Pollo Tinga, Watercress Salad with Red Onion Steaks and Soft Boiled Eggs

Who doesn't love Mexican shredded chicken (Pollo Tinga)?

One of my favorite dishes is my slow cooked Pollo Tinga. You can dress it up in a burrito, you can make tacos or enchiladas with it, or you can have it on top of a salad, that is if you are trying to be health conscious.

Chicken is delicious, but sometimes it can be hard to make. Have you ever gone over to someone’s house and they either undercooked, or overcooked your piece of chicken?

It can be a disgusting experience and it can ruin an entire evening.

Let me teach you how to make this idiot-proof recipe that will make every one of your family and friends begging for seconds.

This Pollo Tinga watercress salad will not just have you loving life, but it will inspire you to cook for larger parties and dinner functions.

Tools & Ingredients

Crockpot

Ingredients

Fresh watercress

Red onion

2 Eggs

Chicken

Red peppers

Salsa (hot, chunky)

Onion

Cilantro

Green onion or scallion

Lime

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Instructions

1.) In a slow cooker (crockpot) place a pound of rinsed chicken breast and chopped onions, peppers, cilantro and green onion.

2.) Pour a bottle of salsa on top of the chicken, and add fill up salsa bottle with water and pour into crockpot.

3.) Add fresh corn kernels (chopped with a knife) to the crockpot, and add a healthy pinch of salt and pepper.

4.) Let cook on high for 8 hours, and stir the chicken with tongs until it shreds.

5.) Boil water with salt, and olive oil.

6.) When water is boiling, cook eggs for 6 minutes and 50 seconds so that they are soft boiled.

7.) Place in freezing cold water, and begin to peel the eggs.

8.) On a plate, slice up 3 red onion steaks and add a handful of watercress as the bed of the dish.

9.) Add two spoonful’s of the pollo tinga onto each red onion steak, while the chicken is still hot.

10.) Slice up the soft-boiled egg, and garnish them on top of the dish.

11.) Pour a cap full of olive oil on top of fresh watercress and salt and pepper to taste.

 

Why is this good for me?

This dish contains a handful of superfoods that are extremely complimentary to your health. Between eggs, red onion, and watercress, this salad is a power punch of nutrition that can help you push through your day without hitting any walls.

Red onions, especially raw red onions are extremely healthy for you. Red onions, or purple onions have around 1.5 mg of fiber in a 1/2 cup serving. They are also rich in particular flavonoids called anthocyanins. Anthocyanins help neutralize free radicals that create havoc and plunder and pillage your healthy tissues and cells. Flavonoids aid your body and immune system in many ways, including protecting your heart from disease as well as reducing the risk of a constellation of cancers. Red onions are also rich in vitamin C, which is vital in boosting and sustaining a healthy immune system.

Watercress is extremely healthy for you. Watercress is filled with manganese, calcium and antioxidants, like flavonoid beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, and lutein which protects the lung and mouth from cancers.

As I talked about eggs in a previous blog,

"We all know how good eggs are for us now don't we? 

As a society, we do not think eggs are that healthy.

Ask all of your health conscious friends, or even vegan friends, what they think about eggs. Most will eat egg whites only. Egg whites are the least nutritious part of the egg. 

The yolk of an egg is a power plant of nutrients and healthful benefits.

Eggs yolks contain vitamin A, D, E, B12, K, riboflavin, folate and iron. People think the egg yolk is what raises your cholesterol, but that myth has been debunked years ago.

The white of the egg or essentially just a solid source of low-calorie protein, and a source of low efficiency energy.

The deep, beautiful and profound yellow of the yolk is actually a wonderful way to get your daily dose of vitamins and minerals."

If you use free ranged chicken, you are using high quality protein, and a healthier source of meat that is hormone free and better for your overall health.

This dish is really one of the easiest things you can make, it takes just a few minutes to put everything into the crockpot. If you do it the night before, you get to wake up to an already finished product. You get to have the chicken for lunch, or dinner, while leaving it on warm all day, until you return home to enjoy dinner with entire family.

Could you imagine you imagine that eating a delicious, and satisfying meal for breakfast could equate to you taking a day’s worth of vitamins?

Maple, Rosemary, Pine Nut Broiled Cod

We now live in a world where most of our oceans are polluted with man made plastics, a constellation of debris as well as high levels of toxic radiation. An alarming number of wildlife in the oceans contains high levels of mercury and other neurotoxins that are extremely harmful to our overall health, and especially to our brain health.

Among the fish that are still safe to eat, pacific cod, aside from wild caught Alaskan Salmon, is arguably one of the healthier options for you to choose from.

I suggest to most of my clients, and to anyone who will listen. that they should be taking a form of a cod liver oil supplement in their daily routine. Cod is extremely high in vitamin B12, and by consuming only a 4 oz. piece of cod; you will consume 109% of your daily requirements of B12.

Cod is also quite high in iodine, selenium, phosphorus, anti-inflammatory omega-3’s, as well as other vitamins and minerals. Cod liver oil supplements, as well as eating cod as a weekly staple in your diet can help with depression, cognitive decline, arthritis, osteoporosis, and it has major cancer fighting properties.

Without a doubt, cod is a superfood.

But when you go to a restaurant and you peer at the seafood section on the menu, you will find that most of the cod dishes look rather unappetizing. Cod has a stigma of being a boring fish, but let me teach you how to dress up this superfood into one of the tastiest dishes you have ever had!

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Tools & Ingredients

Cast Iron Pan (or other deep pan or baking sheet)

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh pacific cod (if you cannot find fresh cod, frozen will do)

1 bushel of rosemary (or basil), chopped

1/3 cup of pine nuts

Organic extra virgin olive oil

Organic maple syrup 4 tbsp. (or to taste)

2 tbsp. grass fed butter

Pink Himalayan seal salt

Coarse ground pepper

Instructions

1.)   Preheat oven to broil.

2.)   Place tin foil on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil over the foil to the fish will not stick to the pan, and so it is also easier to clean up.

3.)   Place piece of cod onto the pan and liberally salt and pepper to the fish.

4.)   Drizzle olive oil over the fish, but try not to use too much oil.

5.)   Place the 2 tbsp. of grass fed butter on the center of the fish so that it can melt through while it broils.

6.)   Sprinkle chopped rosemary on top of the fish, the more basil you use, the better it will taste.

7.)   Pour the 1/3 cup of pine nuts on top of the fish.

8.)   Pour your maple syrup on the cod, and place in preheated oven, 3-4 inches from the flames (or the roof of the oven).

9.)   Broil for 10-12 minutes, or until the fish is beings to look flakey.

10.)  Remove from oven, and serve hot.

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