Am's Take on Cafe Rio Chicken

Submitted by Chef Moto Mom

"This Was given to me by a dear friend's daughter and it is worth sharing and keeping here for safe keeping hope you all enjoy as much as we did."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs
• Ingredients: 20
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• Dressing

• 2 tomatillos
• 1⁄2 bunch cilantro
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 lime, juice of
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 (8 ounce) package buttermilk ranch dressing, made according to directions on the pack then add the blended ingredients and chill. the longer this

• Chicken

• 5 lbs chicken breasts (no bones)
• 1 (16 ounce) bottle of kraft zesty Italian dressing
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 3 gloves garlic, minced

• Rice

• 3 cups water
• 3 cups rice (instant rice works best)
• 4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
• 4 gloves garlic
• 1⁄2 bunch cilantro
• 1 (4 ounce) can green chilies
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1⁄2 onion

directions

1. Make the dressing by blending all the ingredients together in a blender. The longer this can sit and chill the better the flavor will enhance.
2. Chicken: Put in crock pot for 4 hours then shred and replace for 1 hour to soak up the juice.
3. Rice: Blend in the blender the following: bouillon, garlic, cilantro, green chilies, salt, butter and onion.
4. Let water come to a boil; add rice and blended ingredients. Let rest until rice is done.
5. What we did was put a tortilla in a frying pan and added cheese on it until it became slightly crisp then layered chicken, rice, romaine lettuce, fresh lime and the dressing.
6. This was a easy and very good recipe and the leftovers were great!

Reviews

[ILikeSweets]

I made the chicken and the dressing listed here but I used my own rice recipe. I was nervous about the chicken since it was so easy and had few ingredients but it turned out perfectly! I ended up using a 3 lb bag of frozen chicken but kept all other ingredients the same as listed and it was so good. I cooked it in the crockpot on low for 8 hours then I shredded the meat and put it back in the crockpot and placed it in the fridge over night. Then about an hour before dinner the next night, I turned the crock pot on high and warmed it back up. Saved me some time that day. The dressing was really tasty too. I used one jalape?o but I didn't use any of the seeds. Me, my husband and my two young kids all enjoyed this. I ate the leftovers for two days after. Thanks!

 

[Chef TanyaW]

This chicken recipe is great. I prefer my own cilantro rice recipe which doesn't use as much rice and doesn't use instant rice. I have not tried this dressing recipe yet (I have my own recipe for cilantro sauce submitted)... but I do want to try this recipe since I have not yet found a cafe rio copycat dressing that comes close to the real thing. By the way, I have used only 8 oz. dressing, but I thing I'll try the 16 oz. next time to improve it.

 

[rayroberts]

Excellent I just fixed this for my family and they all loved it and said it tasted just like the real cafe rio. Great recipe and great job... Thanks