One of my favorite recipes that I love to make and
have found is a hit with most of my friends is my Mexico chicken. It is delicious, quick and super easy to
make. Your taste buds will jump up and
down after indulging in this meal.
Keep in mind that this is one of my recipes that I
have made a Vegan friendly version for myself and all of my vegan friends, who
see a picture of the non-vegan dish and say…”That looks really delicious!” I would love to offer them some but prior to
the vegan version, had everything that
the Vegan can’t eat.
First, I’m going to start off by saying, Vegan Sour
Cream is much like vegan cheese- it tries but just doesn’t have that natural
taste. Again, you get used to it and
with everything else that is going on in this dish, you can barely even
tell.
I’ll start with the Non-Vegan recipe of which calls
for chicken breast, rice, cheddar cheese, sour cream and basically whatever
else you would like to add.
Step 1 in the process, you tenderize your chicken
breast and bake for about 45 minutes in a 325 degree oven. I usually add some cayenne pepper, chili
powder and garlic clove while this is baking.
At this time, I prepare the rest of the ingredients. I usually add boil-in-a-bag rice,
jalapeno’s, black olives, cheddar cheese, sour cream, chives, tomatoes, salsa
and onions. Again, this is all to your
taste and what your preference is when it comes to a meal as such. Once the rice is done, put your desired
amount on a plate. Place the chicken
breast atop the rice and add your ingredients.
I prefer my meal super spicy so I add a lot of jalapeno’s and extra hot
salsa. Yes, it burns the heck out of my
mouth but to me, the spicier the better.
Below is a picture of the Non-Vegan version of this
dish which is scrumptious.
Last evening, I successfully, made this dish vegan
friendly and it was so delicious that there wasn’t a crumb left on the
plate. Again, it goes back to the part
where vegan food is less filling than a meat based diet or it was just THAT
good! I side with a little bit of both.
So, I started out with Light Life “chicken” strips
and simmered those in water, chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic and oregano;
don’t forget the salt and pepper. Use
your best judgment as to how long you feel you need to let this simmer. While that was doing its thing, I made some
quinoa instead of rice and prepared the rest of my toppings. In this case I decided that I was going to
add some black beans to the mixture to add a different variety.
I plated the quinoa, “chicken” strips, chipotle
salsa, super hot jalapeno’s, black olives, black beans, tomatoes, onions, daiya
cheddar “cheese”, tofutti sour cream and fresh cilantro for a garnish. To make the presentation a little more eye
pleasing, I surrounded the dish with tomato slices and tortilla chips. As you can see, it turned out wonderfully and
there was but 1 tomato slice left on my plate.
As, my journey continues toward the vegan
lifestyle, I’m learning that there really isn’t anything that you can’t turn
vegan friendly. I’ve found that it’s
whether or not you want to take the time, care and concern to prepare such a
lovely dish so that your vegan guests can enjoy something similar to what your
non-vegan guests are enjoying.
Note: I was
always the person who would love to add extra sour cream to a dish because it
just made everything that much better, however, I have discovered with this
meal, especially, that you don’t need a lot of sour cream in a vegan meal
. Whereas I used to use at least 2
scoops of sour cream, load it up with cheese, I find myself, now, using a
teaspoon of sour cream and a half handful of daiya cheese. Amazingly, I feel it tastes better than the
non-vegan version because all the flavor was right there and not just one
ingredient was perfecting the dish.
***If there is a recipe that you would like to
challenge me with, please message me!
Like I have stated, I love a great challenge and if you are struggling
to move away from the Meat based diet and onto a more friendly Vegan diet and
just can’t seem to perfect that one meal that you can’t live without, I would
love to help!
And so folks in wrapping up this installment: Some like it VEGAN and Some like it NOT!
On my rating scale:
9 out of 10
vegetables with a side of cilantro
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