top that off with the chicken mixture, some shredded cheese of your choice, guacamole, pico de gallo, and sour cream, and there you have it! You can top it off with a little green leaf lettuce for a little crunch.  Sidenote: I made my own guacamole using Tyler Florence’s Ultimate Guacamole recipe, which is seriously divine.  In fact, now that I’m talking about it and looking at the recipe, I’m craving it….. yummmm!

I hope you guys have fun recreating this recipe!  You could totally do this with pork tenderloin or a beef roast too!  Do your own thing – don’t be afraid to experiment with it!

Happy Dishing!
~Des