Southwestern chicken medallions with vegetable stuffed peppers and chipolte roasted tomatillo salsa.

I made this dish at my friend Tom and Heather’s house last week. They’ve been awfully accommodating to me while I’ve been back up from Texas, so this meal was my way of thanking them for their hospitality. They both eat healthy most of the time, so I wanted to be sure to prepare something that didn’t involve copious amounts of fat. This meal ended up being both healthy and tasty. The salsa would work over grilled meats instead of the chicken prepared below. The stuffed peppers kinda stole the show. Very tasty, they were.

Chipolte and roasted tomatillo salsa
Dried chipolte peppers
2 tomatillos, husks removed
1 lime
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
¼ cup red onion, diced
Bell pepper (any color)
S & P
2 Tablespoons neutral oil (canola is fine)

Turn oven to Broil, allow it get to temperature. Meanwhile, hydrate the dried chipolte peppers in water, microwave for 60 seconds on high to speed this process. Slice and seed the bell pepper so you have 3 or 4 straight walls. The pepper will tell you if you will get 3 or 4 slices of this. Place the peppers and the tomatillos on a sheet pan, roast until skins are blackened. You may need to remove some items before others to ensure they all cook properly. Discard excess charred skin and place tomatillos and roasted pepper into blender. Squeeze the juice of one lime into blender. Add the onion, hydrated chipoltes, cilantro and puree until smooth. Add oil and some of the water from the chipoltes until you reach the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, sweeten with honey or a teaspoon brown sugar to round out the flavors if desired.

southwestern chicken medallions:
4 breast halves roughly chopped
one egg
salsa
S & P
3 cloves roasted garlic (optional)
Oil for frying
Flour (optional)
Bread crumbs (optional)

Beat egg in a large bowl. Take the chopped chicken and pulse in food processor. Do not completely mince; ideally you will have some mince, some fine chop and some larger pieces of chicken breast. Add chicken to the beaten egg. Add salsa, either homemade or store-bought to the chicken mixture (about 2 tablespoons salsa per breast). Additionally you could add heavy cream or crème fraiche to this mixture for a richer product, but I think they are fine like this (and significantly more healthy).

At this point you can pan fry portions of this mixture in a cast iron skillet. Alternatively, you can bread the patties like you would eggplant parmesan. If doing this be sure to season your flour and bread crumbs (in keeping with the southwestern theme, cumin and chili powder would be a good choice). As this dish is somewhat labor intensive, you may opt to skip the breading step altogether.


Vegetable stuffed Peppers

Rather than the American standard stuffed pepper consisting of ground beef, rice and a tomato sauce I wanted to make something that was going to be lighter than that, with loads of color and a broad palate of flavor. Using Orzo pasta instead of rice, the filling is closer to that of a pasta salad than moms stuffed peppers.

4 Yellow bell peppers, tops removed, seeded, and parboiled for 3 minutes
6 oz dried orzo.
2 oz raisins
2 oz toasted pine nuts
1 can black beans, rinsed
¼ cup + red onion, chopped
¼ cup + carrot, chopped
¼ cup + any other seasonal vegetable, such as asparagus tips, zucchini, or green beans (optional)
¼ cup tomato sauce
1 chopped tomato
4 ears of corn
Grated cheese (optional)

Cook the orzo according to package instructions, being sure to salt the water. If you have chicken or vegetable stock on hand, using this instead of plain water will give you more depth of flavor. Drain the orzo when al dente.

Plump the raisins by placing them in the chipolte water and microwaving for no more than 20 seconds.

Saute the onions, carrot, and additional vegetable. Boil corn on the cob and slice off the kernels once cooked. Using the back of the knife, be sure to scrape the ear of its remaining kernels.

In a bowl, add the toasted pine nuts, raisins, sautéed vegetables, corn, chopped tomato and black beans. Add orzo pasta and mix well. Add oil, water, and tomato sauce to ensure the final product is not too dry. We don’t need everything swimming in tomato sauce or oil so be judicious in what you add. Taste as you go to determine what it could use. After you are satisfied with the stuffing, stuff the peppers and top with grated cheese (pepper jack being a good choice). Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and everything is completely warmed through.