Southwest Grilled Chicken with Hatch Chili Lime Butter

It's hatch chili season and that's all you see when you go into Whole Foods and Central Market. After taking advantage of these little peppers, with the chicken enchilada recipe in a hatch chili cream sauce, I decided to use them again while they were still in season. I came across this recipe from fellow blogger, Domestic Diva, as I searched my various food blogs and I wanted to substitute her Serrano peppers for these hatch chili peppers.

This is my version of her delicious chicken dish to share with you, just slightly adapted. This was a 15 minute meal at most, very simple and full of taste!

Grocery List:
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2-4 chicken breasts (I got two large chicken cutlets, cut them in half)

Lime butter
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of butter, melted
1 hatch green chili
2 tablespoons minced white onion
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Additional Needs:
2 Mixing bowls
Cutting board, knife
Spoon or pastry brush
Griddle, grilling surface

Start by mixing your first 8 ingredients in a small bowl until well blended.




Spread the mixture over both sides of your chicken.


Add your no-stick spray of choice to the grilling surface, turn to medium-high heat, and add your chicken. Let cook for about 15 minutes, or until it is cooked through.


While your chicken is cooking, melt your butter in a bowl,


Chop up your cilantro,


Chop up your pepper,


Add to the butter along with the onion and lemon juice.


Mix it together then spoon over the chicken when ready to serve.


This recipe was incredible! Domestic Diva raved, and now I can too! I served this with a simple saute of zucchini, squash with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, along with couscous.

(Mr. Max's portions always photograph better)

Chicken Enchiladas with Hatch Chili Cream Sauce

This past weekend I went with my two life long best friends to the lake for our girl's lake house trip. The two of them are wonderful little chef's and we had a great time cooking up a storm. After a fun run to the small town of Mabank's Walmart (okay, and I hit Whole Foods before we got on the road) we were ready to go, each of us taking our parts. I even got myself a veggie steamer!

Katie - leading the charge on the enchiladas
Greer - making her famed G-Mama Guacamole
Amy - a delicious black bean and corn salsa, along with never letting our margarita glasses go empty... until we had run out of margarita mix... and tequila.

In our weekend planning emails, we decided we wanted a Mexican fiesta night, so I did a google search for chicken enchiladas. Came across a a website with a sour cream poblano sauce. When I got to the grocery store, I decided to replace the poblano peppers with hatch chili peppers, tis the season!

Grocery List:
For enchiladas
2 cups Rotisserie shredded chicken
1 red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 cup monterray jack cheese, shredded
8 - 10 tortillas (we used both whole wheat and flour to appeal to different tastes)
1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped

For hatch chili cream sauce
1 large shallot, finely minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 hatch green chilies
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons flour
8 ounces sour cream
2 cups chicken broth

First, start by carving the rotisserie chicken and shredding the chicken.




Next, de-stem and seed your peppers. Cut poblano peppers in half, remove all seeds and stem.



At this point, do not rub or itch your eyes. I now know what pepper spray must feel like.

Roast peppers in the oven at 450 degrees until skin begins to blister and turn black in spots, which should take about 10 -15 minutes.


While the peppers are peppering, combine the first 8 ingredients for the enchiladas in a bowl, then set aside.


Once the peppers are done, let cool and remove the black spots from the skin, then chop up the peppers into small bits.






To make the cream sauce, cut up the shallot and garlic, then saute in a pan with the butter until softened and fragrant.


Add the peppers and spices and cook for another minute.


Mix the sour cream and the flour in a separate bowl.


Add to the skillet followed by the chicken broth - add the chicken broth slowly, I'm not sure I used a full 2 cups, just added as I went to thin out the mixture. I probably used 1 & 3/4 cup. After a taste test, I felt it needed more sour cream so I added another spoon full.





Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, wisk and simmer until the sauce is thick and creamy. Now, it might be time to refill your margarita. It was for us.


I also decided it needed about 1/3 cup of cheese.


Measure out 3/4 cup of your sauce and add it to the filling mixture, stir and combine well.




Use about two spoonfuls of enchilada filling to the tortillas, then roll and place face down in an oven-safe baking dish.




Top the enchiladas with the remaining sauce, then cover with monterrey jack cheese and garnish with green onions.






Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until browning and bubbly.


As we made our enchiladas, here are a few pics of G's Guac and Amy's black bean and corn salsa...






Here is the final product and it was incredible!

Bourbon Chicken

Another Allrecipes.com that sounded right up my alley. This one comes it at a low 310 calories and it is full of flavor - which is what I was looking for Miss Clare's dinner! This specific recipe doesn't use bourbon because I didn't want the unneeded calories, so I added a little more tamari and apple cider to make up for the lack of the whiskey.

Grocery List:
Desired number of chicken breasts (I used 3, cut in half for 6 total)
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup of apple juice
1/3 cup of light brown sugar
2 tablespoons of ketchup
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce or Tamari

Additional Needs:
Mixing bowl
Skillet
Oven safe dish

Start by pre-heating your oven to 425 degrees.

Combine all elements, aside from the olive oil and chicken, into a mixing bowl.





Pour over chicken and let marinate for at least 20 minutes, setting the rest to the side to use later.



After a good bath in the bourbon marinade, add the olive oil to the skillet and heat. Next, add the chicken and sear each side to lock in the moisture and the flavor.



I felt the sauce was a little thin, so after searing the chicken, I poured the sauce in the skillet, brought it to a boil to help thicken.


Once seared, set chicken in the oven safe dish and use the rest of the marinade to cover the chicken.


Pop in the oven for 15 minutes, then you are ready to serve! For Miss Clare's visit, we made her my favorite mashed potatoes and some steamed broccoli.


There was additional chicken left over, so Mr. Max and I had it for leftovers tonight with a Parmesan Risotto (from a box) and sauteed green beans.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Mr. Max's sweet sister, Clare, has come to town to visit us so we decided to cook a little dinner for her Friday night, including some pre-dinner munchies. I received this recipe for a spinach artichoke dip from AllRecipes.com, which of course, I adjusted just a bit. At 175 calories, here it is!

Grocery List:
2 cups of frozen spinach, thawed
1 14 oz can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
3 cloves garlic (I added an additional 2)
1/2 cup of fat free mayonnaise
1 and 1/2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Tony's Creole Seasoning

Additional Needs:
Colander
Cutting board, knife
Mixing bowl
Serving dishes - some kind of baking dish
Aluminum foil
Non-stick spray

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease your baking dish(es) with non-stick spray.

Drain and chop your artichoke hearts.


I love the concept of including artichoke hearts, but I'm not really wild about thick chunks of artichoke, so I chopped them up rather small and used 2 and a half artichoke hearts.



Next, I had to thaw my frozen spinach, so I put it in a bowl and nuked it for 1 minute. As I said in my Mediterranean Chicken Florentine recipe, spinach naturally holds a lot of water. As it cooks, it releases excess moisture, so you will want to try to remove what you can. Take a paper towel and press out the water.


A soaking wet paper towel!


In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth.


Then add the artichoke hearts, minced garlic,


and Parmesan cheese.


Then the spinach.


Add a tablespoon, or a cap's worth of lemon juice.


And finally, to give it a bit of a flare, some Tony's Creole, mmm-mmm-mmmm.


Stir it all up!


Scoop your dip mixture into your serving bowls. I got these little black ceramic fan dishes in the dollar section at Target 4 years ago, they were for my first dinner party and I needed something to serve my store-bought dips in. Now look how far we've come.


Cover the dish(es) in aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.


When that timer goes off, remove the foil and sprinkle a delicous gooey meltable cheese on top - I had a 3 cheese blend of parmesan, asiago and fontina that I used.


Let it bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.


Let cool and serve it up with either tortilla chips, wheat thins or pita chips! I was intrigued that it seemed a little souffle like, similar consistency at first dip, but very good! Maybe this means I can try my hand at a souffle some time in the near future! The one thing I thought of after the fact was how would the addition of sun dried tomatoes have fared? A thought to try for next time!