Episode 266: Sweet Potato Tacos, Chicken & Cream Cheese Sandwiches, and How to Reheat Your Food

In food news this week, TheRinger.com asks how NYT Cooking became the best comment section on the internet.

In our What’s for Dinner segment, we’re serving up black bean and sweet potato tacos. (Catch some video of Joy’s taco making methods here.

In our How’d You Make That? segment, Marisa describes a fave from childhood: chicken and cream cheese sandwich spread.

We share our collective wisdom on the best ways to reheat food.

And finally, in What We’re Loving, it’s Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Grams. Yum.

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16 thoughts on “Episode 266: Sweet Potato Tacos, Chicken & Cream Cheese Sandwiches, and How to Reheat Your Food”

  1. Joy you are not alone!!! I had no idea can chicken existed until we bought a boat 10 years ago. And, I hope you’re sitting down, you can also but WHOLE chicken in a can, and not in a nice en confit kinda way ( in French countries you can buy duck en confit in a can). And no, I don’t understand it either. H

  2. Believe it or not, one of the best quality canned chicken out there is the Walmart store brand. Some of the other named brands can be stringy and have a tuna smell/taste, but the Walmart one is nice chunks that flake or hold together (instead of shredding) and really tastes like chicken.

    I actually used it a lot when my daughter was a toddler. I would mix it with a bit of mayo and some seasonings…little garlic powder and oregano, add an egg. Then portion using a cookie scoop, make little patties, coat in breadcrumbs and either fry or bake. The result is somewhere between a crabcake and a chicken nugget. I also did it with tuna, but you don’t want to feed a kid too much tuna due to the mercury, so I switched to canned chicken. 🙂

    1. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only canned chicken user! And that’s a good tip about the Walmart brand. I’ve had some good luck with the stuff from Target, but I have experienced it being hit or miss from other places as well.

  3. Joy, I loved your reaction to the canned chicken thing. I didn’t know it existed till I went to the east coast to nanny and the mom loved to make chicken salad with it and eat it with wheat thins. You can buy it at Costco in a 6 pack! Delicious. Drain it, fluff it up with a fork, add a little mayo, some green onions and a little fresh ground pepper, serve with crackers. Or celery. Or a fork. Yum. I think I need to make a Costco run.

  4. I agree that Cooking’s notes are very useful. My favorite part is that you can filter to show only the most useful comments as judged by cooks who have come before you. And I think the expectation that those making notes have actually cooked the dish helps. There are many free sites on the internet with comment sections that consist only of “This looks amazing!”, which isn’t so helpful when you want to know if it *is* amazing. I get the site with my Times subscription, but I use it enough that I would pay.

  5. I cackled at Joy’s realization that canned chicken exists! My mom usually had a few cans in the pantry, along with canned tuna (neither of which I ate). A coworker keeps canned chicken and a pizza crust packet in her pantry at all times so they can make a quick bbq chicken pizza for dinner.

    Marisa – you’re doing so well at listening to what your body and the babies need!

  6. As kids we often ate canned chicken made into a salad with yogurt or Mayo like tuna. I like the idea of creamed cheese though! Costco canned chicken is the best. I think I will add it to my shopping list this week and see if my two little ones like it. And congratulations, Marisa!

  7. Always, Always have canned chicken in the pantry! My mom used to mix with cream cheese & diced veggies to top crackers. In an emergency (think power outage…) there’s something to eat if you can open a can! And, it makes the best chicken topping on a white pizza!
    Also, you ladies need to try reheating leftovers in an air fryer. There’s just something about reheating things in the small space with convection that really works!

    1. I have heard very good things about air fryers, but I hadn’t thought about using them to reheat leftovers. Very clever!

  8. As of this episode I had never heard of canned chicken either, but we went to Whole Foods later that day last week (springhouse) and I searched for it. There is was! And our favorite tuna brand no less (wild planet). It also happened to be on sale so we grabbed a can and made for lunch that afternoon, with mayo, no cream cheese. Nice for a change from my kids usual lunch choices.

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