Beany Chicken Tacos

Last night we had these and they turned out great!  I had some chicken that I had bought in a bulk pack that needed to be used, so I cooked everything I had and made these tacos.  We have leftover chicken that will be great on a salad today!  This will feed around 3 people.

Here's what you need:

1lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
Cajun or Mexican seasoning (like Weber N'Orleans Cajun Seasoning)
1 tbs butter (optional)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 can refried beans
Tortillas
4oz of cheddar cheese

Step 1: Prep Chicken

Preheat your oven to 375F.  Prep your chicken like you would.  I always prep all the chicken I get at once, so thankfully I didn't have this to do last night.  I did rinse them under cool water and pat them dry.  Once they are ready, I sprinkled the Weber N'Orleans Cajun Seasoning on both side.  This just gave the chicken a little flavor, but not too much that JJ couldn't take it.

Found this @ Safeway, but have also seen it at Walmart.

Chicken ready to go into the oven!

Once they're sprinkled up, then place in the oven.  Chicken cooks at all different rates.  Mine got done in around 21 minutes, flipping once.  You're looking for an internal temperature of 170F.  I cook them in the oven because they tend to maintain their juiciness versus boiling or on the cooktop.  I have sort of mastered the art of cooking chicken and keeping it juicy.

Step 2: Prep Other Ingredients

While the chicken is cooking in the oven, I placed the refried beans in a small saucepot on the stove.  I slowly warmed these up so they would be ready to use once the chicken was ready.

I also shredded my cheese and got whatever other sides I was interested in ready.  I prepped them, but put them back in the fridge because it would be another 20 minutes or so before they would be used.

Step 3: Cut chicken; Cook on stove

Once the chicken was done, I cut it up into 1/2 inch pieces that would be easy to eat in one bite.  I preheated a large skillet on the cooktop with my 1tbs of butter and garlic.  This is an optional step.  The chicken should be ready to go right in your tacos, but I wanted to give it a little garlic kick and just toss it briefly on the stove.  After I got the garlicky-ness I desired, I cut back the stovetop to low just to maintain warmness and not dry it out.

Step 4: Assembly

On a cookie sheet, I laid out two toritillas and covered them with cheese.  I then placed these in the broiler to get that cheese nice and melted and gooey.  You HAVE to watch this!  Tortillas are so thin they will burn up fast!

In the broiler

Finally remove the tortillas from the broiler, spread on refried beans and chicken, the cover with your favorite toppings.  Today I added my homemade guacamole, sour cream, and a corn-bean salsa that I picked up at Kroger.  It was good and filling!

So good!  Even JJ ate it (minus the toppings!)