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Apr 28 2014

Spicy Pulled Chicken Sliders with Bacon Queso Guacamole

Posted by Megan {Country Cleaver} in Step-by-Step Recipes

Mexican food and I have a special bond. I love it, it understands me and I can’t ever turn it down. It’s my food kryptonite. So when I saw Serena’s recipe for Spicy Pulled Chicken Sliders with Bacon Queso Guacamole, I just swooned.

The list of ingredients wasn’t overly complicated, and it helped me use up a lot of the veggies that I already had on hand.

To start, dice an onion and simmer in dash of olive oil until translucent. Add in the ketchup and reduce until the onions are soft.

Once the onions and ketchup have reduced, pour in a bottle of beer for the braise. Serena recommends not using an IPA, because it will turn bitter after simmering, and I agree. For this I chose a lager that I had on hand and it was perfect. Add in the chicken breasts, cover and braise until cooked through.

While the chicken is braising, get started on your guacamole. In a medium bowl, mix your avocado, cilantro, red onion, and all the other fixin’s.

And don’t forget your bacon! Priorities friends, priorities.

When the chicken is cooked through, shred it with a couple of forks until pulled apart. Once shredded, add the pulled chicken back into the braising sauce and stir to coat it completely. Cover and keep warm until you’re ready to put your sliders together.

When you’re ready to put your sliders together, slice the slider buns and toast them until golden brown. Top with some pulled chicken and then a hefty dollop of bacon-loaded guacamole. Finish it off with the toasted golden brown top of your slider and devour it immediately.

Thank you to Serena for her fantastic recipe. Be sure to check out Serena’s Recipe Box for other inspired food, and see her site, Domesticate Me, for other great stuff—-like this Grilled Pita Pizza with Prosciutto and Chanterelles. Wowzer!

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Spicy Pulled Chicken Sliders with Bacon-Queso Guacamole

by Serena Wolf @ Domesticate ME! on November 19, 2013 in Appetizers, Snacks

See post on Serena Wolf @ Domesticate ME!’s site!

5.00 Mitt(s) 1 Rating(s) 1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

Description

These chicken sliders topped with the world’s most epic guacamole are guaranteed to spice up your life and your game-day festivities.

Ingredients

FOR THE SLIDERS:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 whole Medium Yellow Onion, Minced
2 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 whole Chipotle Pepper Canned In Adobo, Finely Chopped (only Use 1 Pepper If You're Not Into Spicy)
½ cups Ketchup
1 whole Lime, Juiced
2 Tablespoons Honey
18 ounces, fluid Beer Of Your Choice (Do Not Use An IPA, As It Gets Very Bitter When Reduced)
4 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
36 whole Slider Buns (I Love Martin's Party Potato Rolls)
FOR THE BACON-QUESO GUACAMOLE
3 whole Avocados
1-½ whole Limes, Juiced
1 clove Garlic, Minced
¼ cups Red Onion, Minced
4 slices Cooked Thick-cut Bacon, Crumbled
½ cups Crumbled Queso Fresco
3 Tablespoons Chopped Cilantro

Preparation Instructions

For the sliders:
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven (or whatever large saucepan you have with a lid) over medium heat. When hot, add the minced onions and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes until the onions become translucent. Add the chipotles, ketchup, lime juice, honey and beer. Bring the mixture to a boil and then add the chicken breasts. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Then remove the chicken breasts from the cooking liquid, place them on a cutting board and allow them to cool slightly. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken using two forks (or your hands, whatever).

Bring the cooking liquid to a boil and cook until it has reduced by about half and thickened slightly. This should take about 15 minutes. While your sauce is reducing, make your guacamole.

For the Bacon-Queso Guacamole:
Slice your avocados in half and remove the pits. Score the flesh of each avocado half with a knife and spoon the flesh out of its skin into a mixing bowl. Squeeze lime juice over the avocado and mash it with a fork. Mix in the minced garlic, red onion, crumbled bacon, queso fresco and cilantro. Boom. Cover tightly with plastic wrap until ready to use. If you leave your guac hanging around uncovered, it will oxidize and turn brown. Party foul.

When your sauce has reduced, mix in the shredded chicken and cook for 3-5 minutes until heated through. Remove from heat.

Spoon your spicy pulled chicken onto slider rolls and top with bacon-queso guacamole and serve immediately. Game day just got a whole lot fancier, people.

_______________________________________

Megan Keno is the writer and photographer of Country Cleaver, a food blog fueled by Nutella and images of June Cleaver—if June wore cowboy boots and flannel, that is. A self-proclaimed country bum, Megan creates from-scratch recipes that range from simple to sublime and how-to’s to build your cooking repertoire. But she couldn’t do it without the help of her trusty—and furry—sous chef, Huckleberry. He’s a world class floor cleaner.

May 7 2014

Summer Grilling Ideas

Posted by Erika (TK) in Kitchen Talk

We’ve been reading all your Kitchen Talk ideas and suggestions in our last giveaway post, and there are so many great ones there! Today’s topic comes from Jean, and she wants to know:

Do you have any summer grilling ideas?

I want to know, too. Now that summer is just around the corner, I’m looking forward to the prospect of eating outside, smelling that smell of meat (or vegetables) charring and listening to the sound of drippings sizzling on hot coals. And though burgers and hotdogs are usual summer grilling fare, I know you all have creative ideas and lovely recipes to share.

Betsy loves grilled veggies: eggplant, zucchini, onions, mushrooms, asparagus. She says, “I live for summer, because of grilled vegetables. And chimichurri is my sauce of choice with a steak and a big plate of veggies.” Nanci is a big batch cooker so she likes to get several pounds of chicken breasts marinated and grill them all at once for quick weeknight meals. She loves grilled veggies too, so skewers or a veggie grate/pan is a must-have for her.

For me, my favorite thing to do on the grill is a riff on chicken souvlaki. I like to make a tangy Greek dressing and marinate large chunks of veggies in some of the dressing, then mix the rest of the dressing with yogurt and use that to marinate chicken or lamb. Pop them on skewers and grill as desired, then serve with warm pita bread (brush the pitas with some dressing and grill slightly to make them extra special), fresh chopped tomatoes, onion, cucumber, cilantro, roasted corn, tzatziki sauce, and whatever else you like in your pita.

I’ve also seen some interesting and unconventional grilling recipes here in Tasty Kitchen, like grilled romaine hearts for a salad and a grilled breakfast pizza. I’ve been wanting to jump on the grilled pizza bandwagon for some time now, and I think I should make that happen this summer.

How about you? What do you love to put on the grill? Share your ideas with us below, and if you have a link to the recipe somewhere, we’d love to see that too!

May 14 2014

Keeping Knives Sharp

Posted by Erika (TK) in Kitchen Talk

Food processor. Mandoline. Mini chopper. Julienne peeler. Zester. Pizza wheel. Many kitchen countertops and drawers are studded with various little specialty items to make work in the kitchen easier and quicker. But strip those counters clean and whittle down the list of essentials to just a few basics, and one thing can replace a handful of other gadgets and tools: a sharp knife. Few things give me as much joy working in the kitchen as a properly sharpened knife. And few things have caused me as much frustration (and painful injuries) as a dull knife.

So tell us:

How do you keep your knives sharp?

Do you have any knife sharpening suggestions? Things to avoid? Knife storage tips? Or even favorite knives that have served you well throughout the years?

I have a small manual knife sharpener with multiple options for sharpening angles: one for Asian knives and one for European-style knives. It also has a honer, and so far that’s been working well for me.

Now let’s hear from you! Tell us about keeping knives sharp and working the way they were meant to work. We need to do all we can to save our fingers, man!

May 9 2014

Thai Chili Coconut Shrimp Skewers

Posted by Megan {Country Cleaver} in Step-by-Step Recipes

There isn’t anything better than the smell of good BBQ. It’s a summer time staple. And no recipe has had me longing for summer as much as John’s recipe for Thai Chili Coconut Shrimp Skewers. John is a BBQ competitor, and after making these skewers, I can tell you that this is a man who knows what he’s doing behind a grill! You have to try these ASAP.

The marinade for these shrimp skewers is full of fresh Thai food flavors, like sweet chili sauce, basil, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. It’s fresh, fun and jam-packed with flavors that you are going to swoon over.

To start, finely mince the garlic and ginger for the marinade.

Roll the limes under your palm to extract as much juice from them as possible and squeeze the juice into the bowl of marinade fixins.

Next, pour in the sweet chili sauce. If you haven’t tried sweet chili sauce yet, get ready to see the light!

Whisk the marinade together until it’s all combined.

Pour the shrimp into the marinade and coat them completely. Cover the bowl and let them marinate in the fridge for an hour. While the shrimp are doing their business, add several bamboo skewers to a large bowl of water and let them soak. This will prevent them from burning while they are on the grill. Preheat the grill to about 350ºF.

Skewer the shrimp onto the soaked bamboo skewers. John suggests using two skewers per shrimp so they don’t spin on the skewers while on the grill. Drain the marinade into a sauce pan and bring the marinade to a boil and reduce it by half to form a glaze for the shrimp.

Place your shrimp skewers onto the preheated grill. Baste the shrimp on each side with the glaze.

Flip the shrimp and baste them again with the glaze. Turn every couple of minutes until they are cooked through. Remove from the grill and sprinkle them with shredded coconut. Serve them immediately and prepare to swoon.

Thank you to John for this fantastic recipe. My husband is so ready for grilling season after these!! Be sure to check out John’s Recipe Box for other inspired food and see his site for other great stuff, like these Fire Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Corn Cakes. Have mercy!

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