Use slow cooker for tasty Super Bowl treat

#Middlebury

The Super Bowl is upon us, and the big game is the perfect time to serve burritos. As a Texan, I’ve had a long love affair with both football and tortillas. A tortilla is the perfect foundation for any number of dishes, from spicy enchiladas and crunchy tacos to my personal guilty pleasure, veggie-stuffed burritos.

The “Diccionario de Mexicanismos” has an entry for the burrito as early as 1895. A “burro” is a donkey, and burrito means “little donkey.” There are many folklore stories about how burritos got their name. Some compare the shape of a burrito to a donkey’s ears or the packs and bedrolls donkeys carried. But it’s a proven fact that burritos are the perfect way to meld together flavorful ingredients in a handheld package.

There are a few tricks to making the classic burrito:

• Heat the tortillas before making your burritos to make them soft, pliable and easy to roll. There are several ways to heat up the tortillas. You can heat each individual tortilla for 5 to 8 seconds on low on both sides, directly on the heating element on the stove top. You also can wrap them in foil and place them in the oven on 375 F to 400 F for 10 minutes; or steam them in damp, food-safe paper towels in the microwave for 10 seconds.
  Make sure the tortilla is at least twice as big as the contents you’ll put into it. When you fold the tortilla in half, with the contents inside, both ends should be able to touch with room to spare.
• Join the front and rear flap and quickly lift the tortilla into the air to compress the contents. Make sure to keep the contents of the burrito in the tortilla. Set it back down again, open faced.
  Pull the left flap of the tortilla over the burrito contents, toward the center. Pull the right flap of the tortilla over the burrito contents, toward the center. Your tortilla flaps probably won’t overlap at this point. Don’t pull too hard on the ends of the flaps as you fold them over to the center. This could rip the tortilla.
  Tuck the top flap of the tortilla underneath the burrito contents, pulling all of the burrito contents toward your body, into the center of the burrito.
• Starting from your body and moving outward, roll the burrito forward into a cylindrical shape. Let the burrito rest on top of the last little flap for a minute to stick the ends of the tortilla together. Wrap the burrito in foil to help keep the burrito together and warm.

My recipe for Slow-Cooked Burrito Filling is an easy way to prepare burritos for the big game or a weeknight meal. Go team!

Slow-Cooked Burrito Filling

You can put this filling into a bowl instead of a tortilla, if desired, and finish it with your favorite toppings.

Chicken burritos with filling made in the slow cooker make a good Super Bowl snack. (Depositphotos photo)

1 to 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, chicken thighs or a mix, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1½ tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can hot or medium diced tomatoes with jalapeño peppers, plus juice
1 cup chicken stock, divided, plus more if needed
1 cup instant brown rice
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
8 large burrito-style tortillas
Optional toppings: shredded cheese, chopped cilantro, sour cream, diced avocado, salsa, hot sauce, diced green onions, shredded lettuce

1. Combine the chicken pieces and the oil together in the bowl of a 2½-to-3½-quart slow cooker. Mix the chicken with the chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and the can of diced tomatoes with peppers and juice. Mix until all the pieces are coated with the spices.
2. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken stock or more as needed to make sure the chicken is covered. Cover with the lid and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours.
3. Remove the lid and add the instant brown rice, black beans, frozen corn and the remaining chicken broth. Replace the lid and continue cooking on low for another 30 to 40 minutes. Check the rice periodically, stirring once or twice to make sure the rice cooks evenly and adding more chicken broth if the mixture seems dry.
4. Cooking is done when the rice is tender. If the rice is done while there is still liquid left in the slow cooker, remove the lid and cook on high to let the liquid evaporate. Roll the chicken filling and your choice of optional ingredients into a warm tortilla and form a burrito, or put the filling into a bowl, or into some warm, pre-made hard-shell tacos and add your choice of toppings. Serves 6 to 8.

Angela Shelf Medearis is an award-winning children’s author, culinary historian and the author of seven cookbooks. Her new cookbook is “The Kitchen Diva’s Diabetic Cookbook.” Her website is www.divapro.com. To see how-to videos, recipes and much, much more, Like Angela Shelf Medearis, The Kitchen Diva! on Facebook. Recipes may not be reprinted without permission from Angela Shelf Medearis.

(c) 2019 King Features Synd., Inc., and Angela Shelf Medearis