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Homemade Taco Salad Ideas

Homemade Taco Salad

Shock Munch
This recipe yields 4 taco salads. Kieran and I ate 2 each.
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Ingredients
  

Taco Seasonings:

  • ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon blackened cajun seasoning
  • A big pinch of red pepper
  • 15 cracks of fresh pepper
  • Another pinch of salt (my cajun seasoning has salt, so I didn't use a ton of extra salt)

The Taco Salad:

  • 4 flour tortillas (I used fajita size)
  • 2 cups cubed chicken (apporx 1 large chicken skinless, boneless, breast)
  • 2 cups black beans (not quite one can of beans)
  • ½ a red pepper, cut into strips
  • ¼ cup white onion, diced
  • 20 cherry tomatos, halved
  • 2 cups of spinach
  • Cilantro
  • Your favorite hot sauces

Instructions
 

Cooking the chicken and tortillas:

  • Preheat your oven to 300-350 degrees
  • Mix together the taco seasonings in a small dish until well combined.
  • Put the chicken on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Spritz both sides of the chicken with a calorie free cooking spray. Rub the taco seasonings over both sides of the chicken. Set aside until your tortillas are prepped.
  • Spray the outside of 4 oven-safe ramekins with cooking spray, then put them face down on another baking sheet. Place 1 tortilla over each ramekin. Gently press, crimp, and fold the edges of the tortilla around the ramekins to form your taco shell.
  • Optional: If you have more oven safe bowls, spray the insides of the bowls with more cooking spray, and place them over each tortilla. This will help keep the edges of the tortillas down for a better "taco shell" shape.
  • Put the chicken and the tortillas in the oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes.
  • After 10 minutes, take the tortillas out of the oven. If you're using the top bowls, carefully take them off and place on a cutting board or cloth (they will be screaming hot). Gently take each tortilla off the ramekins, flip them over, and place them back on the baking sheet. Put the tortillas back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes or until the tortilla is as crispy as you like it.
  • About this time 18-20 minutes have passed. Check on the chicken, it should be done, or really close to done. Once the chicken reaches internal temperature of 165 degrees, you're done. Let the chicken cool for 5 minutes before you slice or cube it.
  • When you first put your chicken/tortilla in the oven, heat a small pot over medium heat. Once it's hot, add your red pepper, no oil is needed, and cook until the red pepper is soft and black in spots. Once finished, spoon the red pepper out onto a plate. Set aside.
  • Now add the black beans to the same pot you cooked the red pepper in. Stir and cook until the beans are nice and hot. If the beans cook quicker than the chicken and tortillas, turn the heat down to the lowest setting.
  • Time to assemble!
  • Put two tortillas on a plate. Fill each taco shell with ½ cup of spinach. Top the spinach with ¼ cup black beans, a little onion, some cherry tomatoes, ½ cup of chicken, and some red pepper.
  • Top each shell with some cilantro and your favorite hot sauce!
  • Either pick up the shell and eat it with your hands, or dig into that puppy with a fork and knife.

Notes

You'll notice I said preheat your oven to 300-350 degrees. I say that because your oven-safe bowls/ramekins may only go up to 300, and not 350. If the bowls/ramekins are oven-safe in 350 degrees, use the cooking times mentioned in the recipe.
If your oven safe bowls/ramekins are only equipped to handle 300 degrees, you'll probably have to cook everything 5-20 minutes longer. FYI