It’s been a little bit since we’ve written a love letter to tacos, though they are truly always on our minds. We really will take them in almost any variation but when they’re coming at us in warm, lightly pan-fried yellow corn tortillas bursting with a tender chicken and pinto bean red chile saucy sensation, piles of a quick creamy corn salsa…ish (can we call it salsa when mayo is involved? probably not), and tangy-crisp homemade pickled red onions rounding it out?

Well my oh my, there’s a new crush in town.

Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?

SOS-Level, Made Fancy

There are so many delicious flavors going on with these chicken tacos, but the real highlight is that you don’t have to do very much work to accomplish any of them. The taco filling especially is so easy and pretty darn quick because all you’re doing is cooking up some chicken thighs, tossing in a can of pinto beans, and then opening up a packet of Frontera red chile enchilada sauce (total fave and namesake!) and letting that do all the work.

Boom. Bam. Lightly spiced, smoky, tomatoey, saucy goodness ready to stuff your tortillas so full they spill over onto your hands.

Then you get to just kind of fancify things. You’ll mix up a little corn situation with some major elote vibes that is also so easy but will be VERY DIFFICULT to hold off on eating until taco assembly. Just a taste to adjust the lime juice? Okay. Twenty more bites and oops it’s gone? It happens. Luckily, it’s easy to remake.

You’re going to make some quick pickled red onions because really you’re just throwing some things in a jar, giving it a shake, and then, look at you, all set with the most delicious little taco topper ever! Next thing you know, you have one gem of a taco happening.

How To Make These Red Chile Chicken Tacos

Again, pretty quick and easy, which is how we like it. Let’s get each of the elements together.

The pickled onions: Let’s pickle, bb! Jam your red onion slices into a jar and add your vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Shake, fridge, donezo.

The saucy filling: Cook up the chicken thighs in a skillet until cooked through. Then, shred/cut it up and add that packet of red chile enchilada sauce and pinto beans. Simmer, thicken, donezo.

The creamy corn: Mix all the delicious bits together in a small bowl. Taste, adjust, donezo.

The perfect taco: We like to lightly pan fry the tortillas for added deliciousness and have your chopped fresh cilantro at the ready. Stuff, top, donezo!

That’s it! See?! Now you’re in taco business, which is the best business there is.

What Makes These SO GOOD

The red chile chicken side of this taco business is particularly successful. It’s just all so good. Smoky, creamy, fresh, briney-bitey-crunch. What an absolute dream.

You could probably play around with the filling a little since that enchilada sauce is bringing all the major flavors, but we love the juiciness of chicken thighs and the creaminess of pinto beans. But play around if something suits you better. Flour tortillas work too, of course, but we love the added flavor of the corn ones to complement the smokiness of the filling and the richness of the topping.

That creamy corn topping is such a treat since you’re getting the fresh sweet crunch texture of like a roasted corn salsa but with your cheese/sour cream-type dairy needs all mixed in. And you just can’t go wrong with pickled red onions. Ever. Truly a taco’s best friend.

And the general ease of it all carries this one all the way to the top of our Weeknight Yums list. Checking every ding dang box.

We just kinda want to eat them all the time, you know? Taco Tuesday rolls into Taco Wednesday and also Taco Thursday and whoooops, how did we get to Taco Friday, well here we are at the weekend, so let’s just keep on going.

Red Chile Chicken Tacos: Frequently Asked Questions

Print

More Incredible Taco Recipes

Caramelized Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa (topped with sriracha mayo, obvi!)

Best Easy Fish Tacos (easy to make and packed with flavor)

Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken Tacos with Jalapeño Ranch Slaw (these tacos are out of this WORLD)

The post Red Chile Chicken Tacos with Creamy Corn appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

This post is sponsored by ButcherBox

We’re no strangers to sheet pan meatballs around here. We love to love them! Easy clean-up, no frying mess, but still oven-crisp goodness, and they’re always the easiest option for straight-off-the-pan sneaks.

Super juicy and deeply flavored thanks to some delicious briney green sauce – made with parsley, cilantro, walnuts, capers, garlic, and more – that will go not only inside but also on top of these little beauties. Serve them alongside some juicy marinated tomatoes, swoop them through tzatziki, douse them in that green sauce, grab yourself a buttery hunk of crusty bread, and let’s have the best meatball party in town, shall we?

Salty, Zesty, Briney Goodness

This isn’t just any old meatball. Not only is the quality of beef A+ (we’re using ButcherBox Grass-Fed Grass-Finished – more on that later), but that little green sauce magic concoction in the mixture brings a whole explosion of flavor with salty brininess from the capers, a little zest from the lemon, and our favorite punch of all punches, the garlic punch. It all just sort of swims together to bring maximum flavor to this little guy. It’s like a whole meal of tastes in one bite!

And you better believe you save some of that green sauce to put on top of your meatballs, and bread, and any kind of veggies. We’re nothing if not sauce hogs.

A Word About This ButcherBox Beef

Okay, if you’re not on the ButcherBox train yet, we highly recommend you climb aboard! The quality of their meat and seafood is top-notch.

This is why we love them:

They are a certified B Corp company, which means they are mission-driven to do some environmental good in this world and that is always something we can get behind.
They source from family farms and are committed to humane practices, and have a focus on sustainability for their seafood offerings which we also feel really good about!
Plus, sustainable and recyclable insulation and packaging whenever possible? Yes, please.

There is so much care put behind their product and it really shows. And, ultimately, this grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef is SO flavorful and cooks up beautifully.

ButcherBox has a deal going right now where you get two pounds of free (yes, FREE) grass-fed grass-finished ground beef in every single box for the life of your membership. WHAT.

Click here to learn more about the boxes (or add this deal to your existing membership)!

For burgers, for spaghetti, for meatballs, and everything else in between, this ground beef is such good quality and it is a total freezer essential. And it’s free in every box right now. Do not miss this deal!

How To Make These Meatballs (Sheet Pan FTW!)

Get your sheet pans and your food processor at the ready and let’s get down to business.

Green Sauce. Pulse everything up in a food processor until chopped very finely (but not a paste). This is your flavor base! Transfer half of the flavor base to a large bowl for the meatballs and then use the rest make your sauce.

Meatballs. Mix the egg, paprika, salt, panko, ground beef, and reserved flavor base green sauce in a bowl until evenly distributed. Roll into balls. Place the rolled meatballs on sheet pan, brush with olive oil, and bake!

Then serve those meatballs over creamy tzatziki, heavily dolloped with your green sauce, along with a pile of tzatziki and simple tomato salad, add a big torn-off hunk of rustic bread, and oof, what a satisfying flavor extravaganza you’re in for!

Will these juicy delicious little sheet pan meatballs absolutely steal your hearts? Yes. Does green sauce, just in general, make the world better? Also yes. Let’s get to it, pals.

Print

Thank you to ButcherBox for sponsoring this recipe!

More Meatball Recipes We Can’t Stop Talking About

Harissa Meatballs with Whipped Feta (the perfect SOS dinner)

Chicken Meatballs with Peppers and Orzo (one of our fave combos!)

The Best Swedish Meatballs (perfectly tender, perfectly spiced)

The post Sheet Pan Meatballs with Tomato Salad and Green Sauce appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

This dish is for everybody, but especially those of us who have been living in the hideous splotchy grey of winter’s end because it’s like, “Oh heeeeey! Remember color?! Look how beautiful and bright and warm! I am a gorgeous food painting for your eyes!”

The bright inexplicable pink of the tender flaky salmon, with golden olive oil-crisped edges. The deep green of the roasted asparagus calling us towards springtime. The pale yellow of the creamy leek drenched potatoes, speckled with bright pops of chives, an almost neon slice of lemon.

It’s like technicolor. It’s delicious. It’s bold and light and it’s serving up sunshine for dinner.

Bright, Fresh, and Happy Ingredients For This Spring Salmon

This one is such a stunner because ingredients like lemon and asparagus and bright fresh salmon sing like spring birds, but the star here is the roasted potatoes with those creamed leeks. They’re creamy, rich, and decadent but with zips of fresh lemon zest. You may want to eat just a whole pan of those, but we promise the whole plate is a song. Here’s what you’ll need to make it happen:

For the leeks:

leeks
butter
garlic
fresh thyme
heavy cream
chicken/veg broth
lemon zest
salt and pepper

For your sheet pan:

potatoes
asparagus
salmon (or you can cook separate in a skillet for extra golden crispiness, yum!)
olive oil, salt, and lemon juice

Let’s Make Springy Salmon and Potatoes

All things told, this is pretty easy to throw together. The leeks are the only diva here because it takes a few soaks to get them grit-free, and then you have to get them all creamy buttery soft, but again, this star is worth every darn step. So here we go:

Prep your leeks. Leeks are really dirty! After thinly slicing, put them in a bowl of water and gently break them apart so that any dirt trapped between the layers releases to the bottom. Once the dirt settles, pull the leeks out from the top, discard water, and repeat as necessary until clean. (Don’t just strain or the dirt falls right back on them!)

Cream your leeks. Melt some butter in a skillet and cook until the leeks are soft and yummy.  Add the garlic and thyme in with the leeks, then the broth and heavy cream. Let it simmer until it thickens a bit into a nice creamy sauce. Then remove from heat and add the lemon zest and season to taste. 

Ready your sheet pan. Get your potatoes drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepp and start those first. After about ten minutes, add the asparagus to the pan with the same treatment and finish roasting.

Cook your salmon. This is our preferred method here – heat a bit of oil in a skillet and add the salmon, skin side down. Cook for a few minutes until it release easily and then flip and cook for a bit more until you have a golden crispy exterior and it’s done to your preference. (Could also bake salmon on the sheet pan for ease, but you lose that golden-crisp which IS a real treat here.)

Make potato & leek magic. Pour that creamy leek mixture over the roasted potatoes and bake until bubbly and browned at the edges.

How To Cook Perfect Salmon

You have a couple of options for making the salmon here. We often gravitate toward baking salmon because it is our best no-fuss, no-brainer way to get a perfect cook on it. And you could definitely do that here by tossing it on the pan with your potatoes and asparagus! BUT, if you are willing to take one extra step and have one extra thing to clean, we really recommend crisping these fillets up in a skillet with olive oil.

The golden brown crispy edges that you get all over are a whole other level in terms of texture and taste in this dish. The salmon does cook pretty quickly, so you have to baby it a bit so it doesn’t dry out. Again though, that golden crisp…oof, worth the extra pampering.

This bright, colorful, super delicious, and deeply satisfying spring dinner is waiting for you. Please do answer its call, won’t you?

Spring Salmon with Potatoes: Frequently Asked Questions

Print

More Salmon Recipes To Make ASAP

Coconut Curry Salmon (broiled salmon with the best spicy-sweet rub on top)

The Oliver’s Salad (the garlic and peppers confit though! still drooling.)

Spicy Salmon Burgers (comes together in just 15 minutes)

The post Spring Salmon with Creamed Leeks, Potatoes, and Asparagus appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

This post is sponsored by ALDI

This beautiful and perfectly springy shrimp and rice combo has us feeling that sunshine on our faces. The slightly sweet crunch of the coconut shrimp (with a nice & simple bake method, so a lot of the crisp with none of the fry-smells), the bright, sweet, green peas popping up here there and everywhere in the light, lemony, herby rice. And then there’s the honey butter sauce for sweet dips and drizzles that taste like vacation. Plus everything you’ll need for this spring crush is from ALDI, so you know you’re getting quality, affordable ingredients. BIG thumbs up from us!

For those of you who also experience a change of seasons, maybe you are also so ready for spring that you get all teary-eyed just thinking about it. Here in Minnesota, we’re in infamous “fake spring” where the weather is like, “Oh man, would you like a 50 degree day today? Okay, here you go. You deserve it!” And then turns right around and is like, “LOL, JUST KIDDING GET READY FOR SUBZERO TEMPS AND A SNOW EMERGENCY TOMORROW.” Right to our faces, like we’re not even friends.

Our hearts collectively break and we ache for the warm and the bright and the green.

And this springy coconut shrimp piled high on a mountain of steamy pea-speckled, lemony rice with drizzles on drizzles of honey butter sauce? Yeah, that’s what we’re here for and it won’t turn on us. It keeps being A+ over and over again.

Ingredients For This Delicious Springy Coconut Shrimp

When we want a little spring in our step and also in our grocery bags, we always round up our favorites from our favorite, ALDI! A definite go-to for affordable and high quality seafood options (the Fremont Fish Market Jumbo EZ Peel Raw Shrimp is a top-notch choice for this), beautiful fresh and frozen veggies, and lots of other seasonal delights. But we also – like always – are hitting up the pantry items too, like the panko, coconut flakes, and rice. ALDI always has so many options to brighten up our days.

Here are the major hitters that you’ll need for this spring fling:

For the golden crunchy shrimp:

Fremont Fish Market Jumbo EZ Peel Raw Shrimp
Chef’s Cupboard Panko Breadcrumbs
Baker’s Corner Coconut Flakes (sweetened or unsweetened, but sweetened sure ups the yum factor! )

For the springy rice:

Specially Selected Jasmine Rice
peas (we used frozen Simply Nature Organic Sweet Peas, but you could use fresh or any other green veg favorite)
lemon juice and zest
herbs or greens
garlic

For the delicious honey butter drizzles and dips:

butter
honey
Dijon mustard

How To Make Baked Coconut Shrimp

In addition to the fresh and ready ingredients comin’ atcha ALDI-style, it’s also relatively simple to bring it all together. Like we said, we love this baking method for the shrimp in order to minimize clean up but maximize perfect shrimp cooks and crunch factors.

Panko & Coconut. You’ll give the panko & coconut flakes a little pre-toast in the oven first to guarantee that golden brown goodness. Yum!

Shrimp. Coat the shrimp in flour, then egg, then panko/coconut mixture and spread out on pan. Give them a little drizzle of oil before heading into the oven to bake.

Rice. Whatever rice cook method you prefer (we used our pressure cooker!) and then toss in the butter, lemon zest and juice, and stir in the frozen peas.

Sauce. Whisk all your sauce ingredients together and try not to drink it right then and there.

Serve those crisp beachy shrimp on a pile of bright sunny rice, drizzled with that sweet, zippy honey butter sauce and, yep yep yep, it already feels warmer here.

Our Love Keeps Going and Going and Going For This One

The tender juiciness of the shrimp under the solid crunch of the coconut coating, plus a pile of steamy green-flecked garlicky lemon rice and a drizzle of honey butter sauce… all of it is just freshness and brightness and color hard at work. It’s one of those meals you can look forward to all day. And again the next day. And maybe we’ll just make it every night this week.

So, basically, we’ve laid out a big ol’ welcome mat for spring in the form of this coconut shrimp and rice and we really, really, really hope it pays us a visit ASAP.

Baked Coconut Shrimp: Frequently Asked Questions

Print

Thank you to ALDI for sponsoring this recipe!

More Springy Shrimp Favorites

Sheet Pan Shrimp and Cauli Rice (an incredibly easy sheet pan dinner)

Chipotle Orange Shrimp with Cilantro Rice (with a sweet-meets-smoky cream sauce)

Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Garlic Cilantro Lime Slaw (these are our FAVORITE shrimp tacos!)

The post Baked Coconut Shrimp with Springy Rice and Honey Butter Sauce appeared first on Pinch of Yum.