Ranch Chicken Burritos - Southern Style

The burritos cooking inside smelled wonderful, but there was something outside that smelled just as wonderful!  I had to share a picture of one of the beautiful gardenias that are covering my bushes right now.

God's simple beauty

Now, on to the food!  I must warn you and apologize ahead of time that I am from the south, and I cook like a southerner.  I don't always have ingredient measurements,  I shake in this and sprinkle in that a lot.  When I tell you a certain number of shakes, please understand it is relative and subject to your taste.   Be bold!  Be brave!  Start with a little.  If it's not right, add a little more until the yumminess in your pot tastes perfect to you!

The following recipe is one that found on Pinterest.  The original recipe was okay but it needed more flavor and substance for my family, so I spruced it up and made it my own.  Well, I don't know that I can actually call it my own since I only added the spices and the rice.  I went back and traced the origin of the recipe.  It originally came from thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com.  She didn't have a name for it, so I gave it one after "I made it my own."

Ranch Chicken Burritos

2-3 pound bag of frozen chicken breasts or breast tenderloins

1 can of Rotel -original

1 can of seasoned black beans

1 small bag of steamable whole kernel corn (You can use fresh or your own canned corn if you have

   it.)

1 bag of boil-in-the-bag rice- remove rice from the bag

8 oz. cream cheese

1 packet of dry ranch mix (I don't use premade packets.  See below for the recipe I use.)

5 shakes of chili powder

6 shakes of paprika

7 shakes of onion powder

Place chicken in the crock pot.  Pour in black beans, Rotel, and corn.  Put cream cheese on top of the other ingredients.  You can add the spices and rice now, but I usually wait until the mixture starts bubbling around the edges.  Cook on low for about 6 hours or on high for about 4 hours.  You will know the chicken is done if it shreds easily when your cooking utensil scrapes across it.

Serving Suggestions:  Spoon into a tortilla for a taco or burrito, or use mixture for a dip with a spoon-shaped corn chip. 

Toppings that work well: assorted, shredded cheeses, tomatoes, avacado slices, ranch dressing (Be careful!  A little goes a long way!), shredded lettuce

The following is the dressing mix which I found on allrecipes.com a while back.  It was submitted by BEC.  It's the only one I use at this time.

Ranch Dressing Mix

1 teaspoon dried parsley

3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

Mix together all the ingredients in a small bowl and use as would use a packet of ranch dressing mix.