Sunday, January 31, 2010

Chipotle Chicken Poppers

Well, I've done it. I've made at least one item that both qualifies for the pillsbury bake-off and tastes half-way decent.

This first round experiment is an homage to a trip that I took about a year ago with my mom to Santa Fe. I just really, really fell in love with the food there and thought I should do something that's a little peppery as a first attempt.

Behold the ingredients that my alchemy would turn into a million dollars: 1 jalapeno, some shredded cheese, ground chicken, goya hominy, chipotles in adobo and (of course) some pillsbury dinner rolls.
I started off dicing and sauteing the jalapeno in a little oil. I took the jalapeno out, set it aside and added the chicken, about a tablespoon of the adobo sauce and one diced chipotle pepper (seeds removed). Once the chicken was cooked through, I poured in the hominy and let that heat through.

Thus began the assembly process. First I rolled out each dinner roll and gave them a layer of the sauteed jalapeno, which I had mixed with a little cheese. Then I piled on a spoonful of the chicken/chipotle/hominy mixture. I balled that all up and sent it to the oven!


Results were somewhat mixed. Everyone who sampled it had different feedback -- too spicy, could use more spice, too bready, needs more cheese. Suffice it to say, this was a good first effort, but will definitely need some tweaking before its "ready for primetime." Any thoughts on hominy? Is it too fancy or unknown for this competition? (I included it to help cut the spiciness of the chipotle, and to mix up the texture.)

3 comments:

  1. lose the hominy and the spice. This is a pillsbury contest, so know your audience. I am sure your meal was fab tho!

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  2. Glad to hear that our trip to Santa Fe was inspirational. Food-wise, that is.

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