I talk about food, you read it.
Mexican
Chicken Enchiladas
0The other night J and I had roast chicken and even though at the time it felt like we annihilated the bird there was still enough left over that I could make chicken enchiladas, which is my favourite thing to do with leftover roast chicken.
I tried to cheat this time and buy enchilada sauce but it wasn’t too good and I had to spruce it up a lot. I added a small can of tomato sauce, cumin, chilli powder, lime juice, oregano and a small amount of taco season I had bought from trader Joes. This definitely fixed it and we were ready to go. The filling was even easier.
Ingredients
- 2-2 ½ cups shredded chicken
- ½ package of cream cheese
- ½ green pepper, sliced
- ½ onion sliced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced
- 1 small can diced green chillies
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- Small bunch of cilantro chopped (optional)
- Salt and pepper
- ½ lime
- 2 cups jack cheese
Shred your leftover chicken, or shred whatever chicken it is that you’re using.
Heat medium pan with olive oil and cook sliced green pepper, onion, and jalapeno on med heat until soft. Set aside to cool. While peppers are cooling mix together shredded cooked chicken, add green chillies, cumin, chilli powder, cilantro, lime, ½ cup jack cheese, cream cheese, salt and pepper into a large bowl. Add warm peppers to mixture, the cream cheese will melt against the warm peppers to fully incorporate.
Spread about one cup of enchilada sauce into bottom of baking dish. Scoop ¼ cup or more, if you want but fat enchiladas, of the filling into soft flour tortillas and wrap together, placing folded side down onto the sauce. Once all tortillas are wrapped pour remaining sauce over tortillas covering all sides. Cover the remaining jack cheese.
Cook at 375 for approx 30 minutes. If your cheese is browning too fast, cover with tin foil.
 
I made 4 large enchiladas but you could make them smaller by adding less filling. I might do that next time because after finishing one, my stomach was way too full. I topped mine with sour cream and my homemade tomatillo guac.
Agave Grill
01 year ago
For some reason there seems to be a total lack of Mexican restaurants but Langley is lucky enough to have a few. Since its one of my favourite foods I have put these places on the top of my list. I have been to Viva Mexico in the past, before my blogging days and loved it but I have been very excited to try the newest one Agave grill at 19988 84 Avenue. Their website has been under construction since they’ve opened which is a little frustrating because I like to check out menus prior to eating and I know I am not alone in this weird habit. Regardless J was nice enough to take me, so the menu was just going to have to be a surprise. Â
The menu is pretty much your basic Mexican menu, no surprises there and they had a pretty decent selection. The prices on some of the dishes are a little on the high side in my opinion but since there is so much to chose from you can definitely find something in any price range.
 Unlike pretty much all Mexican restaurants they don’t start you off with complimentary chips and salsa but you can order this off the menu for a great price. Only 6.00 for guacamole and chips. J and I ordered a trio dip and chips for 5.00 which came with Guacamole, Pico de gallo, and Ceviche. This wasn’t in their regular menu but their promotion menu or seasonal menu. For 5.00 it was definitely worth it. I loved the guacamole, it was chunky and wonderful. The ceviche was a little on the sweet side but also amazing and the first thing we polished off. The pico de gallo was not really memorable, it was bland and basically a tomato/onion salad.
 It didn’t take much longer for our meals to arrive which was nice because I was starving. I ordered the Fajita Chicken Burrito which is a giant tortilla stuffed with grilled chicken, re-fried beams, green sauce, Monterey jack cheese, and topped with a sour cream sauce on top of rice. Served with Pico de Gallo and Guac. The burrito was very good. The chicken was perfectly cooked and the fajita marinade was amazing. The sour cream sauce on top was sort of like a ranch style sauce. It was really tasty. I didn’t really notice much green sauce but I’m thinking the marinade, being red, just blended it into the burrito. There wasn’t too much re-fried beans in the burrito either which was nice, majority of the burrito was chicken. The only down side was the rice. It was undercooked or something. The texture was just off.
 Jason ordered something off the promotion menu that isn’t on their regular menu. The Agave Enchiladas, which were 2 tortillas stuffed with chicken topped with their flag sauces (reg sauce, green sauce, and white sour cream sauce) Topped with cheese and served on top of rice. I didn’t’ get a chance to try his food but he said it was good. He wasn’t really in a descriptive mood, but I will take this as a good thing. His rice was also the same undercooked weird rice as I got as well. We later overheard the kitchen say that the rice didn’t turn out and if people complain to take it off their bill so I will take it as an off night.Â
 I don’t know if our server was new but she was a little off. She started off okay but at the end she just seemed to stop caring. I had asked her to pack up my leftover burrito but not the rice since it wasn’t good and she didn’t comment on this at all, ignored me and walked away. It would have been nice if she acknowledged this, especially since we overhear the chef say the rice was bad. I wasn’t looking for a refund and clearly they already knew it was bad but I would have appreciated to be acknowledged. Once she dropped of my to-go box she sort of disappeared. That would have been the perfect opportunity to offer a dessert, coffee or the bill. Technically I am there for the food and other then the rice the food was great but the last thing you do in a restaurant is pay the server and if she isn’t around it sort of leaves a bad imprint. I will forgive them though because the server did remember to pack the leftover guacamole with my burrito!
El Mariachi
01 year ago
J and I went to the BC Lions game on Saturday night and I insisted that we go out for dinner beforehand. I went onto Urbanspoon to see that restaurants were in the area of the new Empire Stadium. There are so many options and restaurants down there I was getting a little overwhelmed with choice. One place caught my eye though, El Mariachi, a Mexican place at 3853 Hastings St. I love love love Mexican food so I knew immediately this is where we would be going.
The second you walk in you immediately feel like you are in a Mexican restaurant. They have decorated it perfectly and of course play the usual music to go along with the atmosphere. The waitress was super nice and welcomed us right away. We ordered 2 lime margaritas and waited in anticipation…..could they be as good as the ones we had in Mexico earlier this year? YES! It’s hard to screw up a margarita but somehow many places, such as Earls or Moxies definitely know how to make them taste horrible. El Mariachi made them with real ingredients. They were so good that I experienced brain freeze for the first time in my life!
They start you off the chips and salsa with their homemade chips. The salsa is also their own special style which was mild but still had great flavour. I remember from being in Mexico that salsa just means sauce, so don’t expect the typical tomato style. That’s called Pico de Galo!
The Menu is pretty big since it includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts and has a pretty good variety of food. It also didn’t specify that there was a time cut off for lunch/dinner items so that made the selection even bigger. I ordered Chicken Tostados which are small flour tortillas fried until their crunchy, topped with refried beans, juicy shredded chicken, lettuce, cheese, pico de galo, and sour cream. They also serve a scoop of Spanish style rice as well. It has peas and carrots mixed in which was fine, but the rice wasn’t anything special. The chicken I assume is poached or slow cooked in a mild sauce because it was still juicy but shredded perfectly. They didn’t too much or too little of anything on the tostados and they tasted great.
J ordered Tacos de Cochinita Pibil, which were 3 small soft taco shells with shredded pork. The pork is simmered in a Yucatan style sauce which was delicious. They were served with a small dish of refried beans, pico de galo, and the same pile of rice. His tacos were amazing! They were spicy, juicy and tender!  They looked a little on the small side at first but it was the perfect amount of food for J and he can eat a lot. The refried beans are also not your typical brown, mucky, peanut butter consistency stuff you get in a can. They’re almost black in colour, runnier, and the beans are still whole, not mashed up. I quite liked them.
I really liked the food here and would recommend this place for sure! The food tasted fresh and delicious, I also didn’t have that bloated feeling of, omg I just ate Mexican food.  It’s not a tex mex style restaurant, its authentic Mexican food so it isn’t a kick you in the face with spicy food so if you want some extra kick ask for hot sauce, its not Taco Bell. The food is amazing and the staff was super friendly! I will for sure be coming back!
Almost like Mexico
12 years ago
I didn’t get the chance to get into Cinco de Mayo and make myself a mexican fiesta yesterday. I had to play softball instead and by the time I got home a fiesta was out of the question (we won 23-3 by the way). So I have decided to celebrate my love of Mexican food tonight instead.
Earlier this week I made a whole Roasted Chicken and since it was just for two people I had a lot of leftovers. My immediate thought was to make some sloppy enchiladas oozing with cheese and dripping with sauce. Since making enchiladas are a great way to use up left over chicken this seemed like the best option. Only that just two days ago I was just writing about how I loved the clean simple way of cooking in Mexico so I decided to make roasted chicken soft tacos instead. I also served with them some fresh guacamole and pico de gallo.
FYI….you can freeze cooked enchiladas if you make too many and then you have an already done meal for another day!!
Roasted Chicken Soft Tacos
Ingredients
Tbsp olive oil
1/2 small onion sliced
1/2 green pepper sliced
2 cups shredded chicken
Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
Half a lime juiced
2 tbsp Minced canned chiles of your choice ( I used green but chipotle would be great too)
2-5 dashes of habaneras hot sauce (also use hot sauce of your choice and as many dashes as you like)
Salt and Pepper
Heat up a medium pan and add olive oil. Add onion and green pepper, cook until almost tender. Add in chicken, cilantro, lime, chiles, and hot sauce until heated. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on warm soft tortillas with guacamole and pico de gallo.
Since the chicken was already cooked this is REALLY easy and fast!! I will also post the recipes for the guacamole and pico de gallo in the recipe section as well.
Cinco De Mayo!
22 years ago
in Mexican, Types of Food
I can’t really pin point my favourite food but I think Mexican is definitely in my top 5 of things I love to eat and could never get sick of. When I cook Mexican food at home I usually make things like chicken or beef fajitas, tacos, or something more with a Tex mex style. I am not really sure why Tex Mex took over since Mexican food really isn’t that way.
When I visited Mexico last we went to a little restaurant overlooking the ocean, and had real chicken fajitas. They weren’t covered in any kind of sauce or seasoning like we do here in North America. They just served us a platter of cooked chicken that had been sautéed with green peppers and onion. On a separate plate was the Pico de gallo (what we call fresh homemade salsa), guacamole, and refried beans. I found that these fajitas were fantastic!! Not overly complicated or jam-packed the same way we serve fajitas up here and they also were served sans cheese! Delish!!
Ps) how exciting…my first post!!
