Cafe Rio

I "liked" the Cafe Rio page on Facebook a while ago. Every now and then, I look at pictures of different meals that everyone has uploaded. Well, they make me sooo hungry!! I have asked quite a few times for them to come to Montana. They say that they are planning to in the "near future". There's a chance that when they do come to Montana, they wont even be close to me. Yesterday I was looking at pictures of one salad that someone posted and I couldn't think of anything else for the next 24 hours. Since the only meal that actually sounds good during this pregnancy is salad, I had to make one for dinner tonight.

I have many versions of copy-cat Cafe Rio recipes. I did some research last night, and found the one's that I wanted to use on www.kalynskitchen.com. Here they are (with a few changes I made per other recipes I have looked at and how I cooked it):

Café Rio Creamy Dressing

1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)

2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)

½ cup of chopped fresh cilantro

1 clove garlic

2 TBSP fresh lime juice

1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well, make sure that you blend it until smooth, mine came out a little bit lumpy. Refrigerate 1-2 hours.

I had the dressing again the next day and it tasted EXACTLY like the restaurant version. I highly recommend refrigerating overnight if you can.

Café Rio Rice

2 c water

4 tsp chicken bouillon

4 tsp garlic –minced (2 large cloves)

½ cup cilantro

1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh

¾ tsp salt

1 TBSP butter

½ onion - diced

4 c regular rice (not minute rice)

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Add chicken bouillon to water and bring to boil. Once boiling, add garlic, salt, and butter to make seasoned water. Stir in food processor items and rice. Simmer covered 30 minutes. Stir after 30 min, cilantro pieces will float to the top of the mixture.

This makes A TON of rice. Recommend cutting in half, or more, if you have 4 or less people in your house.

Here is the order that I assembled the salad with pictures. I tried to put it together exactly how Cafe Rio does.

1. Heat the tortilla in a pan and grate some cheese on it. Keep tortilla in pan until cheese is melted.

2. Take out of pan and place in bowl big enough to hold tortilla. When Jon and I eat at Costco, we save the containers that we get our chicken salad in. They are PERFECT size for large tortillas that you buy at the grocery store, and are perfect for leftovers. :)

3. Put rice on top of cheese, however much you want.

4. Put black or pinto beans on top of the rice, again, however much you want.

5. Add steak, chicken, or pork, what ever you made. Jon pulled out our grill and grilled up a steak for us. He seasoned it with salt, pepper, and Mansmiths. If you've never heard of Mansmiths, you are missing out! It is found in California, but you can order it online. It is the BEST seasoning for meat.

6. Add sliced romaine lettuce, then diced tomatoes (or pico de gallo if you have it), a dallop of sour cream, a dallop of guacamole, and some cilantro pieces.

7. Put tortilla strips on your salad and cover in dressing. I couldn't find any tortilla strips at my grocery store, so we just broke up tortilla chips into little pieces. The benefit of making your own dressing, you can use as much as you want and you don't have to pay extra for another container.

Let me just tell you that it was DELICIOUS!! It tasted so much like a Cafe Rio steak salad. Jon and I will definitely be making this again. Try it if you don't have a Cafe Rio nearby or if you've never heard of Cafe Rio.