ROJO CHICKEN

Several of you asked how we made the rojo chicken that you often see in some of our food posts.  We use this product the most:

We find it at our local HEB and Kroger grocery stores. Of course, it is sold on Amazon HERE along with some other brands.

It's a great blend of seasonings, the main ingredient being Annatto, and then garlic, spices, salt, chilies, vinegar, etc.  Since it's in a paste form, you don't need to use all of it at once.

I pinch off a chunk and mix it into some olive oil (or our new favorite cooking oil, avocado) and then I just massage it into the chicken and for sure leave it overnight, usually about 24 hours or so.

Then we just roast it at about 400 degrees until the chicken is done.  It really flavors the chicken and even penetrates into the meat if you let it marinate.  Would be great on the grill of course!

It's very good and makes for a good looking chicken, ha.  Here, we had it with some homemade corn tortillas and salad and veggies on the side.  We love pulling the chicken off with pieces of tortillas and eating it.  So good.  We read a review once that said if you are trying to pinpoint that missing "Mexican flavor" this could be it.  That's a pretty good description.

SHOPPING TRIP PURCHASES

 We know many of you always like to see what we picked up on shopping trips so here is some of what we got on our recent trip to 99 Ranch Market.

We posted HERE about that trip.

We got a package of our favorite brand of wheat noodles.  We use these to make our own homemade Ramen noodle bowls, these are healthier than the ones in the store.  Of course, you have to make your own seasoning but that's healthier too, ha.

When we got home, 2nd Man made us two bowls, for mine, he used beef bouillon and frozen meatballs and for his, he used some cooked chicken breast we had cubed up and chicken bouillon.  Then we added some veggies and seasoning of our own.

These are our favorite frozen potstickers.  We LOVE these for a quick dinner, steamed to cook them and then pan fried in some avocado oil until they have a crispy exterior.  We stir up a dipping sauce (which varies from time to time).  So good.

Then we stocked up on seasonings, our main reason for going...we did a lot of research online and watched a ton of Youtube videos to see what cooks and chefs recommend for various things in a good Asian grocery like this.  So we picked up Oyster sauce, Hoisin sauce, Fish sauce, Dark Soy sauce, Sweet Soy sauce, Ponzu sauce, and regular Soy sauce, all the brands most highly recommended.

Oh, and some chopsticks because 2nd Man loves eating with them...me, not so much, I haven't mastered that technique...yet, ha. 

We also got a package...of...chicken feet?!?  2nd Man wanted them to make some chicken stock.  More on THAT adventure in an upcoming post!