This has got to be one of my
favorite recipes ever! It’s pretty easy and very, very tasty. It’s included in
my church’s cookbook, Joyful Seasonings,
and I still get compliments on it.
The
key to this recipe is the salsa. It does all the heavy lifting for you:
flavoring the chicken while keeping it moist and tender. Serve it on some
yellow rice with my Seasoned Black Beans and you’ve got a great dinner. Check
that—a really awesome dinner without busting your budget.
Salsa Chicken
1 pkg. raw chicken
tenderloins, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 ½ cup prepared salsa
1 ½ cup shredded Mexican
blend cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of olive oil
Place
raw chicken pieces in casserole dish with the olive oil. Season the meat with
salt and pepper. (The olive oil should keep the chicken from sticking to the
bottom of the dish once cooked.) Completely cover the chicken with the salsa.
Top the mixture with the shredded cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 – 45
minutes.
There are two ways you can
bake this, one way is to put it in the oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes. The
other way is to cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes,
remove the foil and finish it off uncovered for 10-15 minutes.
While the chicken is baking,
prepare yellow rice according to package directions.
Seasoned Black Beans
1 can black beans
1 tblsp olive oil or butter
1/3 onion, chopped
2 tsp. chipotle flavored
pepper sauce
2 or 3 garlic cloves, finely
minced
Saute chopped onions on
medium-high heat in olive oil until transparent. Add can of black beans and
chipotle pepper sauce. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add
minced garlic and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
This recipe also works well
with dark red kidney beans as a substitute.
