Crock Pot Tacos (and optional guac)

contributed by: Kate Lockwood

I love taco night because I just throw everything on the table and everyone can customize their dinner. So, if the 4.5 year old wants to eat a plain tortilla and the 1 year old wants to shovel guacamole into her mouth with a spoon that is THEIR CHOICE.

Crock Pot Taco Chicken Ingredients:

• 1 cup of chicken broth 
• 1 can of petite diced tomatoes (optional)
• 1 packet of taco seasoning (or 2T+ of homemade spice mix)
• 1-2 pounds of chicken breast 

Dump all that stuff in your crock pot and set it for 6 hours on low. I use frozen chicken and set the crockpot for 8 hours so that I can start it when I leave for work in the morning. When you get home, shred the chicken with two forks. Put out with all the taco fixins and let everyone build their own dinner.

Homemade Taco Seasoning (if you don't have a packet on hand)

• 1 T chili powder 
• 1/4t garlic powder
• 1/4t onion powder
• 1/4t crushed red pepper flakes (optional for spice)
• 1/4t dried oregano
• 1/2t paprika
• 1 1/2t cumin (I always put in extra because I am cumin obsessed)
• 1t salt
• 1t pepper

Mix it all together. Use as you would regular taco seasoning

We almost never have tacos without guacamole at our house because I think guacamole is the only food on the planet that everyone in my family will eat without complaint. (I also bring this to pretty much every pot-luck party we attend.)

Guacamole Ingredients 
This makes a lot because we eat a lot and have it on our sandwiches for lunch the next day. You can halve the recipe for a smaller batch, or double for a big party

• 3-4 ripe avocados
• 2 roma tomatoes diced
• 1/2 red onion diced super fine
• 1 bunch of cilantro chopped super fine (optional)
• salt to taste
• fresh lime juice to taste
• cumin to taste (optional)

Mash up the avocados (this is a great job for kid kitchen helpers). Add salt and lime juice starting with 1/2t of salt and juice of half a lime. Adjust salt and juice to taste. If you are adding cumin put it in now. Stir in the onions and tomatoes. Add cilantro if you like (I usually leave this out for parties in case there are cilantro haters in the crowd)

We typically start the crock pot in the morning and when we get home we shred the chicken then have the kids help make the guac while the taco shells are warming. To make things go faster we might pre-dice the tomatoes and onion for the guac the night before and store in Tupperware in the fridge.