Chicken Tortilla Paradiso

First things first! This tortilla is brother approved! By that I mean is, my brother, who also happens to be my worst critic (when it comes to food), loved having it! You know how younger brothers are.... they like to pick on their sisters, tease them, get on my nerves especially when it comes to eating something I've made. 

But you know what's the best part about having a brother, they love you till the end of the world and beyond. And whats better than that, is him approving, hell who am I kidding, him LOVING this chicken tortilla. So much so that he told me this after he had a second one "you gotta make this again in the next couple of days"!! 

I'm on 7th heaven! 

And before I float away any higher, I'll take you through the recipe. Its full of the Mexican flavours and it WILL blow your mind! Trust me on that...please.

Also, I made the tortillas at home, you could use the store bought stuff. I won't complain!

As always, I did marinate the chicken in my home-made mexican rub which is far better than any store bought mix. Give it a try and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Serves: 4

Complexity: ***

Time taken: 45 minutes (including prep)

You'll need

For the tortillas

2 cups plain flour

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup water + more if required

For the Chicken

2 chicken breasts

1 tbsp garlic powder/ 3 garlic cloves grated

1 tbsp dried Oregano

1 tbsp fresh roasted cumin powder

1/2 tbsp smoked paprika

Salt to taste

zest of 1/2 lime and 1/2 lemon

2 tbsp Olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

pinch of love

For dressing

2 tbsp mayonnaise

3-4 tbsp of ranch dressing

2 tbsp hot sauce or a splash of tobasco

For assembling the tortillas

veggies of your choice, I chose

Lettuce

onion

tomatoes

avocado

Grated cheddar cheese

coriander leaves to garnish

Method

I began with marinating the chicken first. the longer it sits in the marinade, the more flavourful it will be.

Take your chicken breasts and poke them with the fork all over so the marinade can seep inside

Add garlic powder to it

the Oregano

the freshly roasted cumin. I roast the cumin seeds in a skillet on medium heat for a few minutes till it starts smoking and turns darker in colour. I then pound it in a mortar n pestle. I tell you, this is one of the best flavours in the world! 

Some smoked paprika. Please remind me to thank the person who came up with this stuff...Its divine! Just adds the perfect amount of sweet earthy depth of flavour and makes my life perfect

Salt to taste

Lime zest to make it oh-so-fragrant

Zest of half a lemon, again, to add that freshness

Drizzle some olive oil over it

and the juice of half a lemon

Can you imagine the flavour of all these?! *doing my happy dance*

Give it all a good rub and coat the chicken thoroughly. Cover and store it in the fridge for about 30 minutes until you're ready to cook it. 

While the chicken is sitting in the fridge, we'll get our dough for the tortilla together.

Take the two flours in a large-ish bowl 

keep adding the water gradually to form a dough. You'll have to knead it for about 10 minutes to activate the gluten in the dough. This is after about 5 minutes. Is your arm getting sore yet?! 

Keep going, knead for another couple minutes atleast till you have a smoother looking surface like so. Now cover this with a damp cloth and let it rest for 15 minutes till you go n have a chat on the phone with your friends, like I did! 

To make the tortillas, take some dough, approx golf sized ball, and make a proper round. 

Roll it out with a rolling pin on a surface dusted with dry flour so that it doesn't stick

you'll need to dust the surface again with some dry flour when you've rolled it out a bit.

keep rolling till you get roughly 7" in diameter

Have your griddle or skillet heating on medium heat. Place your tortilla and cook it for about 1 minute on each side. 

See how when you flip it the first time, you have small brown spots on the tortilla. Thats exactly what you want. 

Your tortilla is done. Remove from the griddle and keep making more. It barely takes any time.

For the chicken, remove it from the fridge. Heat a pan on medium heat and add a few drops of olive oil to it. 

When the oil starts to shimmer, place those chicken breasts in the pan. You should hear it sizzle! If not then your pan's not hot enough. You need to raise the heat. 

Turn the other side after about 3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken breast. Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side till the chicken is cool and the juices run clear from the chicken. By this time my kitchen smelled amazing! 

Let the chicken breasts rest a while before you can cut them/ shred them. 

Next make your dressing. Combine the mayo, ranch and hot sauce in a bowl

Give it a mix. Add a tiny bit of salt to it if required. Your salmon coloured dressing is ready! 

To assemble

Lay your tortilla, layer it with lettuce leaves and chicken. I love me my lettuce. You can (why would you though?!) however, go easy on it. How juicy n tender the chicken looks! Tasted even better! 

Time to add in some colour so throw in some onions and tomato

Spoon the dressing over the chicken...mmmmmmm I can already feel the hot sauce tickling my taste buds combined with that moist tender flavourful chicken. You could now stop here if you wanted to but there's more to come!

Sliced avocados (I know I didn't scoop'em right out of the skins...ha ha very funny, stop laughing now)

some grated cheese (man I wish I had the yellow cheddar stuff on hand) 

Garnish with a few coriander leaves and serve! 

I served mine with Pineapple Ginger Mojito- an absolute stunner, recipe coming up. Indulge!