Roasted Red Jalapeño Elote

I suspect many of you will scoff, even cringe, when you pull out the mayonnaise to make this dish. You might question why on earth I would stray from the canon of butter when it comes to finishing some perfectly nice corn on the cob.

You would be oh so wrong to do so.

Elote, a traditional Mexican preparation of corn on the cob, employs mayonnaise for one simple reason: stuff sticks to it. Delicious, scrumptious stuff like refreshing cilantro and salty cotija cheese that would just slide right off a butter coating. Furthermore, it’s easy to mix in all sorts of wonderful things like tangy lime juice and spicy roasted red jalapeno.

In short, it’s the perfect vehicle for adorning your sweet grilled corn with the best possible combination of ingredients. So stop hating on mayonnaise and make yourself some Elote, ASAP.

Chicken Tinga Chilaquiles

When I imagined this dish, I was aiming for nachos.

I had in my head an image of cheesy goodness oozing between tortilla chips with a smattering of deliciously spicy chicken tinga tossed over the top. But I wound up getting the portions wrong, and there was a lot more chicken tinga than I expected. When I pulled it out of the oven and tried to pull a chip away it crumpled soggily under the weight of all the toppings.

So I wound up eating it with a fork instead, and it was truly fantastic. I was going to call them “fork nachos” and shout the name from the rooftops to anyone who would listen, but after a little Google searching I discovered there was already a name for this kind of delicious smothered nachos: “Chilaquiles.”

And man, these are some awesome Chilaquiles.

They’ve got everything you could want in a Mexican dish. The chicken tinga itself spicy, tangy, and just a little bit sweet, while the rest of the toppings are a blend of creamy, cheesy, earthy and herbal. The tortilla chips provide just enough of a base to hold the whole meal together without giving it an overwhelmingly starchy feel.

You won’t be able to resist going back for seconds!

SliderPalooza!

Patrick and Quinn present to you: The All-Star Lineup of SliderPalooza!

We know, we know, this post is long overdue. After all, we previewed this post with our Mashed Potato Slider with Apple-Fennel Slaw over four months ago.

IPA Chicken Stuffed Poblano Pepper

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of beer on this blog, but I’ve usually kept my food blogging and my beer blogging separate.

No longer.

There’s nothing new about bringing beer into the kitchen, but it’s typically darker brews that are incorporated into dishes – from Steak with Porter Reduction to Corned Beef slow-roasted in Guinness to Brown Ale Ice Cream Floats. That’s all well and good, but being a hop-head I wanted to take a run at incorporating IPA (India Pale Ale) into a recipe.

Different kinds of beer, just like wines, pair well with different foods. IPAs tend to fit best with spicier cuisines, such as Thai, Indian, Cajun and Mexican. Because I’ve been on something of a Mexican kick lately, I opted to try integrating an IPA into a classic dish – stuffed poblano peppers.

So, should hop-heads rejoice?

I wouldn’t. To be honest, the IPA flavor didn’t really permeate the chicken as well as I had hoped. Only on occasion did faint notes of hop come to the fore. The dish still tasted great – tender, flavorful chicken, roasted poblano, sharp cotija and refreshing salsa – but the beer just wasn’t a force in the palette.

The fundamentals of this dish are strong enough that I’d just recommend combining all the spices into a dry rub and saving the IPA to drink with dinner. While you’re doing that, I’ll continue searching for the perfect way to serve up IPA on a plate.

IPA Chicken Stuffed Poblano Pepper

• 2 chicken tenders
• 2 poblano peppers
• 1/4 cup cotija cheese, crumbled

Marinade

• 1 bottle of India Pale Ale
• 2 teaspoons lime zest
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper

Salsa

• 3 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 jalapeño, finely diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 10 cilantro leaves, chopped
• Juice of one lime

 

1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag or tuperware container. Add the chicken tenders and refrigerate for at least two hours, preferable overnight.
2. Using a barbecue, toaster oven or oven on broil, roast the poblano pepper for 4-6 minutes or until slightly tender. Make a lengthwise cut in the poblano and remove the seeds.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a chicken tender into each pepper, the peppers into a baking dish and the baking dish into the oven. Cook for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove the stuffed peppers from the oven and plate. Sprinkle cotija cheese and salsa on top and serve.