That's Spicy!

Before I left for work this morning, I tried to find a quick recipe to make for dinner. This one jumped out and drew my attention. Really tasty and fast! Once you read through the recipe, you'll see that I 'pulled' the chicken instead of slicing it. Only reason I did that is because the Safeway didn't have regular chicken breasts, just the thin sliced breasts. Those don't slice into nice pieces so I 'pulled' them before adding them to the sauce. In the future when I make this, I'll only use one chipotle pepper. Two made these a touch spicy! I think if I were going 'southern,' these would have been piled high with some cool, crunchy slaw. But I'm not a big slaw fan, so that probably won't happen here...but I could see it working really nice with this sandwich!


Honey-Chipotle Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
from Culinary in the Country

1/2 cup water
1 tsp ground cumin
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
16 ounces boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 TB canola oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup tomato puree
2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, finely chopped
2 TB adobo sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 TB honey
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
4 sandwich rolls
2 ounces smoked mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese

In a large saucepan, add water, 1 teaspoon cumin, 4 sliced garlic cloves and chicken. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done - about 10 minutes. Drain and remove chicken. Slice chicken across grain into thin pieces - cover to keep warm.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic and cook until they are just beginning to turn golden - about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon cumin and cook until fragrant - about 1 minute. Mix in tomato puree and cook until mixture thickens to a paste-like consistency - about 4 minutes. Stir in chipotle chiles, adobo sauce, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place the sliced chicken into the sauce and cook until thoroughly heated through - about 3 minutes.

Preheat broiler.

Cut the roll in half and place cut side up on a baking sheet. Toast rolls under the broiler. Remove only the top halves of the rolls from the baking sheet. Evenly divide chicken mixture among the bottom halves of rolls and evenly scatter the top of the chicken with cheese. Place back under the broiler just until the cheese melts. Remove and place top half back on to serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Garlic and Cumin

The completed sauce...tangy, slightly sweet and spicy!

Pulled chicken. Simmering lightly while the buns toasted.

Bun bottom piled high! In the background you can see the tops. I scooped the insides out of the bun tops, so when they rested, the nestled the BBQ and melted cheese.

Melting!