Tag Archives: food

Pulled Chicken

Good morning, lovely friends! Somehow, it’s Monday again. But that’s okay. We just came off a fabulous weekend with my sister Erica and her husband, I’m starting a yoga class tonight with my favorite teacher at Broadway Armory Park, I’m about to imbibe a steaming mug of mint tea, and I have exciting things to share with you this week–starting with this chicken.

What to say about this chicken?

It’s great. I made it on a whim. I was committed to bringing a dish to a women’s gathering at our church, and as I was browsing the incredible food blog that is Kayotic Kitchen, this chicken sandwich caught my eye. I’m so glad that Kay highlighted it in her Superbowl-friendly recipes post, because I might not have found it otherwise. It’s simple (not at all labor intensive, seriously), delicious, and I was asked for the recipe.

There’s no greater compliment than being asked for the recipe, in my book.

The sauce is richly complex, satisfying, the right amount of vinegary and sweet, and of course adjustable to each person’s individual taste. So make this for a party! It’s amazing.

I made a few changes–green pepper instead of red, ginger sauce for added sweetness, sriracha, more chicken (the ratio of sauce was a little high), and the results were delectable. I will now show you how it all went down!

 

Ingredients

(Serves 10-12)

7-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion
2 TBS butter
1 bell pepper (red or green)
6-8 garlic cloves
1 serrano or jalapeño chili, seeds and membrane removed
1 cup ketchup
3 TBS sriracha
1 1/2 cups water
3 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS ginger syrup
1/2 cup apple cider or white wine vinegar
2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 squeeze fresh lemon juice
2 tsp salt, to taste
Tabasco, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Mince the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and chili.

Heat the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook for 15 minutes, until it’s starting to caramelize.

Add the bell pepper, garlic and chili and continue to cook for another 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are softened.

Season those veggies with salt and pepper as they cook.

Whisk together the remaining ingredients (except for the chicken).

Give the sauce a taste if you want, though the flavors will change and deepen when it cooks.

If you don’t have a certain ingredient (like ginger sauce), don’t sweat it–this is a flexible sauce. A forgiving sauce. A sauce that’s begging to be personalized.

Add the ketchup mixture to the pot with the veggies and bring ‘er to a boil.

Add the chicken breasts, lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Don’t overcook the chicken, or it will dry out! Overcooked chicken is the worst, man, especially once you understand the full potential of tender, perfectly cooked fowl flesh.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the pot and set it aside to cool a little on a plate.

Turn the heat up to medium and simmer the sauce for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t burn to the bottom, until it’s very thick. Like dees!

And if you burn it a little (I certainly did–you can see the blackened chunks if you look closely), it only adds to the smokiness of the barbecue flavor.

Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Shred the chicken with two forks . . .

. . . and mix the chicken and sauce together.

My chicken went straight into this lovely plastic container, for transportation to our women’s ministry gathering.

Oh man, my mouth is watering.

Serve! On a plate, over rice, in a sandwich—you’ll love it.

The chicken is so amazingly tender and flavorful.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Pulled Chicken

Little Rollies

I saw this recipe on Amy’s site and thought that it would be the perfect appetizer to make for our Thusrday night Bible study. Amy calls them ‘Baked Salami Mozzarella Bites,’ and that’s a great name for them. However, when explaining what I was going to make to my husband, the name ‘Little Rollies’ popped out. And stuck.

They’re small enough that nobody will hesitate to try them (one bite is not a huge commitment), and so delicious that they disappeared by the end of the study. This is the first treat I’ve made that has been fully consumed by the group, which makes it the most popular Bible study food I’ve made to date. It beat out the apple tart. It beat out the queso. It beat out the pumpkin cranberry bread. It beat out the beer bread. Its trail to victory has left everthing else in the dust.

Let the Little Rollies sweep across the Bible studies of this nation.

These crunchy little pizza-flavored rolls with the salami and melted cheese, dipped in a little marinara, are so crazy good. And so crazy easy to make. Don’t be doubting–I’ll show you!

Ingredients

(Serves 10-12)

32 wonton wrappers
4 pieces string cheese
32 salami rounds
Cooking spray/olive oil
Marinara sauce, to serve

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Quarter the pieces of string cheese lengthwise . . .

. . . then cut all the strips in half crosswise.

Spread out the first 8 wonton wrappers, with a corner facing you. Place a salami round in the lower section of each diamond shape, as close to the edge as possible.

Place one piece of string cheese (crosswise) across the bottom of the salami round.

Folding up the bottom corner, roll the wonton wrapper once so that it partially covers the piece of string cheese.

Fold in the sides like so . . .

[Sorry, that was possibly the worst photo ever posted on my blog. It’s a crime, that’s what. In my defense, I was really struggling to roll and photograph at the same time, and wasn’t even paying attention to my overly-bright flash settings. Yikes.]

. . . and continue to roll (like a burrito).

Seal the edges with a dab of water.

Repeat with all the wonton wrappers until they’re gone! Do this assembly-fashion and it won’t take long. Especially if you have a friend or little helper by your side (thanks Carrie, my dear “little helper”!).

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spritz it with olive oil or cooking spray. Place the little rollies on the baking tray, and lightly spritz the top with olive oil or cooking spray as well.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until they’re starting to look golden and toasted. Turn them over with tongs, crank up the heat to 500 F, and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes, until they’re crispy and brown.

You may have noticed there are not 32 little rollies here. That’s because I didn’t photograph them the night I made them for small group, but instead made a few more the following night for our personal consumption. They’re just that good.

Pad off the excess grease with a paper towel . . .

. . . and serve with marinara sauce for dipping.

Wanna see inside these addictive little bites? The rolled salami encasing the melty cheese . . .

It may be better to make a small batch, because I’d hate to think what would happen if it was just you alone, faced with 32 of these temptations.

Moderation . . . moderation . . . moderation . . .

(I’m hypnotizing myself into self-control)

Click here for printer-friendly version: Little Rollies